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People often ask why we have focused our attention on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Why Mormonism," they ask. "Why not other religions you may disagree with?" Usually such questions are accompanied with an insinuation that somehow our motives are based in some sort of deep-seated dislike for the Mormon people. Since many Mormons feel that such a reason vindicates their position (after all, they argue, Jesus said His people would be hated for His namesake), we doubt that such folks will ever be convinced otherwise. Asking why we have targeted Mormonism is like asking a missionary who ministers in China, "Why Chinese?" I am sure that I speak for everyone at Mormonism Research Ministry when I say that the reason we have devoted our lives to researching Mormonism is that all of us have somehow been touched in one way or another by its people and/or its claims. To insist that these experiences resulted in a desire to see some kind of harm come to these people is both presumptuous and actually insulting. Few would argue that the rapid rise of Mormonism over the past several decades deserves the attention of the Christian community. Hundreds of thousands become converts to Mormonism every year. We are convinced that if a more complete understanding of the LDS faith is made available to the general public, these numbers would drop dramatically. Unfortunately this ignorance has also permeated the Christian Church. Quite often we receive rebukes from Christians who insist that the Mormon Church is a Christian organization. Back in 1994 I was at the opening of the Orlando temple when a well-meaning Christian woman came up to me and questioned our outreach efforts. When I started listing some of the teachings that clearly separated Mormons from the Christian fold, all she could do was say that they did not believe those things. It was evident that she was sadly ill informed. If she were an anomaly, this type of response would not be as troubling. Unfortunately, far too many Bible-believing Christians come to the defense of Mormonism without having a firm understanding what this church stands for. This is a real concern we have here at MRM. Why not other religions?It is not like we are ignoring the fact that other false religions exist. Quite frankly, we don't have the time or the resources to effectively research every false religion in the world. The same conviction that causes us to reach out to the Mormon has caused others to reach out to various other groups. When the need arises, we have no problem referring people to such organizations. |