What do you say to missionaries?, Exmo encounters with mishies —ElGuapo

I have a good friend and coworker who is a self-proclaimed "Bible-thumping born-again Christian" from Iowa. So the missionaries knocked his door this week, and he invited them in. He didn't have time to visit, but offered to take them to dinner tonight instead. He doesn't have a snowball's chance of becoming a Mormon, but he loves to talk about the Bible and feels like he's being a good Christian by showing these two young men the light.

I asked my friend what he has planned for the elders, and he said he wants to show them a video and ask them what they think of it. Any guesses? It's the Bible vs. BofM video. OK, so my friend firmly believes in "the infallibility of the Bible" and somehow thinks his "even more true" message is gonna help these guys. But setting aside the sales pitch, that video could still open a naive young elder's eyes to many of the challenges to BofM historicity. I told him I wasn't sure it was a good idea.

If you no longer believe in Mormonism, how do you feel about discussing the reasons with missionaries?

QUOTE (suem @ May 4 2006, 02:00 PM)

There was (and probably still is) a family in my mission that was not LDS but were what we all liked to call "dry mormons" (only because we were totally blind). My guess is that they helped more missionaries out of the church than I would have dreamed possible at the time. I am grateful to them for that. I am grateful for everyone who has tried or helped along the way.

QUOTE (Pahoran @ May 4 2006, 03:24 PM)

Yes, we should all be "grateful" to deceitful scumbags who want to "help" us out of our birthright. Did they do it by ambushing the missionaries like El Guapo's so-called "Christian" friend plans to do? Regards, Pahoran

OK, so I'll call Pahoran a vote against.

FWIW, my friend isn't a deceitful scumbag, and his desire to help is quite genuine. Also not following the "ambush" comment, but I guess it's a matter of perspective.

QUOTE

He won't succeed in "helping them out of Mormonism" of course, but he may send them away feeling dejected, which will in turn give him a feeling of unearned and unrighteous triumph. Which is what he's after, of course. Regards, Pahoran

Do you ever wish you could hear Korihor's side of the story?

QUOTE (Alma 30:50)

Now when Alma had said these words, Korihor was struck dumb, that he could not have utterance.

Don't know why that just came to mind.

QUOTE (cjcampbell @ May 7 2006, 07:04 PM)

I doubt very much that anyone could expose experienced missionaries to any anti-Mormon media that they have not seen before. All of our missionaries have probably seen or heard just about every anti-Mormon argument that there is.

Was this actually true for you, cj? Where would they have heard/seen it all before? Maybe things are different now because of Al Gore's great invention but the closest I ever came to having my faith challenged on my mission was meeting with the JWs. And that only consisted of them showing us their favorite scripture chain and their interpretation. There was nothing said of any specific Mormon history or beliefs. Anyway, in Elder Guapo's case at least, this statement doesn't ring true.

QUOTE (cjcampbell @ May 7 2006, 07:04 PM)

Frankly, the virulence, dishonesty, and violence of the anti-Mormon movement is almost as valuable in advertising the church as anything put out by the church itself. The typical missionary looks at this garbage and says, "This is all they've got? Hatred, violence, weird distortions of our beliefs? Frothing bigots? Punk rockers with purple mohawk haircuts in wife-beater T-shirts and pins in their noses? Miserable, lonely, bitter old men who have nothing better to do than tell people we are secretly worshipping the devil? Give us a break. If these are the kind of people who hate the church, then I am all the more motivated to spread the word."

Well ... that about sums it up then. All you frothing purple-hair punk rockers can take your nose pins and leave. Wow, quiet in here all of a sudden.

QUOTE (cjcampbell @ May 9 2006, 12:22 AM)

My guess is that if you did not encounter any anti-Mormon literature while you were in your mission you probably were not working very hard.

Cute.