Per Christum

Over at the Catholic Answers Forum a poster asks about spending time with the Mormon community for Bible studies… Sadly, this Catholic of 10 years has found the Catholic communities in his new city to be not very welcoming. In response to his inquiry, it was written:

Hi melmac,
Welcome to CAF! The technique the Mormons are using on you (all that welcoming, warmth and acceptance) is well known to those who study cults. It’s called “love-bombing”. All cults do it to attract you to their group and to keep your attention away from the weirdness of their doctrines. It is especially effective on shy, lonely or vulnerable people. Mormons are experts at spotting those people.

As soon as these people learn that they have no hope of converting you, they will lose interest, the love-bombing will cease and they will move on to the next conquest.

The Mormon term for it is “friendshipping” and it is a missionary technique they are taught. They even have an instruction manual on how to friendship effectively to get converts.

Only in Mormonism is friendship not a noun, but a verb - something you do to someone to get what you want.

Think about it. No matter how nicely someone treats you, it doesn’t change what’s true and false.

God love you,
Paul (a former Mormon now Catholic)

I respond:

You bring up GREAT points Paul.

It should also be noted that a lot of these missionaires are 19-21 year olds who are away from their home on their “mission” for 24 months which Mormons are more than encouraged to go on. (Not quite forced, but you really DO NOT want to NOT do it…) They are raised with that experience ever before them. There is a hymn commonly taught to children in what would be like “sunday school” where they sing (paraphrase!) “I wanna grow up to be a missionary, when I grow a foot or two! I wanna go on a mission..” Would were it the case Catholics instilled such zeal for mission work!

During the course of these 24 months they are away from home and will not go back (usually) even for a parent or sibling’s funeral. The average missionary will baptize TWO members of which ONE will stay a Mormon. During the course of those 24 months they are living with “mission partners” (who may well be strangers they may not like at all) and having every aspect of their life controlled (some are not allowed to read newspapers, watch TV, or listen to the radio…)

ALSO during the course of these 24 months, away from home, living with strangers, they will suffer some of the nastiest invectives and abuse from people on the street and in going door-to-door. I recently saw a PBS special on Mormonism where a hidden cameral followed two all-American looking young guys who were in a big city… People would not talk to them, except for the jerks that would walk up to them unprovoked and start swearing and making fun of them. These kids never stopped smiling.

Really, sociologically, this program is amazing - you take kids away from homes with active and strong family life (often with a lot of brothers and sisters) and send them apple-cheeked and green out into the non-Mormon world where they are treated TERRIBLY by most people and have doors slammed in their face. At the end of 24 months they return home, more often than not, affirming that THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME.

So the “Love bombing” - while true - isn’t on the face of it as ominous as some may think it is. These kids who are homesick and treated awfully don’t want to go home from the mission they were raised to be excited about as failures. They also really are genuinely happy someone is actually being receptive to them.

If I were 20, away from home for the first time, living with strangers and everyone told me the Catholic Church was stupid, the first soul who was nice to me and receptive to what I had to say would be my “bestest friend in the whole wide world”! I would love you to death for being nice to me and offering me hope that I would not return to my family a “failure who baptized no one.”

So maybe offer to pray the Our Father with them, and then definately pray for them. But do not read their lit and go to their meetings. It was overwhelming for a Catholic priest - Isaiah Bennett - who for a short time left the priesthood and got married (even after years of seminary formation!) before returning to the Catholic Church. If someone like that - a priest! - can succumb to that environment, I certainly would NOT trust myself.

With the recent death and appointment of a new leader to Mormonism, as well as the (now abandoned) candidacy of LDS member Mitt Romney in running for the GOP nomination, there has been some considerable coverage of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints these past few weeks.

I was watching a PBS special on Mormonism in America the other evening that was fairly balanced. Showing some of the cultural and social life of Mormonism, as well as the way large close-knit families are so encouraged, I thought PBS did a fair job of avoiding the sensationalism that Mormonism sometimes invites (or demands). Yes, we all know about the polygamy of the past (practiced by breakway sects only today) and the “Mormon underwear”, the ownership of Marriot and the baptism for the dead.

Most folks don’t know about the:
+ tithing of gross income,
+ monday night family meeting and prayer services held in the home,
+ community life that has included communal farming to support the needy
+ the welfare associations they started to help their own and then help others,
+ fact that they have NO paid ministers,
+ they have an estimated 30B+ in assets,
+ but have suffered NO financial scandals,
+ the emergency relief services (Mormons were on the way to New Orleans before Katrina hit. When the Prez, the Governor, the press and everyone else was flying over New Orleans, they were there. Even before Oprah.)

Frankly, I am enamored by their dedication and homelife. It is easy to understand how very attractive the LDS could be to many folks who see the positive sides of Mormon homelife, lifestyle choices (no drinking, smoking, caffiene!) and dedication to thier church both financially and volunteer wise. Frankly it was humbling to see such dedication.

Most people also don’t know that the youth are raised expecting to go on missionary trips… In one segment they showed young men preparing for “The Mission” - the two year period where they go out, door to door, trying to share their faith. What most people may not know is that most of those kids are doing that when they are 19… After 3-4 months of intesisve preparation at one of 12+ mission preparation centers throughout the world they are sent forth for 24 months to invite people to join thier community.

Camera crews following two young men in New York (or Chicago?) showed the abuse some of these young men recieved. Honestly, I thought it was pretty sad. These affable young kids go out, leaving behind friends and family after having been raised singing childhood hymns about the glory of being missionaries, do mean well. They also largely have little success. The foul language against them is embarassing to me. I can’t help but wonder if one of the benefits of sending youth out to be treated so poorly for 24 months is to confirm them in the thinking that there is no place like home.

So if it happens to be the case that you are out walking and minding your business and a couple of clean cut young men from the LDS approach you, please be polite, let them know you are a Catholic, offer to share a little of your own faith with them, let them know you would like to get their names so you can pray for them, and maybe even offer to buy them a Sprite if it is hot. You might be the first person who has been nice to them since they left home.

You also might get them thinking about the Catholic Church.

“Where can I find references to the Mormon belief that God ‘cursed’ certain people by giving them dark skin?”

“What would the Catholic Church say about the Mormons’ ‘Word of Wisdom’, which proscribes smoking and drinking of tea, coffee, and wine?”

“Who are the ‘other sheep’ Jesus mentions in John 10:16? The Mormons say that verse refers to Jews who allegedly migrated to South America around 600 B.C.”

“I’ve been told that Mormons worship Satan in their temple ceremonies and that they wear satanic symbols on their clothes. Is this true?”

“Mormons condemn as unbiblical the Catholic custom of paying priests and bishops. Are there any verses that support the Catholic position?”

“What exactly is a stake center?”

“I want to bolster my faith with more knowledge, especially on the subject of the nature of God. My Mormon family members constantly challenge my Catholic beliefs, especially that there is only one God. What do you recommend?”

LDS Research Page - More Information

The Catholic Response tothe Mormon Missionaries

Introduction
First in a series of presentations on the Catholic Response to the Mormon Missionaries
Discussion 1
The Plan of Our Heavenly Father
Discussion 2
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
Discussion 3
The Restoration
Discussion 4
Eternal Progression
Discussion 5
Living a Christ-Like Life
Discussion 6
Membership in the Kingdom
Summary
Last in a series of presentations on the Catholic Response to the Mormon Missionaries