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<\/a><\/a>For a very limited time \u2014 up until 10 October 2024 \u2014 its creators are offering you the opportunity to view the 2021 Interpreter film Witnesses<\/em> at no cost. \u00a0If you go to the official website of Six Days in August<\/em><\/a> and wait for just a few seconds, a button will appear that will enable you to learn how to avail yourself of this limited opening. \u00a0Enjoy!<\/p>\n With Mark Goodman, the writer and director of Six Days in August<\/em>, I recorded a brief interview last night with KSL\u2019s Martin Tanner for his Religion Today<\/em> program on that radio station. \u00a0The interview will air on Sunday, but it will apparently also go up as a KSL-Radio podcast sometime on Friday.<\/p>\n And I would be remiss in my duties if I didn\u2019t take this opportunity to remind you, yet again, that your final chance to catch Six Days in August<\/em> before its official 10 October release into theaters will occur on Monday, 7 October 2024 \u2014 that\u2019s this next Monday, the Monday immediately following General Conference \u2014 in Cinemark theaters located in Salt Lake City, American Fork, Draper, Farmington, Midvale\/Sandy, Ogden, Orem, Provo, and West Jordan: \u00a0Six Days in August<\/em> \u2013 Early Access<\/a><\/p>\n A couple of weeks ago, I noticed the assertion of an anti-Mormon \u2014 currently an atheist, if I\u2019m not mistaken \u2014 that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> is \u201cone hundred percent\u201d a \u201ccult.\u201d \u00a0This caught my attention for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact that I\u2019ve actually published<\/em> on the pejorative use of the word cult<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n What makes the Church a \u201ccult,\u201d in this critic\u2019s view? \u00a0It is the fact, he says, that the Church tries to control so much of one\u2019s life. \u00a0He specifically mentions dating and sex and reproduction and relationships, food, underwear, personal appearance, finances, speech, and \u201cmannerism.\u201d \u00a0But let\u2019s look at some of those categories for a moment or two.<\/p>\n The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is scarcely unique among religious movements in attempting to guide its adherents in practices of courtship and relationships and sexual behavior and reproduction. \u00a0The Roman Catholic Church, with its celibate priests and nuns and its abbeys and monasteries and its rules regarding contraception and abortion, certainly has something to say on the subject. \u00a0So do Old Order Amish and Orthodox Jews. \u00a0Do Orthodox Jews favor marriage with goyim<\/em>? \u00a0Do they endorse extramarital and premarital sexual activity? \u00a0Do the Amish typically intermarry with the \u201cEnglish\u201d who live around them? \u00a0 What is the Amish dating scene like? \u00a0How\u2019s the nightlife in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania? \u00a0And then there are all those Buddhist<\/a> and other celibates, as well. \u00a0Does Islam have any rules on marriage, I wonder?<\/p>\n The critic mentions the Church\u2019s attitude toward \u201cfood\u201d \u2014 wanting to be helpful, we should probably specify \u201cdrink,\u201d since that\u2019s the most obvious provision in the Word of Wisdom \u2014 as one of the factors that demonstrate it to be \u201cone hundred percent\u201d a \u201ccult.\u201d \u00a0Perhaps he\u2019s unaware of Judaism\u2019s kosher<\/em> rules and of Islam\u2019s stipulations about what is and is not \u1e25al\u0101l<\/i>, stipulations that most obviously pertain to food but that also cover drink . . . and finance, clothing, and behavior. \u00a0Has he enjoyed a ham sandwich with his local rabbi lately? \u00a0Invited his neighborhood imam to a wine-tasting party? \u00a0Treated his Muslim co-worker to a BLT sandwich? \u00a0Enjoyed beef stroganoff with his devout Hindu friend? \u00a0Savored food from Chick-fil-A with a pious Seventh-Day Adventist or an observant Jain?<\/p>\n One of the things that make the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints \u201cone hundred per cent\u201d a \u201ccult,\u201d says our critic, is that it suggests rules regarding one\u2019s appearance. \u00a0Apparently, neither Catholicism nor Islam nor Judaism nor any other religious tradition does such a thing. \u00a0Religious vestments are merely mythical beasts, as are monastic robes and yarmulkes<\/em> and clerical collars and hijabs<\/em> and veils and kufis<\/a>. \u00a0It\u2019s purely coincidental that Muslim men making the hajj<\/em> are almost all wearing two white unhemmed sheets. \u00a0Thus, Latter-day Saints are unique in having religious rules about dress and about modesty. \u00a0In fact, there is \u2014 and this, he thinks, is surely another marker of a \u201ccult\u201d \u2014 even a special Latter-day Saint kind of underwear<\/em>. \u00a0He is evidently unaware of the tallit<\/em><\/a> and the tzitzit<\/a><\/em> and, especially, of the tallit katan<\/a><\/em>. \u00a0He may not be aware of the scapular<\/em><\/a>\u00a0or the yagnopavitam<\/em><\/a> or the kachera<\/em><\/a>\u00a0or the cilice<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Our critic mentions the Church\u2019s teachings and practices regarding \u201cfinances\u201d as a clear sign that it\u2019s absolutely a \u201ccult.\u201d \u00a0It seems that other religious movements don\u2019t require money and therefore don\u2019t request donations. \u00a0The practice of \u201ctithing\u201d is apparently unique to the Church, and such notions as passing collection plates and gathering \u201cPeter\u2019s Pence\u201d<\/a> and offering zakat<\/em><\/a> are, once again, purely mythological. \u00a0Moreover, no other religious movement has ever had anything to say about financial or economic practices. \u00a0The Hebrew Bible is silent on the subject, as is Muslim shari\u2018a<\/em>. \u00a0The medieval Catholic Church had nothing whatever to say about usury, and there is absolutely no such thing as \u201cIslamic banking.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 And, of course, Amish policy on auto loans, imported sports cars, neon lighting, and widescreen television is famously extravagant.<\/p>\n Another of the areas where our critic sees the unmistakable signs of a \u201ccult\u201d is in efforts by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to influence its members\u2019 \u201cspeech.\u201d \u00a0But I wonder whether there is anything in the doctrine or practice of the Church that really rivals the Rule of St. Benedict, according to which monks are to avoid excessive conversation, or the rules governing Trappist monasteries, where the admonition to eschew unnecessary communication is so strongly felt that the Trappists have been mistakenly thought to be under a \u201cvow of silence.\u201d<\/p>\n Ah, but that\u2019s probably enough. \u00a0I trust that I\u2019ve made my point. \u00a0All around the world, religions commonly seek to guide their adherents in matters of dating \u2014 to the extent that \u201cdating,\u201d as such, even exists in their culture \u2014 and sex and reproduction and relationships, in food, personal appearance (and, occasionally, even in \u201cunderwear\u201d), finances, speech, and \u201cmannerism.\u201d \u00a0The issues that our critic suggests are unique to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are (in general terms) simply not <\/i>unique to it and his condemnation extends far beyond his chosen target. \u00a0It covers religions that, collectively, represent the overwhelming majority of humankind. \u00a0Of course, he may simply (and probably does) object to religion more generally. \u00a0But, in that case, it\u2019s perhaps somewhat disingenuous for him to single one religious movement out on such grounds and to brand it a \u201ccult.\u201d \u00a0What he really intends, it seems likely, is to express his contempt for religion in its totality. \u00a0So perhaps he should simply come right out and say it<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 For a very limited time \u2014 up until 10 October 2024 \u2014 its creators are offering you the opportunity to view the 2021 Interpreter film Witnesses at no cost. \u00a0If you go to the official website of Six Days in August and wait for just a few seconds, a button will appear that will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":28130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9652,2905,788,743,38040,38037],"class_list":["post-107193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cult","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormon","tag-religion","tag-restrictions","tag-rules"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>