Misunderestimating Mormonism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is one of those times where one probably ought to announce one's biases up front so as to avoid any misunderstanding: I do not believe Mormonism to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/2012\/06\/misunderestimating-mormonism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Misunderestimating Mormonism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is one of those times where one probably ought to announce one's biases up front so as to avoid any misunderstanding: I do not believe Mormonism to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/2012\/06\/misunderestimating-mormonism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jeremy Lott's Diary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-22T18:27:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-06-22T18:29:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/e\/eb\/The_Plan_of_Salvation.jpg\/300px-The_Plan_of_Salvation.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeremy Lott\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeremy Lott\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/2012\/06\/misunderestimating-mormonism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/2012\/06\/misunderestimating-mormonism\/\",\"name\":\"Misunderestimating Mormonism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-06-22T18:27:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-06-22T18:29:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/#\/schema\/person\/6c759d696b2f864e0678fac4bf4e792d\"},\"description\":\"This is one of those times where one probably ought to announce one's biases up front so as to avoid any misunderstanding: I do not believe Mormonism to\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/2012\/06\/misunderestimating-mormonism\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/2012\/06\/misunderestimating-mormonism\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/2012\/06\/misunderestimating-mormonism\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Misunderestimating Mormonism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/\",\"name\":\"Jeremy Lott's Diary\",\"description\":\"An insider's look at religion news and commentary\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/#\/schema\/person\/6c759d696b2f864e0678fac4bf4e792d\",\"name\":\"Jeremy Lott\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ffd29bbac59597c87f9338596cbf8921?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ffd29bbac59597c87f9338596cbf8921?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeremy Lott\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/author\/jlott\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Misunderestimating Mormonism","description":"This is one of those times where one probably ought to announce one's biases up front so as to avoid any misunderstanding: I do not believe Mormonism to","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/2012\/06\/misunderestimating-mormonism\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Misunderestimating Mormonism","og_description":"This is one of those times where one probably ought to announce one's biases up front so as to avoid any misunderstanding: I do not believe Mormonism to","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/2012\/06\/misunderestimating-mormonism\/","og_site_name":"Jeremy Lott's Diary","article_published_time":"2012-06-22T18:27:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-06-22T18:29:41+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/e\/eb\/The_Plan_of_Salvation.jpg\/300px-The_Plan_of_Salvation.jpg"}],"author":"Jeremy Lott","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeremy Lott","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/2012\/06\/misunderestimating-mormonism\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/2012\/06\/misunderestimating-mormonism\/","name":"Misunderestimating Mormonism","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-06-22T18:27:42+00:00","dateModified":"2012-06-22T18:29:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/#\/schema\/person\/6c759d696b2f864e0678fac4bf4e792d"},"description":"This is one of those times where one probably ought to announce one's biases up front so as to avoid any misunderstanding: I do not believe Mormonism to","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/2012\/06\/misunderestimating-mormonism\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/2012\/06\/misunderestimating-mormonism\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/2012\/06\/misunderestimating-mormonism\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Misunderestimating Mormonism"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/","name":"Jeremy Lott's Diary","description":"An insider's look at religion news and commentary","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/#\/schema\/person\/6c759d696b2f864e0678fac4bf4e792d","name":"Jeremy Lott","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ffd29bbac59597c87f9338596cbf8921?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ffd29bbac59597c87f9338596cbf8921?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeremy Lott"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/author\/jlott\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1078"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":247,"date":"2012-06-22T11:27:42","date_gmt":"2012-06-22T18:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/?p=247"},"modified":"2012-06-22T11:29:41","modified_gmt":"2012-06-22T18:29:41","slug":"misunderestimating-mormonism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeremylott\/2012\/06\/misunderestimating-mormonism\/","title":{"rendered":"Misunderestimating Mormonism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This is one of those times where one probably ought to announce one\u2019s biases up front so as to avoid any misunderstanding: I do not believe Mormonism<\/a> to be metaphysically true because I accept a different and competing set of metaphysical truths.<\/p>\n

While I cannot claim to have given the Latter-Day religion every possible consideration, I have a) had Mormon missionaries over to my house for several weeks running; b) read parts of the Book of Mormon; c) read articles and books on Mormonism by Mormon and non-Mormon experts; and d) visited a Mormon house of worship.<\/p>\n

That means Mormon proselytizers are probably wasting their time. It also means that I find lazy anti-Mormon caricatures incredibly irksome.<\/p>\n

To wit, reader Ken Dahl writes in comments<\/a>, \u201cThe Mormon god has willingly allowed 99.99% of humanity to pass through life without knowing the principals of salvation as put forward by the LDS church<\/a> in Salt Lake City. One must wonder about this marvelous \u2018plan of salvation\u2019 espoused by Mormonism \u2014 living a principled life on earth as the Mormon god intended. It isn\u2019t a plan at all. It\u2019s an epic failure in concept and execution. Further evidence that their \u2018loving\u2019 god doesn\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

This comment evinces an utter failure to understand Mormonism on its own terms. Let us count out a few of the ways:<\/p>\n

1) Mormons<\/a> do believe in hell but it\u2019s pretty damned hard to get there. So the Latter-Day \u201cplan of salvation\u201d has not consigned \u201c99.99% of humanity\u201d to eternal torment in outer darkness.<\/p>\n

2) Mormons believe in different levels of heaven or \u201cdegrees of glory,\u201d designated as the Telestial, Terrestrial, and Celestial Kingdoms.<\/p>\n

3) They also believe in a post-mortal existence in the \u201cspirit world\u201d before we\u2019re sorted into those kingdoms.<\/p>\n

4) Mormons believe that the highest heaven, the Celestial Kingdom, is reserved to believing Mormons in this world or in our post-mortal existence.<\/p>\n

5) They believe that their actions in this world affect the spirit world, in two ways. First, their proselytizing efforts send people into the spirit world as believing Mormons likely to migrate up thereafter.<\/p>\n

6) Second, Mormons believe that their religious rituals in this world affect what goes on in that spirit world. Thus the baptisms, by proxy, for the dead.<\/p>\n

7) You know what, let me just include a handy chart here from Wikipedia to help y\u2019all out:<\/p>\n

$\"Mormon$ <\/p>\n

Indeed, you can get almost all of the above on the Mormon hereafter from the content of the Wikipedia article<\/a> on the subject. If you accept the premises of Mormonism, this is a credible \u201cplan of salvation\u201d for at least a pretty good chunk of humanity, and not an awful fate for the rest of us. If a good plan is evidence of a good planner then a certain reader might want to rethink the existence of a certain deity.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"