Regarding Mormonism

One of the downsides of having a blog on Patheos is that the stupid software runs ads for stuff I would urge every one of my readers to ignore.

Among these ad are the ones for Mormonism.

Lots of Christian apologetics subculture folks have labored over long arguments against Mormonism. However, the quickest reply to the claims of Mormonism is simply this: Mormonism is the resolution to a fake problem.

Mormonism claims to re-establish the Church since it all went off the rails in the Great Apostasy some time Way Back When. The proper question then is, “What Great Apostasy? Where? When? Documentation please?” No Great Apostasy, no need for Jesus to re-establish the Church.

And there was no Great Apostasy. End of story. Mormonism is therefore unnecessary.

After that, Catholics can then press the question, “Since Mormonism is demonstrably unnecessary, what actual evidence is there for it that does not reduce to emotionalism (a burning in the breast) and 19th century quackery about fake ancient languages that nobody, absolutely nobody, except highly invested Mormon apologists take seriously in the slightest? Why, in short, should anybody regard the book of Mormon as something other than King James Version fan fiction?”

So, while there are any number of very good and kind Mormons, I cannot for the life of me see why anybody should take seriously the factual claims of Mormonism. “I am a Mormon” is certainly a true statement for the people in the ads. And Mormons have many admirable qualities. But Mormon*ism* is, manifestly, bunk.

I note with interest (and no, there was no coordination on this) that Fr. Longenecker is also remarking Mormonism this morning and that both he and his readers are noting that Mormonism appears to be backing off on truth claims altogether. In other words, the primary (and increasingly only) selling point for Mormonism appears to be that there are a lot of nice people there who feel good about Mormonism. This doesn’t appear to be a healthy indicator for long-term survival. But given the fact that the historical and theological claims of Mormonism are in complete ruins I can’t really see what else they can do.

Anyway, I dissent from the Mormon ads, though I like pretty much every Mormon I’ve ever met.