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The “Mormon Cult”

    Recently in the news, there have been increasingly frequent criticisms of the Mormons as occultists, devil worshippers, polygamists, etcetera. Everyone’s seen it, but how many know the true story? I’ve checked some sources (like mormon.org) and now I’m here to share my results. First of all, the cult thing. The full name of the mormon church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. If worshipping Jesus Christ counts as being in a cult, why isn’t anyone telling the Pope he’s the leader of one of the largest cults on earth? This also seems to rule out any “devil worshipping”, unless you’d like to contend that worshipping Christ is devil worship, in which case you’d have over a third of the world’s population at your throat.

      Secondly, I’ve heard some people complain that a Mormon couldn’t possibly be president, as their first loyalty would be to the “Mormon Vatican” (Salt Lake, Utah). In 1842, the founder of the LDS church, Joseph Smith, was asked to define what his church believed. The results were thirteen “Articles of Faith”, which describe the basic beliefs of the Mormons. Allow me to quote the twelfth of the thirteen: “We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.” Along with this declaration of loyalty to the law, I would like to ask: Any Catholic would take the advice of the Pope into account while devising policy, wouldn’t they?

     Last, many people complain about polygamy in the LDS church, some even claiming that it went on far longer than reported. Polygamy was outlawed in 1862 by the Morril Anti-Bigamy Act. While some individuals of the church continued to practice polygamy in defiance of the law, most recognized that to do so would be in violation of the twelfth article of faith (see above quotation). The leadership of the church came to the same conclusion and therefore issued no formal statement. When the continued practice of polygamy began to cause problems, the church formally banned it, and those who wished to continue the practice broke off and formed a completely separate religion, known as the FLDS church. Today, a Mormon practicing polygamy would risk being excommunicated from the church.

     Well, those are the only major controversies I could find. If I’ve missed any, please comment to let me know. As far as I can tell from my research, the Mormon church is no more a cult than Obama is a conservative, the average member of the LDS faith can be expected to be just as loyal to their country as can any Catholic, and polygamy is no longer practiced by any active Mormon.

     That’s the John Galt line.