The Mormons

After our kids were in bed, I sat down to watch TV for a bit last night. I flipped across a show on PBS called American Experience which featured "The Mormons." I found it quite interesting, but the most interesting of all was that this show was so timely, given the current candidate Mitt Romney who is running for President of the USA.

I have had the pleasure of doing a little research on Mormons. In fact, while I studied in Rome, some friends and I had started a bible study. During the course of this bible study, some of the Mormon missionaries were invited to join our bible study. It was quite interesting, to say the least. It was three Catholic Philosophy students, 2 Catholic Bioethics students, and two theology students (studying in Rome at Pontifical Universities) who gathered together with 2 mormon missionaries at first. Then we expanded to 3 then we were eventually invited to their "stake" in Rome where we met all the missionaries in Rome (if I remember correctly there were 6 or 7).

In the show last night, the absolute obedience of Mormons was discussed. In our discussions in Rome I found this to be the case. In fact, the young men we talked with had a couple of great difficulties to overcome with all of us, though we were open to their explanations. First of all was the position known as "The Great Apostasy", that the Catholic Church had at one point lost its authority to teach the faithful. Subsequently, the Christian faithful supposedly floundered for 1800 years until Joseph Smith told the world about God's "true revelation." The problem here is that there is ABSOLUTELY NO historical basis for this. In fact, the constant Tradition of the Church tells us that the Apostles began to choose successors to uphold and continue the Church after their departure from this earthly life. You can see Acts 1:15-26, where the apostles choose a successor for Judas. If they did this for another apostle after his death, you can only imagine how many others were added to their number as others died and the Church expanded. In fact, there is the beautiful image (also found in the Holy Family House in the Kitchen) of the list of Popes throughout history. One can find it online where it is "affectionately" known as The Pope Chart.

As well, the other difficulty which we found with the Mormons was the claim that abortion is justified if a couple goes to the Bishop and prays with him and then the bishop decides God is saying it is okay to have an abortion. This was one teaching they did not know the answer to when we asked about it. They, in fact, had to go and research the answer in one of the doctrinal manuals. The fundamental problem here is whether a baby is a human person or not? If a baby is a human person, then why would it ever be okay to kill a human person? It is clearly not okay as it is the 5th commandment! If a baby is not a human person, then how is God the creator of all life? Does he not make kittens to be cats, puppies to be dogs, tadpoles to be frogs, and human foetuses to be babies? Is there ever a time when this doesn't occur?

I found myself reflecting on these discussions while I was watching the first half of the PBS show last night. When the show came to polygamy then I recalled another difficulty of the Mormon religion. Is God omnipotent or not? If he is not, then how is he God? Yet Joseph Smith claimed Polygamy was divinely revealed, this was also vehemently upheld by his successor Brigham Young. However, the third so-called "Prophet" [essentially similar to our Pope], according to the show last night, passively rejected the practice. Why? Primarily because there was political pressure to change the teaching from the Federal Government if Utah desired to become a state.

Which leads me back to Mitt Romney. I am unsure how one can trust a Mormon to become the president of our country? Not that he is not a good man, he may very well be. The fact of the matter is Mormons are asked for obedience to their religion to the detriment of everything else. Now, this in and of itself is not a bad thing, as we Catholics as well are asked to be obedient out of love for the Lord Jesus Christ who established the Church and the Pope as our spiritual leader until Our Lord returns. The problem, it seems to me, arises in so far as Mormonism, as a religion, is as variable and as whimsical as its leaders' desire. The obedience of Mormons is obedience to the rule of men, and especially the so-called "President" or "Prophet." If and when the Prophet, the First Presidency, or the Quorom of the Twelve Apostles change their minds on a teaching, then all Mormons are bound to obey such "revelations" from "God." The problem is there is no limit to their teachings. In fact, as one can see with polygamy, even the most central of doctrines can change if one of these ruling bodies acts to change a doctrinal teaching.

There is a reason why the U.S. Government recognizes the Mormon religion as a cult. Moreover, the Catholic Church does not accept the baptism of Mormons because their religion does not even subscribe to the same idea of "God" as what Jesus Christ came to reveal when He himself established the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church's doctrines are set, though Americans may not like the practice or obedience of the Catholic Church, at least you can intellectually understand our teachings - even if you do not agree with them.

The point is that there is an even more serious inherent danger of Mormon teachings because they are changeable. No teaching, even the most fundamental - like Polygamy, is safe because "the Prophet" can change his mind on any of them. This was in fact what the missionaries also told us in Rome - that God speaks to the President who can change teachings as is revealed to Him.

The Catholic Church, however, understands herself to be the guardian of Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture - both commonly referred to as the Deposit of Faith. The Pope, while explaining, expounding and exhorting all Catholics to live the Catholic Faith has no authority to change any of the teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He can clarify and define them more definitively, but he cannot change doctrinal teachings on a whim.

This leads me to a second point about how it is unfortunate that some people still want women to be ordained in the Catholic Church when it has been defined as an unchangeable teaching. But perhaps I will leave that until tomorrow.

At any rate, I will be definitely be watching the second half of "The Mormons" tomorrow online (as I will be teaching RCIA tonight). I find it a very fascinating religion and very interesting to understand as a very American phenomenon. However, theologically speaking, I think it is a very tragic religion which leads many to an error (a.k.a. heresy) already spoken of by St. Paul: "I am amazed that you are so quickly forsaking the one who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel (not that there is another). But there are some who are disturbing you and wish to pervert the Gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach [to you] a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let that one be accursed! As we have said before, and I say again, if anyone preaches a Gospel other than the one that you received let that one be accursed! (Galatians 1:6-9)."