Frankly, my Friends, I am puzzled ... I don't suppose that you are much different from me in expecting to be told the truth or in being puzzled when you find that someone you trusted is deceptive, dishonest and has told you Fantastique Tales masquerading as informed truth. We can agree that honest people make sure their conclusions agree with what is really true rather than what is profitable and that honest folk do not lead their readers through page after page of cant and lies. You have a right to be puzzled if a person you trust describes the adagio from Bruch's Violin Concerto Number One in G Minor as "Horsehair scraping on catgut!" In such a case, you would be well within your rights to question his musicality and knowledge of the subject. Take another example: If you ask directions of someone, and they deliberately send you off in the wrong direction, would you trust that person again? These examples illustrate my problem. You see, I have been lied to for more than sixty years about Mormonism and I want to know why these people - most of whom do not know me - think it is morally right to lie to me? Besides which, I am not the the only victim of misinformation, deliberate and otherwise about Mormonism, because Anti-Mormons spread their dangerous tentacles far and wide without concern for their victims. You must not run away with the idea that everyone that disagrees with Mormonism is considered to be an Anti-Mormon. Nothing could be further from the truth. What is an Anti-Mormon ? An Anti-Mormon fits into a special slot in the Religious Continuum involved in Religious Discourse. They are the spiritually and socially religiose whose activities have less to do with disagreement and are more akin to underground cells that seek out and harry their enemies for reasons that are no part of the thinking of normal people that would no more think of telling lies about their political antagonists than they would feed their children that which was harmful. Anti-Mormons, in common with Anti-Jewish, Anti-Muslim, Anti-Negro, Anti-Irish, or any of the thousands of our modern world's active hate groups that vex, plague, and spew their hatred into the wider world of decent people, because either their Parachurch leaders or their own spiritual unsoundness direct them to do so, are those from whose ranks the worst examples of Anti-Mormons are recruited. I know an Anti-Mormon that told me he was on a bus in Venezuela when two Mormon missionaries boarded the it. He avers that at that moment, God told him to go after Mormons and make their lives as miserable as possible. This he has been doing for about twenty years. Sadly, he rested his faith in professional Anti-Mormons that have an even harder time than he does identifying what actually constitutes Mormon belief. He is studying to be a minister of some Christian denomination [2012]. Perhaps he will learn how Christians are directed in Holy Scripture to conduct themselves. That being so, anything mean, nasty, tawdry, insane, blasphemous, or petty that can possibly be charged against Mormons and Mormonism, has been repeatedly regurgitated so persuade the unwary to accept falsehood as truth and encourage them to join the ranks of the spiritually disturbed. Such that participate in these kinds of ministry and similarly related activities, and such alone, are those that I refer to as "Anti-Mormon." That must be understood. Latter-day Saints are not at war with other forms of Christianity, and neither am I. I have spent a small fortune - I only have a small fortune - buying books, pamphlets, videos, CDs, DVDs, attending Anti-Mormon rallies, and corresponding with people that promised to tell all, be honest, but who either will not or can not stand honest interrogation about their practices, etc, but I have never received the promised fruits of their promises, even as I have always kept mine. So, their misinformation remains on the shelves of your local Christian book shops to deceive and mislead the unwary and gullible. I survey many of their claims here to illustrate that the lies they use against Mormonism do not stand up to any test of truth, however bizarre. I apply the simple standard of whether what is said agrees with known and verifiable facts, or whether gusts of hostile intentions have wafted them off-course and shipwrecked them in realms of malignant hobgoblins, hellish daemons, conniving witches, and wicked faeries. You are then invited to judge for yourself where truth stands.I do not solicit or accept donations of any kind Ronnie Bray |
