Thursday night I invited Roger and Jes to try out this Indian restaurant in Plano that I love – Iravat. We gorged on so many delicious dishes that I cannot even begin to try to enumerate, spell, or adequately describe here and besides, that is not the point of this post.
Next door to Iravat is a large Asian market that is relatively new. It is clean and smells only mildly fishy (most Asian markets reek to high heaven of fish and other decaying animals). As we were about to walk in the door this Asian man stops us, “Can I ask you a question, it’s important.” I paused and so did Jes. Roger told us later that he would not have stopped if we hadn’t. “Do you mind telling me if you are religious and if so what religion are you?” I immediately piped up, “We’re Christians.” Assuming this was just an evangelist trying to reach Asian people I was delighted to see someone doing the Lord’s work. He then asked several other questions and in my mind I was thinking, “Okay, we said we were Christians now leave us alone or get to the point.”
I began to notice something blue in his arm and it looked like a book of Mormon with a large Asian symbol. Then I noticed his badge said, “Elder Woo”. Ugh. A MORMON I thought with annoyance. Time and time again I have had mormon’s pop up in my life. Once when we were little a very popular girl named Becky befriended my sister and started pulling her in to the Mormon “faith”. Later one day we had a couple of Mormon’s show up on our doorstep and after about an hour of talking in circles the only thing that I think we accomplished was wasting an hour of our lives.
Years have gone by and I haven’t really been around many Mormons, however, I read Dooce religiously and I see the affect that the Mormon religion has had on her life. It has not been a positive one. Religion, in any form, can be very oppressive. Christianity has often times been turned into a religion and there have been times that as a Christian I have felt oppressed, but this is not the will of God and if you truly study the Bible it says, “There is therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
With Christianity there are no requirements other than faith in Jesus Christ and the belief that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. If you don’t believe that the Bible is true then you have no foundation for your faith and if you have no foundation then what do you have?
Roger surprised me with his patience and his intellectual and theological approach to Elder Woo’s probing questions. “From what I understand your teachings don’t teach the Trinity and that Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit are all the same… your faith teaches you that Jesus and Satan are bothers…” Back and forth they went and I said a prayer for Roger that he would have wisdom but in my mind I couldn’t help but have doubt. Doubt that Elder Woo was going to change his mind in just one night. For Mormons their faith is a way of life and I’d be willing to bet that Elder Woo was getting ready to take his 2 year stint as a Mormon missionary. It’s both admirable and despicable at the same time.
The Bible talks about wolves in sheeps clothing and I believe that Mormon’s are wolves. Elder Woo was very genuine and when he spoke of his love for Jesus Christ I felt that he was more than sincere, however, how can you love Jesus Christ, read the Bible, interpret it’s teachings and still believe in the book of Mormon? Joseph Smith was only 14 or 15 years old when he supposedly received this inspired word of God that was an additional testament of Jesus Christ. Is the Bible not complete? How can this be? Doesn’t the book of Revelation say not to add or take away from the Bible?
I’m not a theologian, but I’ve read enough and seen enough to know that Mormonism is a trap and a lie. People like Heather Armstrong, who have left the Mormon church, not only seem to abhor Mormonism and everything that it stands for, but religion in general. It is worse for a person to be duped for a long time and to be in bondage to a set of rules than for them to have had no experience with religion at all.
But Christianity is different and unfortunately, Christians haven’t always made it seem that way. The church has often misrepresented Christ and instead of dealing with sin with love, it has used the truth as a cruel and blunt instrument beating people over the head with morality to the point that they want nothing to do with Christ.
Jesus is love, he loves us no matter our race, sexual orientation, or addiction. He loves us because we are his children.
After Thursday night I had a new respect for Roger. He dealt with Elder Woo with love when I wanted to react out of emotion and anger for all the lives that Mormonism has ruined. Roger was kind and patient and perhaps planted seeds that my one day change Andrew Woo’s life where I would have probably been insensitive and harsh and perhaps even a little condescending.
Everyone, no matter what their beliefs, deserves to be treated with respect and like a human. I forget that sometimes. I get arrogant, I’m not forgiving. I’ve been working on that this year… Be more forgiving.
An interesting excerpt from a www.exmormon.org
Recovery from Mormonism
A site for those who are
Questioning their faith in the Mormon Church
And for those who need support
As they transition their lives to
a normal life.
We are not affiliated with any religion
and we do not advocate any religion
The email marketing is another form of advertising, however nowadays the most common is the pay per click advertising. The domain names also play an important role in making your website popular among people and they should be simple and memorable.