The 2005 National Study of Youth and Religion published by UNC-Chapel Hill found that Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) youth (ages 13 to 17) were more likely to exhibit these Christian characteristics than Evangelicals (the next most observant group):
1. Attend Religious Services weekly
2. Importance of Religious Faith in shaping daily life – extremely important
3. Believes in life after death
4. Does NOT believe in psychics or fortune-tellers
5. Has taught religious education classes
6. Has fasted or denied something as spiritual discipline
7. Sabbath Observance
8. Shared religious faith with someone not of their faith
9. Family talks about God, scriptures, prayer daily
10. Supportiveness of church for parent in trying to raise teen (very supportive)
11. Church congregation has done an excellent job in helping teens better understand their own sexuality and sexual morality
LDS Evangelical
1. 71% 55%
2. 52 28
3. 76 62
4. 100 95
5. 42 28
6. 68 22
7. 67 40
8. 72 56
9. 50 19
10. 65 26
11. 84 35
So what do you think the motivation is for the Evangelical preachers to denigrate the Mormon Church? You would think Evangelical preachers would be emulating Mormon practices (a creed to believe, a place to belong, a calling to live out, and a hope to hold onto) which were noted by Methodist Rev. Kenda Creasy Dean of the Princeton Theological Seminary, as causing Mormon teenagers to “top the charts” in Christian characteristics. It seems obvious pastors shouldn't be denigrating a church based on First Century Christianity, with high efficacy. The only plausible reason to denigrate Mormons is for Evangelical pastors to protect their flock (and their livelihood).
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4 comments:
"Evangelicals, most of whom are not paid"
Wow, such a lie your self!!! Today's Christian churches are run as businesses! Evangelical preachers do not have full-time jobs, like Mormon bishops and such do; they get all of their income directly from the collection plate! Who are you trying to fool? I know exactly how your churches are run because I, a Mormon -gasp!-, graduated with high marks from a Christian College in the midwest, and our professor was a pastor! He explained it to us all the time, and used his own experiences with running his church-business as support during his lectures! (BTW, he is a Baptist pastor. I thought you might find that interesting, since you describe yourself as "Baptistic in ecclesiology." Oh, and his church-business is in Gary, Indiana, not too far from you.)
And you talk about hypocrisy?
Ephesians 2:8-9 goes against Mormonism. The Book of Mormon says that people are saved "after all they can do". The Bible tells us that by grace we are saved, through faith - and that is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God.
Justin, you have to take ALL of the scriptures together to get the whole picture, and by this I mean, for you, that you must consider other things that the Bible says. For instance, Matthew 7: 21, 24, and 26, tell us that not only must we have FAITH, but we must also ACT on that faith, which is what Mormons believe our works should consist of:
Verse 21: Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Verse 24: Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
Verse 26: And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
So, are you saying that we should NOT actually DO anything except believe in Jesus? It seems to me that the scriptures teach something else.
Jesus didn't just wander around telling people to believe in Him; He required action from them! Did He tell Simon Peter and Andrew to simply 'believe' in Him? No! He told them to "follow" (note: this is an action), and then required much much more of them throughout their lives.
You may be saying to yourself, "Well, they were apostles. That was different." But it isn't! If having faith in Jesus were all that was required of any man, then He had no need of forming churches, or of sending apostles and seventies out into the world! "Well, they had to tell people about Jesus, right?" Of course! And this required ACTION/WORKS on the part of faithful followers, just as it does today.
____________
Also, just a clarification about my previous post: My professor taught one class per week, and made very little money doing it. His major income was through his preaching. He discussed with us all about the financial discussions that he had had with the new church before he agreed to go there, and how he had told them he would not leave his current Assistant Pastorship for this Head Pastorship unless they would agree to pay him more than he was making. And, no, he was not a greedy person. I always thought of him as a very kind, very thoughtful and humble man. He even washed a friend's feet in front of his entire congregation to honor him. It just seems to me that churches are truly run as businesses nowadays, and that was how he was taught in his theological seminary.
If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.
If:
H-A-R-D-W-O- R- K
8+1+18+4+23+ 15+18+11 = 98%
And:
K-N-O-W-L-E- D-G-E
11+14+15+23+ 12+5+4+7+ 5 = 96%
But:
A-T-T-I-T-U- D-E
1+20+20+9+20+ 21+4+5 = 100%
THEN, look how far the love of God will take you:
L-O-V-E-O-F- G-O-D
12+15+22+5+15+ 6+7+15+4 = 101%
Therefore, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that:
While Hard Work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, It's the Love of God (Christ's atonement) that will put you over the top!
It's up to you if you share this with your friends & loved ones
just the way I did..
Have a nice day & God bless!!
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