Ask a Real Mormon

A young man entering high school wanted to join a sport. He didn't know which sport he wanted to join, so he started looking into several different activities. He asked a Senior who he knew had played basketball as a Freshman if he liked it, and what it entailed. The Senior proceeded to tell him about how the coach was a jerk, the conditioning was too hard and the actual game of basketball was just stupid. The boy decided that basketball was not a good sport.

The boy went to a Junior who had done summer two-a days in football one year what it was like to play football. The Junior told him about two-a-days, and how hard they were. He even embellished his own account a little to make it sound unbearable, and told the boy that anyone who played football was a crazy masochist.

The boy went to a Sophomore who had played soccer for a season. The Sophomore also told him about summer two-a-days, and how difficult and unnecessary they were. He told him that there was too much running in the sport of soccer, and that soccer players were arrogant hotheads who liked to sweat for no other reason than to try to impress someone.

The boy asked many other ex-sport players, as well. He asked an ex-tennis player, an ex-baseball player, an ex-track participant and even an ex-golf player. He got pretty much the same answer from each person he asked. He finally decided that all sports were useless and demanding. He decided not to join a sport after all and joined the debate team instead.

If the boy had asked someone who had lettered in any one of those sports or someone who had received an athletic scholarship for college about any one of those sports, he might have heard a different story. Yes, he probably would have still heard how hard two-a-days were, or how difficult conditioning was, but he also would have heard about how much fun it was to play, and how it felt to belong to a team. He might have heard about what it felt like to win a game, or the self-satisfaction of scoring points for that team. He might have heard about how healthy and fit the conditioning helped athletes to be. He might have decided to try one out after all.

The story that was just relayed was fictional but the scenario was true. Too many times, a person who wants to know abut what a Mormon believes will go online and explore all sorts of sites written by ex-Mormons. These are people that once belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and, for whatever reason, decided that they no longer wanted to belong. They were somehow dis-enchanted with the whole experience, and now are telling their version of what it is like to be a member.

I don't know about you, but if I want to build a rocket, I'm going to a rocket scientist, not some college dropout who couldn't hack it in Chemistry.

The best place to find out abut what Latter Day Saints believe is to go to the official website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Sainits. Ask a practicing member to give you a copy of the Articles of Faith. Ask a white shirt, tie wearing missionary who has dedicated two years of his life at his own expense about what a Mormon believes. That way, at least you will get the real story and not a bunch of half-truths and twisted facts about a life that someone once lived and left.