Being a Mormon

I know mum wants spiritual experiences, but in response to Elder Ballard's request for discussion about the LDS community using "new media" I thought my first post would focus on my explanation of what it means to be a Mormon.

There has recently been a lot of interest in understanding the LDS or “Mormon” church by the media, critics, and people generally. This is largely due to Mitt Romney’s running for President. It has been fun for me to follow his campaign due to the heightened awareness of the church, even though I'm not yet sold on him as “the” candidate. Anyhow, I've had a few friends recently ask me about what Mormons believe and thought this would be an appropriate place to respond in some measure. For “official” information about the church please go to www.lds.org. Let me reiterate that this is what I think the church is.

Core Doctrines. The thing most people are interested in (apart from polygamy) is what makes Mormons different from other churches. There are, of course, several things… but I think there are a few biggies.

A restored church. Unlike so many other churches that broke away from the Catholic church, ours claims not to be a “protestant” church but a “restored” one. That is because it hasn’t broken away from anything but is organized much like the church in Christ’s time was organized. It is restored because it has a prophet at the head that receives revelation for the church (just like prophets anciently), as well as 12 apostles.

This is starting to get lengthy for a blog post. I’m going to create a full document (2-3 pgs) and put it on my website. If you want to read it click here.