Sunday, July 21, 2013

Mormons on the Web Grapple With Doubt

In the small but cohesive Mormon community where he grew up, Hans Mattsson was a solid believer and a pillar of the church. He followed his father and grandfather into church leadership and finally became an “area authority” overseeing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout Europe.

When fellow believers in Sweden first began coming to him with information from the Internet that contradicted the church’s history and teachings, he dismissed it as “anti-Mormon propaganda,” the whisperings of Lucifer. He asked his superiors for help in responding to the members’ doubts, and when they seemed to only sidestep the questions, Mr. Mattsson began his own investigation.

But when he discovered credible evidence that the church’s founder, Joseph Smith, was a polygamist and that the Book of Mormon and other scriptures were rife with historical anomalies, Mr. Mattsson said he felt that the foundation on which he had built his life began to crumble.
Read the rest here.

2 comments:

CJ said...

The internet is definitely bad news for Radical Reformation American churches. The Seventh-Day Adventist church is in near crisis due to its graying population, and apologists are still playing catch up with internet critics. I suspect Jehovah's Witnesses are in the same boat.

Tawser said...

I know it is a false religion, but there is so much about Mormon culture that is admirable that I have to confess that reading this makes me a little sad. When I was exploring Mormonism I was profoundly impressed at the effort Mormons make at integrating new people into the life of the ward. I know that Orthodoxy is the true faith. I just wish I could get someone at church apart from the priest to talk to me.