Quitting the Mormon Church

October 29, 2015 pilgrim One comment

I recently saw a post shared on Facebook concerning the subject of Mormonism. Several years ago, a local newspaper in Utah had been publishing a series of apologetic articles encouraging people to leave the Mormonism, the Church of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). This drew a response from an LDS member named Thomas Clark, who penned a letter entitled “Quitting the Mormon Church”. In his response, Mr. Clark explained the conditions under which he’d leave the Mormon Church and go elsewhere.

Since the Mr. Clark’s letter is rather long, I’ve provided an abridged version of it below, with the entire text at the bottom of this post for those who are interested. After the abridged version I will share a few thoughts concerning Mr Clark’s response and why, in my opinion, Mr Clark should in fact quit the LDS and join the Catholic Church…

Quitting the Mormon Church (Abridged)

Yes sir, as soon as I can find another church that teaches all that, or even half as much, I will say good-bye to this Mormon Church… It must be able to call, on a frosty day, some 5 or 6 thousand professors, students, lawyers, doctors, judges, policemen, businessmen, housewives and children to go and pick apples at 6 am…

Mr. Editor, could you help me find a church that teaches all that and more than hundreds of other doctrines and principles, which I have no room to mention here…

Thomas D. Clark

My Response

I read through Mr. Clark’s letter several times and, although it’s quite long, I found only really two arguments presented in favour of Mormonism. Mr Clark says that he will quit the LDS if he can find a Church which fulfills the following two criteria…

Requirement #1: The Church must demonstrate zeal and good works

When I wandered away from Catholicism it was because I saw the zeal and good works of my neighbouring Protestant communities. Goodness like that is very attractive. It is easy to see Jesus in the lives of people who really live their faith and I found it a compelling reason to join a community where I found this in abundance.

I’m not going to even attempt to deny that many good works are done by Mormons or that many LDS members have considerable zeal. The practising Mormons that I’ve met have always struck me as extremely fine, faith-filled people. However, two thoughts occur to me concerning this particular criterion given by Mr. Clark…

The first is that if Mr. Clark wants to join a Church which inspires self-sacrificial works in its members, then I honestly think that he really should consider the Catholic Church. Now, I’m not going to say that it’s impossible to find a lukewarm Catholic, but as Matthew Kelly never tires of saying, “…every single day the Catholic Church feeds more people, houses more people, clothes more people, cares for more sick people, visits more prisoners, and educates more students than any other institution on the planet.” The Mormon Church has indeed done many good works in its history of one hundred and eighty-five years. The difference is that the Catholic Church has been doing it throughout the world for 2,000…

It’s not like we’re short on zeal either. One only has to look down the list of canonized Saints to see men, women and children from every state in life and corner of the globe to see lives devoted to God and neighbour. This is perhaps seen in its clearest form in monks and nuns, the men and women who quite literally give up everything, becoming “eunuchs for the Kingdom” and taking vows of poverty, chastity and obedience…all for the sake of Christ and His Church.

So what’s the other issue with Mr Clark’s criterion? Well, we’ve seen that zeal and good works can be found both the Catholic Church and the Mormon Church….yet these institutions teach contradictory doctrine. This proves that neither good works nor zeal make a good barometer for truth and, as G.K. Chesterton wrote in his essay “Why I am Catholic”, it is ultimately truth that matters. We’ll look at the subject of truth further in Mr. Clark’s next criterion…

Requirement #2. The Church must teach LDS doctrine

A significant portion of Mr. Clark’s letter is taken up with his listing or alluding to doctrines particular to the LDS. I’m not really sure why this is meant to be a convincing line of argument. Not only that, it begs the question: why would somebody want to belong to a Church that teaches these doctrines?

You see, I personally don’t really care what Joseph Smith taught and I’m not very interested in the novel doctrines which he introduced to the world less than two hundred years ago. What I care about is what Jesus taught his Apostles and what they taught their successors as they went out fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

So, what does the historical record reveal? What did Christianity look like in the first few centuries? Well, when you read the documents written by Christians in the early centuries you see that the first Christians were not Mormon, but Catholic and you find this from the very beginning. You see this very clearly in the life of St. Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of the Apostles who died in AD 110. He is not an isolated example, either. In fact, if we survey the beliefs of the Early Church, again and again we find them sounding awfully Catholic.

On the occasions when I’ve spoken to Mormons about the Early Church Fathers, they typically admit that they haven’t read any of their works. However, they usually counter with the assertion that there was a Great Apostasy in the Early Church, that Christianity was corrupted and that the “true” faith was lost. Similar claims are made by Muslims and some Protestants. There are, however, some very serious problems with that assertion which I discuss in my post “The Dog that never barked”. In fact, I’ve found this claim so common that I wrote a short post entitled “Great Apostasy Questions”, a series of questions for those who assert such an event took place. Despite regularly issuing the challenge, I have yet to ever have someone attempt to answer them.

The claims of the Great Apostasy are not the only teaching of the LDS which I find untenable. There are lots of individual doctrines which Mr Clark mentions which I would like to challenge, but for the sake of space, I will deal with just one of them. If any Mormon readers would like to advocate for any of the doctrines mentioned in letter, I’d be happy to respond in the comments.

The teaching mentioned by Mr. Clark which I would like to briefly respond to is Mr Clark’s reference to “the origin of the American Indian”. In case you were unaware, the Book of Mormon recounts events which were meant to have taken place in the Americas around the time of Christ. If you’ve ever read some of them, you’ll know that the stories are quite epic, telling of great, advanced civilizations and immense battles.

The problem with the Mormon story is that there’s a conspicuous absence of corroboration from archeology. Why can’t we find evidence of the people, languages, animals, plants, and technologies described in the the Mormon holy book? If we can’t even establish the basic historical facts recounted by the Book of Mormon, why would I trust the doctrine it teaches?

When I’ve probed Mormon missionaries on this subject I am usually told something like “Well, religion is a matter of faith, you see…”. They will usually tell me that they studied the Book of Mormon, sincerely prayed to God and then felt a “burning in the bosom” (D&C 9:8-9) which was God confirming to them that the message of the book was true. Sorry, but as a Catholic, that’s just not good enough. As we saw with zeal and good works earlier, feelings are rarely the best barometer for truth. Catholicism is “Fides et Ratio“, faith and reason.

Hopefully, over the course of this article we have seen that if Mr. Clark would like to join a Church which inspires admirable works of faith, as well as whole-hearted devotion, then he should investigate the Catholic Church.

We have seen that in order to do this he will have to set aside the novel teachings of Joseph Smith, but instead he will get to embrace the Faith taught by the Early Church, the very Church founded by Christ which He promised would forever prevail against evil (Matthew 16:18). This Church is the pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15) and is the same Church which conquered Paganism and took the Gospel to the four corners of the world.

So why should Mr. Clark quit Mormonism and join the Catholic Church? Put simply, and in the words of G.K. Chesterton…because it’s true.

Quitting the Mormon Church (Unabridged)

I have been thinking of quitting the Mormon Church. Yes, if I can, I am going to get even with that church. As soon as I can find another church that teaches about the Gathering of the House of Israel; the return of the Ten Tribes and their mission; the return of the Jews to Palestine and why, and how they are going to build the temple; the building of temples and what to do with them; the mission of Elias, the prophet, as predicted by Malachi; the method for the salvation of the people that died at the time of Noah in the flood; the origin of the American Indian; the complete explanation of why Jesus of Nazareth had to have a mortal mother but not a mortal father; the explanation of the three degrees of glory (three heavens) as mentioned by Paul; the complete explanation of why Elias and Moses did not die but had to be translated (since they both lived before the resurrection was introduced by Christ); the restoration of the gospel by modern revelation as promised by Peter and Paul and Jesus himself; the belief in eternal marriage and the family, and the knowledge and the place to seal for eternity; that teaches abstinence from all harmful drugs and foods; and that sells the best fire insurance policy on earth, for the last days, for only a tenth of my income.

Yes sir, as soon as I can find another church that teaches all that, or even half as much, I will say good-bye to this Mormon Church. The church that I am looking for must also be able to motivate 90,000+ youth, and adults, for the first, second or third time, to leave their homes for two years at their own expense and go to far-away places to teach and preach without salary. It must be able to call, on a frosty day, some 5 or 6 thousand professors, students, lawyers, doctors, judges, policemen, businessmen, housewives and children to go and pick apples at 6 am. It must be able to call meetings and get the attention for two hours of more than 300,000 men. Yes, it must also teach and show why salvation is assured for children who die before eight years of age.

Mr. Editor, could you help me find a church that teaches all that and more than hundreds of other doctrines and principles, which I have no room to mention here, and which brings solace and comfort to the soul; peace, hope, and salvation to mankind, and above all, that answers the key questions that all the great philosophers have asked; questions and answers that explain the meaning of life, the purpose of death, suffering and pain; the absolute need for a Redeemer and the marvelous plan conceived by our Father and executed by Jesus Christ the Savior? Yes, as soon as I find another church that teaches that, and also that has the organization and the powers to make that teaching effective, I am going to quit the Mormon Church.

For I should not tolerate that “they” should change a few words in the Book of Mormon – even if those changes simply improve the grammar and the syntax of the verses – for, after all, don’t you think the Divine Church should employ angels as bookmakers, and clerks, to do all the chores on earth? Don’t you think, Mr. Editor that the Divine Church should also have prophets that don’t get sick and don’t get old and die, and certainly, that don’t make a goof here and there. No, sir! A Divine Church should be so divine that only perfect people should belong to it, and only perfect people should run it.

As a matter of fact, the Church should be so perfect that it should not even be here on earth!

So, I repeat, if any one of the kind readers of this imperfect letter knows about another church that teaches and does as much for mankind as the Mormon Church, please let me know. And please do it soon, because my turn to go to the cannery is coming up. Also, “they” want my last son (the fifth one) to go away for two years and again, I have to pay for all that. And I also know that they expect me to go to the farm to prune trees, and I have heard that our ward is going to be divided again, and it is our side that must build the new chapel. And also, someone the other day had the gall of suggesting that my wife and I get ready to go on a second mission, and when you come back, they said, you can volunteer as a temple worker. Boy, these Mormons don’t leave you alone for a minute. And what do I get for all that, I asked? “Well,” they said, “for one, you can look forward to a funeral service at no charge!”… Do you think you can help me to find another church?