I found Christ in an evangelical church when I was 8 years old, baptized into the Mormon church when I was 12 (that story’s been told).

But I never believed I was worthy, I felt, truly, like God’s stepchild. Still do, to some extent.

However, I found God in AA. The people and the literature taught me how to approach Him and lean on Him. Always a work in progress, but I’m ever grateful for other programs/churches that teach us of God’s love.

Bookslinger, I might be oversimplifying. I think Helen reminds me a lot of my sister (in appearance, as well as attitude) and those were her motives. She’d been hurt and humiliated.

I remember when Elder Lee was excommunicated and Elder Packer made a comment (I think, I could be misquoting badly) that he, personally, could have been more loving.

I joined the church, but I attended another church because they treated me more lovingly.

Again, I say, we focus too much on task and not enough on people. Like Sister Hinckley said, “save the relationship!”

Didn’t they all cry to the Father to have the atonement applied to them to be forgiven of their sins through Christ?

I really enjoyed reading of how you found Christ in the context of another Church, and to be honest, I think it’s something I envy about other Churches- the laser focus on experiencing the power of Christ. I do value a lot of our less central doctrines, but I also think that we have a problem in that it’s easy to lose focus on the Savior when there are so many other nice things to talk about.

That’s also why members of the LDS Church performing Baptisms for the Dead/etc. doesn’t affect anyone except those spirits who accept the ordinances of their own free will and choice in the afterlife, for whom it is (obviously) a great blessing. Saying dead people or other various important people from the past have been “baptized into the Mormon church” after baptisms are performed for them is completely wrong! Only the spirits who desire the baptism are affected, and, generally, we won’t know for whom it had an effect until the end of the world.

What you have written is an excellent summary of the Truth and I enjoyed reading it.

To supplement your words, it’s important to remember that although the members of the Church Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve each possess all Priesthood keys, only one person at a time on the Earth, the Prophet, has the authority to use all of them.

Many grow up in the LDS church and don’t get the kind of hand-holding and personalized teaching that Lamoni and his father did. Or they don’t humble themselves in “might prayer” like Lamoni or his father or like Enos did.

And then along comes an Evangelical preacher who’s a good teacher and motivator, and something clicks with that person, and they finally seek and pray with humility and real intent, and voila’, they finally get an answer. I think it would be easy for such a person to want to re-interpret their whole Mormon experience.

It’s only been about 35 years or so since the LDS missionary discussions stopped overtly attacking the Catholic church, and protestant churches. My mission president told me that in his mission (in early 1960′s I think) that in the first discussion misssionares back then went into the apostasy and said the Catholic church was wrong, and their protestant break-away churches were wrong along with them.

Fortunately, the missionary discussions have gotten more diplomatic. (Even though there may not have been memorized discussions back then, there were still outlines to be used.)

Another point: I think Mormons sometimes mistakenly think we have “exclusive access” to God. Mormons have exclusive _authority_, as in the priesthood. But God is still bound to listen to prayers from anyone in any church, and to answer prayers that are made in accordance with his will.

When someone gets a prayer or request answered as they are participating in other church, I can see how someone might then mistakenly think they are on track for all the answers, that that is the “right” church, and that their preacher is the “right” preacher.

I had some powerful spiritual experiences before I found the LDS church. But fortunately, I still realized there was “more” out there that those other churches didn’t have, even though they had many good things.

Another point: Are the “accepting Christ as one’s Savior” or “born again” or “getting saved” experiences in other churches legitimately of God? They certainly can be. Unless you are there to observe and unless you also have the gift of discernment at the same time, you just can’t tell.

It’s a matter of interpretation. There was a point when I was in another church, when I had an experience where I came to believe in Christ (then a couple weeks later I came to an “I know” type of testimony of Christ, through the Holy Ghost). I can remember that point in time when I came to believe in Christ, while I was standing in some other church.

That was a legitimate experience, and I still cherish it. I have fond memories of their preacher who helped me come to that point. (And a not-so-nice memory of an over-bearing Sunday School teacher at that church, who tried to force a conversion experience on me.)

But the existence of an over-bearing Sunday School teacher didn’t mean that God and Jesus weren’t real. (He was a jerk, but there still might be a God and a Jesus.) And the legitimacy of the answer (“Yes, I’m here, and I want you to follow me”) that I received later in the day to my prayer of “Are you there God?”, did not mean that the preacher was entirely correct about everything, or that that was God’s official, or true, or best, church.

Such conversion experiences (what they call “being born again” or “geting saved”) are similar to a couple instances in the Book of Mormon, namely Lamoni’s experience with Ammon, and Lamoni’s father’s experience with Aaron. We would call those an “outpouring of the Spirit” or a “conversion experience.”

Mormons tend to focus more on “conversion as a process”, and we mostly don’t publicly talk about powerful events. We focus more on enduing to the end, and growing over a period of time. Or we may refer to conversion experiences as “receiving a testimony.”

I think the LDS church still does have a lot of overlap with evangelicals. We still _DO_ agree with them. But we don’t focus on those things, because those things are merely one small portion. Gaining a testimony is only a beginning. And big-time conversion experiences don’t happen to everyone. Most people have a series of smaller growth patterns.

I read somewhere about some LDS members who were formerly evangelicals. They went back and visited an evangelical type church. And to them, it was like going back to grade school or kindergarten. The LDS members saw how they had spiritually matured beyond their former peers. They didn’t stop believing what they formerly believed, but had added so much more to it. Their former peers were happy and joyous, but were in a state of arrested development.

It’s really hard to tell a happy evangelical they are wrong, because for the most part, they’re right: they believe in Christ and him crucified as an Atonement for the sins of the world. If that’s the be-all and end-all of their religion, and nothing really comes after being “born again” or “getting saved”, and they want no more, then there’s nothing we can offer them, as they have their fullness of joy. Their cup is full, and won’t hold more.

Word reaches us that the privilege of preaching upon the streets of one of the cities has been withdrawn on account of the radical way in which one of our elders attacked the different churches. The elders have not been sent out to do this. ‘Contend with no man on account of his religion’ is the commandment given to us in our Missionary work. Pull the roof of no man’s religious house from over his head. Preach the Gospel, and preach it in a pleasing and pleasant manner. He who tears down another man’s religious structure, and spends his time in this kind of work, is not performing an honorable mission. Point out to the people the beauties of the Gospel as revealed from the heavens in our day, and you will do better work than by belching out a tirade of abuse agaisnt other churches. … I am sending this to all the elders, because I do not desire to pick out a few of them, but I thank God that only a small number of the elders need this counsel. To the small number who do need it, I want them to swallow it in quart doses about six times a day, and let other churches alone.

A careful reading of JSH also shows that the various churches, and certainly not the congregants, are not what God finds abominable. He was not instructed to tear down any churches, or mock their congregants. He was not told to warn his family about the evils of associating with people of any faith. He was simply given instruction that would help prepare him for his role in this dispensation.

Perhaps Joseph’s own words sum it up best when describing how we wish to be treated and should treat the faith of others.

“We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may. “ – AoF 11

I believe she is the type of person to hold a grudge and to attack, naturally. I believe that because her in-laws treated her so abominably when she and Rocky were dating and first married due to her non-member status, she feels so bitter she must seek revenge. I also believe that, like many people, she feels a part of something important and that gives her life purpose.

I also believe that God loves her just as much as He loves the rest of us and this will all eventually turn out the way it’s supposed to.

Ann, I love your comment. An AA friend of mine helped me when I was struggling to find God when he described God as a “kickback kind of guy with a sense of humor.”

Tom Jones (can we go out and you can sing to me and look at me charmingly, I love your music and you’re totally hot even though you’re ancient. I’m almost single although maybe not): I repeat: she’s not disrespecting the church for attacking her religion. She’s attacking our religion because her mother and father-in-law (prominent LDS in Arizona) disrespected her.

And thank you for the link, I’ll check it out when I get a minute. I’m out of town and using a borrowed computer.

Seth: Do we really get that many hits? I mean, I’m thrilled to hear it.

You make a good point. Although people who type in “Home Evening” might hit on our site also and get both sides of the story. You really don’t think people who type in home evening get Helen’s site?

Mormons take note: A lot of damage is done when we treat non-members in a non-loving way. They are God’s children, loved by Him every bit as much as He loves us.