Anyway, thanks for the link. If you’re curious about hearing about Mormonism, including some of the warts, I highly recommend watching the documentary that this post refers to. (available online) Though I’m not a faithful Mormon anymore, I still feel a little indignant when I hear other people of faith dismiss Mormonism as a cult (which I often hear from evangelical Christians though there are wonderful exceptions from that group). That’s such a one-dimensional caricature that it doesn’t do the religion and its people justice.

It’s a strange thing for an atheist to say, but of all the Christian religions, if I had to choose one of them, I would still choose Mormonism over all the others. Perhaps it’s nostalgia for my mother church, but I still find its doctrine the most compelling. Its theology is unusually resilient to atheists’ arguments (perhaps because of their neglect). If I were going to buy into the whole supernatural schtick, then I would want what Mormonism offers. Forget 72 buxom virgins. I want to be with my family forever as a family.

In the end, Jensen’s position on doubt is incoherent. Notice, that the logic of his position becomes disjointed at the point where it affects his interests. He is not only contradicting himself but he is contradicting himself in a self-serving manner.

Jensen refers to this behavior as humble. But that does not make it so. He is merely subconsciously manipulating his mindset so that he can pursue his self-interest without getting bothered by his conscience.

In the end, one has to forgive him for he does not know what he is doing. Insofar as others are getting hurt, unfortunately, we cannot spare him criticism.

It’s impossible to be coherent in Mormonism. For example, personal revelation and following the prophet are inherently incompatible as long as you admit that personal revelatory experiences may not always lead a person to follow the prophet.

My preferred definition of humility has nothing to do with false modesty. Humility is the strength to see and accept things as they truly are. This documentary has shown that many LDS members struggle to accept LDS history as it is.

If I were to be a theist and/or Christian, I’d probably be the nondenominational Brian McLaren/Donald Miller kind (which is handy, since my wife and I attend the church McLaren founded). Barring that, I’d be Episcopalian or Quaker. Definitely not Mormon, though.

Before settling on probably-atheism, I did some looking around, and it turns out despite what you learn growing up as a Mormon, there really are some compelling Christian alternatives.

In the real world where I don’t have a magic wand, I would like to attend a Universalist Unitarian congregation and a Zen sangha. I’ve heard good things about the Kwan Um School of Zen.

For the record, if I became a Mormon now, I would probably not be LDS. I couldn’t go back to that institution. In some ways, I feel more Mormon now than when I was an active participant in the LDS church. I recognize the heady liberty of Joseph Smith’s eclectic searching. Joseph Smith brought together Christianity, Greek mystery religions, Freemasonry, folk magic, and Kabbalah. He really was on a quest to circumscribe truth into one great whole. I don’t agree with everything his search brought together—most of it actually—but I sympathize with his passion for learning new things and creating new myth. I don’t see that passion for myth and truth in LDSism which has become bogged down in its dogma and orthopraxy.

If I didn’t think it would lead to misunderstanding, I would still identify myself as Mormon, but never again as LDS.

If your definition of cult is a group which uses unethical methods to control its members, then I would agree that Mormonism has elements that would qualify it as a cult. Many forms of Christianity also have elements of cultism. Teaching children to be good for fear of Hell qualifies as an unfair cultish tactic in my book, for example. Most religious communities probably use some such tactics that we could point to as objectionable. Most religious communities could be placed somewhere on a scale of cultishness.

So when I hear Mormonism being denounced as a cult, I’m put in the strange position of agreeing but insisting on pointing out that the pot is black, too.