For almost two hundred years, the world has been asking, "Is Mormonism a cult?"
This fascination the world has with us, this question of Mormonism being a cult, derives most of its impetus from the many misconceptions and falsehoods that have been circulated about our faith since its founding in 1830.
The rumors have abounded, and not entirely without reason. But what is the real truth?
This article will be my answer to that question.
What Is a Cult?
First, I want to start by looking at the definition of the word, "cult". Then, we'll look at some examples of religions and cults that have existed both anciently and in modern times for the purpose of comparison with Mormonism.
Yourdictionary.com defines a cult as:
"...a group of people with extreme dedication to a certain leader or set of beliefs that are often viewed as odd by others, or is an excessive and misplaced admiration for someone or something, or is something that is popular among a certain segment of society."
By this definition, you could make a strong argument that Mormonism is a cult. Mormons believe that, just as He did in ancient times, God has called a prophet and twelve apostles in the latter-days. In a world that, for the most part, no longer values religion, the religious dedication we show to God and to His living prophets and apostles could be mis-characterized as extreme or excessive. In such a world, our beliefs have indeed been considered odd.
These are all characteristics we have in common with messianic Judaism and early Christianity. In their time, their adherents' religious dedication to Moses and to Jesus Christ would have been considered extreme, misplaced, and odd. I have no doubt whatsoever that Judaism and Christianity were viewed as cultist religions in their earliest days.
The Difference Between Religion And a Cult
That same same dictionary gives the following example of a cult: people who follow a creepy pseudo-religious leader who makes them believe that their salvation lies in giving him money are an example of a cult.
"Creepy" and "Pseudo-Religious"
Take a good honest look at any of the current Mormon leaders, and compare them with, say, Charles Manson or David Koresh. It would take a great deal of dishonesty and even malice to place them in the same category, to characterize any Mormon leader as "creepy" or their religious faith as anything other than sincere.
Salvation, Money, and Leaders
While the Mormon Church collects money in the form of tithing (see Malachi 3:8-10) and has in the past practiced what we call the law of consecration (see Acts 2:44-45), no one is ever compelled by legal means or by way of a guilt trip to give to the Church or to anyone else. This money is never given to its leaders in the way of salary or entitlements. While the law of tithing and the principle of voluntarily helping those in need are linked to salvation, supporting our leaders financially is not. (see my links on unpaid ministry in the Bible and in latter-day scripture) and my article on the commandment to honor father and mother.
Again, these are characteristics we share in common with the earliest forms of both Judaism and Christianity.
If extreme dedication to ideology and giving money to leaders being the height of morality are the defining characteristics of a cult, any society that destroys its own freedoms and then confiscates money for the purpose of redistribution would make as good or better a candidate for a cult than Mormonism.
Isolation
Another characteristic that has gotten Mormonism accused of being a cult is the various ways in which it has isolated itself from society.
A cult will typically isolate itself in anticipation of some kind of doomsday scenario. Usually, this is driven by a leader that has sought to isolate people for the purpose of keeping them under his or her thumb. Mormonism has continuously sought to isolate itself from society either physically or ideologically, and it always will. The reasons for this, however, have nothing to do with the mental state of our leaders.
In the early nineteenth century, Mormonism was called a cult in part because Joseph Smith drew people to him and built cities of Mormons outside the rest of civilization. The Mormon Church built Kirtland, Ohio, a handful of villages in Missouri, the city of Nauvoo in Illinois, most of the cities and villages of Utah, and many of the cities and villages of the West, ranging from southern Canada to northern Mexico and from Colorado to California. The reason for this was that, because of persecution, Mormons were losing their homes, crops and businesses. They gathered and isolated themselves for mutual protection against what to them was an existential threat.
Today, Mormonism maintains its principles and refuses to adopt the changes the world has made to its attitudes about everything from sex to socialism. We hold that God is the author of morality and not man. We hold that God and his laws remain constant. We maintain that the common view that these things have lost their relevance has already caused society a great deal of destruction over the last several decades and will continue so to do. In the meantime, Mormonism will continue to create a society of happy, orderly, and prosperous Latter-Day Saints who enjoy the full measure of the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, relatively undimmed by the influence of worldy trends, as we have done from the beginning.
That's the whole purpose of religion!
LDS Lower Light: The Ten Commandments
The Family: A Proclamation to the World
Joseph Smith - Prophet and Martyr or Crackpot Cult Leader?
Much of the reason for Mormonism being called a cult has to do with the relationship between Mormonism and its mortal founder, Joseph Smith.
But, to his dying day, Joseph Smith only ever sought to build up and to protect the members of the Church. He was martyred because, rather than flee the mob that sought his life, knowing what they would do to his people if he did, he reported to Carthage, Illinois to answer the last in a long line of egregious, false charges. The mob sought his life because he was running for president of the United States, and because he was making some serious headway in the election. Joseph Smith's reason for this was not because he was power hungry, but because, in his view, everything else he tried had failed to obtain redress or protection for his people from the federal government.
In the days leading up to his martyrdom, Joseph Smith expressed a great love for his people and a willingness to lay down his life in their defense. He ended up doing exactly that. Following the assassination of Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, their people remembered them with deep gratitude, reverence, and respect. (see Doctrine and Covenants 135:3-7 for their eulogy)
I seriously doubt the likes of Charles Manson or of David Koresh ever got such a eulogy from their followers! While such men were usually visited with police cars and battle tanks, Joseph Smith in his Nauvoo was visited by world leaders who wondered how he could have built such a happy, orderly, and prosperous society.
For more information about Joseph Smith and his motivations with respect to Mormonism, see the Joseph Smith sunday school manual.
Brainwashing
Another characteristic of cults - and something Mormon leaders have been accused of - is brainwashing.
Yourdictionary.com defines brainwashing as:
"Intensive, forcible indoctrination, usually political or religious, aimed at destroying a person's basic convictions and attitudes and replacing them with an alternative set of fixed beliefs; the application of a concentrated means of persuasion, such as an advertising campaign or repeated suggestion, in order to develop a specific belief or motivation."
Missionary Work and Preaching
While we do maintain a campaign of missionary work and Sabbath-day worship to increase spirituality and to strengthen our faith and commitment to our principles, it is never forced upon anyone.
While our missionaries are known for showing up on people's doorsteps, they are not known for the kind of Bible-bashing and argumentative assault that has in the past been common among other faiths. LDS missionaries are specifically trained to avoid this approach. Our missionaries will invite, testify, follow up, and seek to help you work through reasons for not wanting to test-drive the gospel of Jesus Christ. But if you decide you don't want to hear from the missionaries, we (speaking as a former LDS missionary myself) prefer to hear it straight up, to be informed of it in a civil and direct fashion, and we will honor it.
Raising Our Children in the Faith
As for raising our children in the faith, we share the following in common with Judaism and the rest of Christianity:
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6)
We consider this a moral responsibility - one which the world has neglected, very evidently at its peril. If the formerly Christian people in the world had not abandoned the importance of teaching their children faith in God and His prophets and apostles, the world would be a very different place now!
Brainwashing: A Matter of Self-Interest
In addition to the aforementioned definition, I posit that brainwashing is motivated exclusively by self-interest. Religious cults generally resort to brainwashing in order to obtain and maintain one of two things: power and money.
We've already discussed the handling of money in the Mormon Church. To re-cap briefly, cults are known to teach their people that giving up their money and possessions to their leaders is a matter of salvation. These leaders then buy an island in the Pacific and disappear, leaving their followers to wonder about the continuation of "the cause".
Obviously, these cults could never succeed in this dastardly way if not for the fact that their brainwashing gives them power over the minds of their followers. Regarding the accusation that he sought for power, Joseph Smith answered that he teaches correct principles and allows the people to govern ourselves. While the Mormon faith does have demonstrable power in the minds and hearts of its adherents, as I have already shown, this power has not been leveraged for the benefit of Mormon leaders.
Again, Joseph Smith said:
"...it is an imperative duty (referring to the preaching of the gospel) that we owe to all the rising generation, and to all the pure in heart— For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it— Therefore, that we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven— These should then be attended to with great earnestness." (Doctrine and Covenants 123:11-14)
Such has always been the motivation for continuing in the cause of building up the kingdom of God on the earth. Modern prophets and apostles teach unselfish service to others, as did the prophets and apostles of old:
The Mormon Church is known all around the world for being there to help clean up and to feed and house people in the aftermath of a disaster. We are known for our welfare program - a system which world leaders have wished they could emulate.
King Benjamin from the Book of Mormon teaches:
"I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17)
As a former missionary, I can tell you from my own experience that the common objective of all missionaries is to see someone not of our faith discover the joy of learning answers provided through prophets and apostles in the latter-days to questions that burn deep in the souls of most of us. The common objective for missionaries is to see someone not of our faith experience the joy of feeling every disposition toward sin leave their minds and hearts as they rise from the waters of baptism. The joy of missionary work is the joy of teaching people how to find the joy of freedom from sin and then spend their lives working to maintain it and share it with others!
For Mormons, the living of our religion is hardly a matter of self-interest!
Belief in Fantastical Things
Another reason people think we've been brainwashed is because of some of the fantastic things we believe. The thing is, our fantastical doctrines corroborate and fulfill things the Bible has long been telling us were coming.
We believe that, just as he did in times of old, God has called a prophet and twelve apostles in our time. We believe he has commanded them once again to "preach the gospel to every nation, kindred tongue and people, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost". We believe he has spoken again and given scripture to modern prophets. (Matthew 28:19, Doctrine & Covenants 68:8, Joseph Smith History 1)
The truth is, we want you and the rest of the world to know the great joy of realizing that the promises and prophecies given us by the prophets and apostles of Judaism and Christianity concerning the dispensation of the fulness of times in the last days have been and are still being fulfilled! (see Daniel 2:44, Ephesians 1:10, Revelation 7, Revelation 14:6) We want you to experience the great joy of discovering by the witness of the Holy Spirit of God that He has uncovered His seers! (see Isaiah 29:10-14) The long "famine of hearing the word of the Lord" is over! (see Amos 8:11-12) God has begun His work among men here on earth again in the latter days! (see Doctrine & Covenants 4:1, Hebrews 13:8) No longer is the warmth of the gospel merely an ancient light that still shines true in the souls of the pure in heart. The Lord's Church is a new creature, bestowed with His ancient priesthoods and with revelation that comes through prophets, apostles, and by the witness of the Holy Ghost, breathing life to its lungs and fire to its bosom to a degree that had not been known among men for almost eighteen hundred years!
We believe that all these events have occurred in fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
LDS Lower Light Articles:
Our testimony to the world is that the Lord has restored all these things to the earth, just as He promised anciently He would do, in the form and function of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!
Concerning His latter-day work, the Lord has said:
"Wherefore, I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments; And also gave commandments to others, that they should proclaim these things unto the world; and all this that it might be fulfilled, which was written by the prophets... That faith also might increase in the earth; That mine everlasting covenant might be established; That the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers. Behold, I am God and have spoken it; these commandments are of me, and were given unto my servants in their weakness... [that] those to whom these commandments were given, might have power to lay the foundation of this church, and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of darkness, the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased... What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same. For behold, and lo, the Lord is God, and the Spirit beareth record, and the record is true, and the truth abideth forever and ever. Amen." (see Doctrine & Covenants 1)
We teach and believe the fantastical doctrines of our Church because they are true, because they came directly from God, and because He Himself has spoken out of heaven in our time and commanded us to do it.
Knowing True and False Prophets
One of the problems the world in general has with the idea of prophets is that they don't understand what a prophet really is. The word seems to conjure images of mythical men that could look into the future as by magical means. Surely anyone who claims such things must be a snake oil salesman! But a prophet - one who is called of God anyway - is one whose primary function is to give context-specific guidance to the Lord's people as he feels inspired of the Lord to do so. As an example of this, see The Family: A Proclamation To the World. Note the social changes it anticipated - some of them by many years. The Bible uses the word "prophet" even more loosely. Some places in scripture seem to imply that prophets are merely those who are raising their voices in an attempt to guide the people, whether for good or for evil. Hence the Savior's counsel that we be wary of "false prophets", that we identify them "by their fruits". (see Matthew 7:15-20)
For this reason, we invite all people to see for themselves what the "fruits" of latter-day prophets and apostles are. In the first weekend of each April and October, our General Conference where prophets and apostles speak to us is streamed live on www.lds.org.
Please come and see for yourself whether these are true prophets!
What's Your Definition?
Is Mormonism a cult? I suppose that depends on your definition.
If being a happy, prosperous, orderly, tithe-paying, poor-helping society because of our unusual dedication to our beliefs and our trust in our leaders makes us a cult, then yes we are. I posit that, in the context of an ever-changing society that has undergone breathtakingly rapid, disheartening changes in recent years, being just such a cult is no longer a bad thing. Rather it is a badge of honor to all the pure in heart who have embraced it.
The world has called Mormonism a cult. But as I have already shown, God has established it in our time, just as His ancient prophets told us He would do, and He has called it "my Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!" (see Doctrine & Covenants 115:1-4)
Find Out for Yourself
We don't ask you to take our word for it. We counsel you to ask God and have Him tell you the truth of these things, for God does not lie.
How to pray and ask God
How to obtain a spiritual witness
Harden Not Your Hearts Any Longer; Believe in Christ
If you are no longer satisfied to depend on rumors and misinformation, or if you are no longer content to wait for answers to your soul-deep questions or for the prophecies and doctrines in the Bible to make sense in some future generation, then contact the LDS missionaries today. If you want to meet some Mormons face-to-face and get a feel for who we really are, you would be very welcome to come to church with us. You can also watch the movie: Meet the Mormons. I think you'll be deeply surprised to learn how very much you and I have in common!
To learn more about our doctrines and our reasons for teaching them, see:
My Church page
What is Mormonism?
Beautifully written, persuasive and powerful testimony of the TRUTH my friend!
ReplyDelete