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Secular Mormonism

In my digital travels, I’ve stumbled across several websites online that are focused at looking at Mormons and Mormonism in a secular light– not a biased, hateful, anti-Mormon light, mind you– simply a more educational approach. This is all fine and dandy, I suppose, but I personally really dislike such sites. They don’t promote faith in Jesus Christ. Not for me, anyway. They do succeed with any or all of the following:

• Confronting anti-Mormon rumors face-to-face
• Spreading little-known truths that may help defy an anti-Mormon for a time, but don’t help much with testimony
• Spreading little-known disinformation that also may help defy an anti-Mormon for a time but also don’t help much with testimony
• Spreading doubt amongst the ranks in an intellectually clever way
• Promoting the reliance on the knowledge that man can provide and not the knowledge that God can

My opinion on the matter is to let anti-Mormons dig their holes and pour the gasoline on by themselves; we don’t need to help them light the match, either– they’ll gladly do it themselves. I hate argument, and I hate the intellectual black hole that some of us LDS tend to be sucked towards when trying to confront anti-Mormon rumors and arguments. I don’t say that we ought to all shun education and finding the truth via academic means, but I personally very much dislike the idea of building up one’s testimony academically, and I also dislike the obsessions of studying the Mormon culture, beliefs, and history in such a way that it nearly feels odd to see such an obsession– it doesn’t feel right. When one is so obsessed with such things, it simply doesn’t feel right. I also have found that there are many who have embraced the academic means of knowledge over spiritual means, and they end up “learning” their way right out of the church or into strange, dark corners of pseudo-Mormonism. I can’t quite explain it, but when I come across these websites or people with such academic obsessions, I get a strange feeling; like it said, it doesn’t feel right.

There are those, of course, who love to study Mormonism in an academic light yet seem to be so bound to the faith that no upheaval of Mormon rumor could sway their beliefs one iota– Bushman, Maxwell, and Nibley are the three who come to mind first. Perhaps it is my trust in those who are established in the local media and the church and my disbelief and doubt in those who merely have a website to offer their obsessive opinions (especially when their opinions are rather shady while they still laud themselves to be Mormons) that causes this. The internet isn’t the best source of information especially when it comes to learning about Mormonism because half of the intellectual fodder dealing with Mormonism on the internet is false due to the extreme opposition towards (against?) the LDS Church even before Joseph Smith (by this I’m referring to Satan as he was around well before our dear friends the anti-Mormons). Even then, I’d read the scriptures or words from a general authority– especially one of the twelve apostles or the prophet (past or present)– or a fictional book having nothing at all to do with Mormonism rather than a non-fiction addressing LDS topics and LDS history; I care more about the pure truth found in the scriptures and from the mouth of the Lord’s servants rather than all of the academic “just-for-fun” information that may or may not be completely accurate and that is most definitely not necessary for my salvation.

Basically, it’s better to have a firm testimony in Christ and be unlearned than to have all of the “knowledge” (much of which, as said previously, is, in fact, disinformation) in the world and doubt Him. It’s better to know the pure and simple truths provided in the scriptures than to be burdened down by extensive teachings and rumors and lies (all separately) that could lead one away “on strange paths”. Learning spiritually comes before learning academically in my book. In my book, “secular Mormonism” is a hard life to live and reaps little lasting benefits.