Building vs. Burning Bridges

            

My call for change is that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints change the way they view other religions. I believe that in order to further the building of God’s Kingdom on earth we need to be more occupied with building bridges with those of other faiths rather than burning bridges. I’ve seen often that the way we view other religions and how we talk about them can be offensive to the members of those other religions, and that whether knowingly or unknowingly we often attack their beliefs and faith. This is extra evident when it comes to missionaries and missionary work. After spending 3.5 years working at the Missionary Training Center I’ve seen the effects of this mindset.

            

My original call to change was a call to change our preaching tactics. Often I would see missionaries try to tear down an investigator’s faith and religion, and then try to replace it with ours. I called that we instead try to build their faith and help them see how our religion could add to the faith they already had. I specifically looked at the example of baptism and authority, and how missionaries’ favorite tactic is to discredit an investigator’s previous baptism (something that is often very sacred and important to that investigator) by citing lack of priesthood authority. Though true, this tactic is often not a good way to build relationships and faith. I argued that instead we should focus on the benefits of baptism into our religion, and not focus on the shortcomings of their baptism. http://rhetoricandcivilization.blogspot.com/2015/02/thats-not-why-you-were-baptized-problem.html

            

As my communication medium changed from written blog to a short video clip, I focused more on the historical origins of our focus on priesthood authority (or lack thereof) when dealing with investigators and their previous baptisms. http://rhetoricandcivilization.blogspot.com/2015/03/dealing-with-investigators-baptismal.html

            

From talking with other groups and from class discussions I realized that the problem stems from a deeper issue. It’s not just associated with how we view priesthood authority and baptism, but how we view other religions in general. I looked at some historical “isms” that may be contributing to our general view, specifically religiocentrism, which is a close relative to ethnocentrism and nationalism. http://rhetoricandcivilization.blogspot.com/2015/03/religiocentrism.html

This is where I’ve finished with my call to change. Thinking our religion is the most correct is fine, but using that belief to belittle or attack (often unknowingly or unintentionally) other religions is not, especially since we should be trying to build God’s church and bring our brothers and sisters of other faiths into it.

“Let me say that we appreciate the truth in all churches and the good which they do. We say to the people, in effect, you bring with you all the good that you have, and then let us see if we can add to it. That is the spirit of this work. That is the essence of our missionary service” (President Hinckley, meeting, Nairobi, Kenya, 17 Feb. 1998).

Update:
Before presenting my topic I was afraid that many would feel attacked by my stance; that they would be in denial of the accusations I was making towards many Latter-day Saints (that they often attack the faith of others, either knowingly or unknowingly). I assumed that our belief of having a superior religion was held deep inside of us, even in our subconscious, and that because of this my audience would not see the problem the same way I did. This fear and assumption came from my experience working with missionaries for so many years, who in role-play situations did not even realize that they were attacking the faith of the "investigators" they were teaching, and then in evaluation when I would give them feedback they were in denial that that is what they were doing. Also, in one of my blog posts for this class was a comment from a classmate that argued against my position that it is not tactful for a missionary to attack the sincere baptism of an investigator and try to belittle it because of lack of restored priesthood authority, especially in a first lesson. The classmate argued that there was nothing wrong with that, and that the missionaries need to preach the truth, and the investigators need to learn eventually. 

I am glad to see that that was not the only opinion. The only feedback I got from this blog post and my presentation was positive. Basically the feedback was that my position made sense, was straightforward, and was a refreshing reminder of how we should treat those of other faiths.