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The Official "Ask A Mormon" Thread

I've asked this before but how do Mormons look at the show Big Love? Is it an accurate depiction in any way, shape or form of a sect of their religion? Not sure if I really worded that right but you get the gist.
 
QuinSnydersHair said:
I've asked this before but how do Mormons look at the show Big Love? Is it an accurate depiction in any way, shape or form of a sect of their religion? Not sure if I really worded that right but you get the gist.
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I've never seen the show, but polygamy is not accepted by the Church. Those practicing will be excommunicated.
 
QuinSnydersHair said:
Why does the Mormon/polygamy rumor come into play then?
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Mormons used to practice polygamy. It was stopped back in the late 1800's/early 1900's. And at least one spinoff of the Church still does it. But they are officially not a part of the "Mormon" Church.
 
In addition to bigb's succinct and effective explanation, the reason the Church keeps getting mentioned in connection to it is that the groups that do practice polygamy try to maintain some connection to the mainstream church (e.g. Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). I have had people ask me if I went to a mormon church or the regular fundamentalist one and if I practiced polygamy. That tie-in will keep it in people's minds that the Church practices polygamy even while they don't any longer.
 
I had a question after family scripture study of 2 Nephi chapter 9. My daughter, who is serving her mission in Mississippi right now, asked us to read this chapter as a family and we did, but these verses kind of struck me:

25 Wherefore, he has given a law; and where there is no law given there is no punishment; and where there is no punishment there is no condemnation; and where there is no condemnation the mercies of the Holy One of Israel have claim upon them, because of the atonement; for they are delivered by the power of him.

26 For the atonement satisfieth the demands of his justice upon all those who have not the law given to them, that they are delivered from that awful monster, death and hell, and the devil, and the lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment; and they are restored to that God who gave them breath, which is the Holy One of Israel.

27 But wo unto him that has the law given, yea, that has all the commandments of God, like unto us, and that transgresseth them, and that wasteth the days of his probation, for awful is his state!
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Is this saying that we are better off NOT doing missionary work? If they do not have the law given (the gospel, the commandments, knowledge of the truth, etc.) then they get a free pass. But if they have the law and don't keep it then they are condemned (how many of us keep it fully?).
 
LogGrad98 said:
I had a question after family scripture study of 2 Nephi chapter 9. My daughter, who is serving her mission in Mississippi right now, asked us to read this chapter as a family and we did, but these verses kind of struck me:



Is this saying that we are better off NOT doing missionary work? If they do not have the law given (the gospel, the commandments, knowledge of the truth, etc.) then they get a free pass. But if they have the law and don't keep it then they are condemned (how many of us keep it fully?).
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I don't think "all those who have not the law given to them" necessarily means "all those who are not LDS", or anything along those lines. After all (a) people are being taught the gospel in the hereafter, so they will indeed have the law given to them before the judgment, and (b) people generally have SOME degree of law given to them (via the true principles in their religion or society, their conscience, etc.) and they are responsible for living up to those standards. (And when they do, they will receive more truth and knowledge, see D&C 50.)

So, to me it seems that the verse more properly applies to a small subset of people--those who are mentally handicapped, for example, or perhaps those who are raised in so horrible a society that they cannot truly understand right from wrong. Christ's atonement takes care of their unknowing transgressions of gospel law.

It also takes care of infants and small children, so I suppose another question might be "shouldn't we kill all of the babies so they go directly to heaven" but let's not go there.
 
colton said:
It also takes care of infants and small children, so I suppose another question might be "shouldn't we kill all of the babies so they go directly to heaven" but let's not go there.
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Then what happens to fate, or the meaning and intention behind the law? Also trying to play God with killing and decising who goes to Heaven, who dies when? If that would be the case, why would God test us in the first place? "Just be done with it and live happily forever in the Garden of Eden for eternity all my creations! " ?
 
LogGrad98 said:
I had a question after family scripture study of 2 Nephi chapter 9. My daughter, who is serving her mission in Mississippi right now, asked us to read this chapter as a family and we did, but these verses kind of struck me:



Is this saying that we are better off NOT doing missionary work? If they do not have the law given (the gospel, the commandments, knowledge of the truth, etc.) then they get a free pass. But if they have the law and don't keep it then they are condemned (how many of us keep it fully?).
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Of course I have claimed to be a genius who knows everything, only to realize later. . . much later. . . . that while Paul might be the chief of the tribe called sinners, I might be the chief of the tribe called fools.

I've been all over the map with my thinking, my ideas, and opinions, rationally speaking, but have never escaped the simple faith of my mother. She was good. Just good. I used to ask her to take a stand on some complicated issue, and she'd say she didn't know, she just wished Jesus would come soon. And whoever she saw on any hand who needed anything could have anything she had to give. Paiute drunks sleeping it off in the barn in a haystack, when discovered were served breakfast. . . that sort of thing every time she turned around.

Nobody ever gets a "pass" on what they are. Joseph Smith said "bad doctrine doesn't make a bad man", and would seize upon some horribly twisted notion of scripture to explain the subject in a light nobody ever thought of before. Used to be a patent Mormon expression "Don't drive your stakes in too deep, you might not be able to get them out." A truth for pitching a tent, and a sublime expression of how we trap ourselves by our knowitallness.

We had two plans to choose between in the beginning, a plan of statism led by someone who knew it all and could make sure we all did what was right, the ultimate Big Brother of the Orwell sort, or a plan of freedom led by someone who loved us and would absolutely do whatever it takes to heal our wounds and bring us home if we simply could accept His sacrificial gift.

We still get to make that choice day by day.

I take it as a rule of thumb that while we live, and until the final judgment, we are not held strictly accountable for things we haven't understood yet, but we will until then face the effects of our judgment against God. I like the mainstream Chirstian hymn with the line "He loved me ere I knew Him, all my love is to Him".

I never had a Paiute drunk refuse the bacon and eggs and orange juice, and I think they knew my mom loved them somehow, if they just considered her foolish for doing so.

I have decided to make the effort to just take that love God has given, and try not to make Him look foolish for loving me.

God has given us the gift of life, what we give back in faith is our gift to Him. It becomes a definition of who we are that we won't be ashamed to be judged on.
 
Question:

If Jesus, who according to the Bible (and I would assume the BoM but idk) lived a perfect life, could drink alcohol (and make it), why does Mormonism teach against it? And I get the no drunkenness part, I just don't get the no alcohol part.

My in-laws (non-mormons) are the same way. No alcohol ever. It's annoying.
 
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