Sixth in a series

Few church members have really encountered serious anti-Mormon arguments. Most have heard a few LDS-critical comments in the media or from acquaintances. Those who have attended General Conference, a temple open house, or an LDS historical pageant have probably seen the protesters and may have accepted, out of curiosity, some of their anti-Mormon literature. After browsing the literature it is typically thrown away and the member's testimony remains unscathed.

Other members may stumble upon anti-Mormon literature on the Internet. In the privacy of one's own home, sitting alone at the computer, they may not be as quick to discard the information. They may spend a little more time reading. They may find the information scandalous and therefore a bit tantalizing. They may feel that their testimony is secure so there wouldn't be any harm in digging a bit deeper. Why fear if you have the truth?

While most members will come away from anti-Mormon Web sites without so much as a scratch on their testimony, at least a few members will end up questioning their fundamental religious convictions. Why the difference? The reasons are complex but I'll attempt to examine some common issues that can make one's testimony vulnerable to damage.

When we examine the narratives of those who left the church, we discover common threads in many of their religious world views. Typically, they have fundamentalist religious ideals and are often naive about certain facets of the gospel or early LDS historical events. That doesn't mean that such members will apostatize, but such worldviews potentially set them up for disaster.

I should pause here and note that I'm not using the term "fundamentalist" to refer to those groups who practice polygamy but rather to a perception about religious issues.

For many Christians, the term refers to those who actively affirm what they see as fundamental Christian beliefs such as an inerrant Bible -- a Bible that contains no mistakes and is literally interpreted and historically accurate despite any conflicting claims from science and modern scholarship. By association, the term fundamentalist also describes those who take very rigid, uncompromising, and unchanging approaches to their religious beliefs.

A Mormon fundamentalist -- as the term would be used in this series -- would refer to those members who tend to take rigid and uncompromising approaches to Mormon issues. They typically think in black and white when it comes to scriptures, doctrines, and prophets.

Most of us like to think we're open-minded and that we wouldn't take black and white approaches to complex issues. In reality, however, everyone has at least some rigid beliefs and all of us, at times, take inflexible positions on beliefs that we haven't closely examined. Perhaps we've never before faced complex religious issues or we may have never considered thinking outside the box of conventional LDS interpretations. It may never have occurred to us that some things we hear from other church members are not based on revelation but are based on assumptions or traditions.

If we build our house of straw on the sandy foundation of non-doctrinal beliefs, our entire belief system could collapse with a strong gust of opposition. We might assume, for example, that all prophets of all ages understood all gospel doctrines, principles, and practices in the same way. We may believe that a prophet is always spiritual, knowledgeable, kind, and disciplined; he could never err on religious matters or have personal beliefs that might be proven incorrect with additional knowledge or revelation.

We may, unintentionally, view other Mormon issues in unambiguous black and white. "Mormons have the truth, others do not," we may conclude. Or, "Paying tithing assures financial stability or prosperity; not paying tithing will lead to financial ruin." "The Spirit speaks to Mormons and not to non-Mormons." "If you live righteously your children will all go on missions and be sealed in the temple. If your children go astray or your life is full of problems, you are not living righteously."

Such a fundamentalist mindset can set us up for problems. There either were horses in the ancient Americas, the fundamentalist mind may think, or the Book of Mormon is false. There either was a world-wide flood that wiped out virtually all life, or the Bible is false. To the fundamentalist, there is no middle ground. If they discover what they believe to be persuasive information that there was no world-wide flood, or that actual horses were absent from ancient America, then their entire religious system crumbles beneath them.

How do we disengage the fundamentalist mind? And what is a better approach? Stay tuned.

Michael R. Ash is on the management team for FAIR, the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, www.FAIRLDS.org, and is the author of Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One's Testimony In the Face of Criticism and Doubt (www.ShakenFaithSyndrome.com) and Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith (www.OfFaithandReason.com).

E-mail: mike@shakenfaithsyndrome.com.