Jodrey there is a difference in hating false doctrine and "hating" a church or its people.
I like Mormons there is no hate there.As you may know for many years Mormons "hated "Christians and demanded to be called saints..
I do not think they really hated individual Christians..just what they considered false teachings
Doctrine, yes, and also the people; perhaps not a direct "hate," but I feel that there is a superiority issue with a lot of people who have the frame of mind which states, "I'm right and you're wrong." Doctrinal faith itself is a direct reflection of people; it's kind of a conductor. I take it personally when someone says they think Mormonism is a cult; should I take it that way? I think so. It would not be wrong for me to be offended by an insult to what I regard deeply, just as it would not be for you to take offense if I or any one else expressed their negative opinions of Christianity. According to the gospel, our faith should be imbedded so far into us that it is inseparable; essentially, the knowledge of Christ and His teachings become our foundation. One difference between us is that we believe that Christ actually taught different things; however, we both take those teachings seriously. I think that if we don't take religious insults personally that we are not as committed and faithful as we should be. Therefore, when one mocks Joseph Smith, that is offensive to me because I deeply believe that he was a prophet. Whether it's true or not cannot even be addressed until certain levels of respect are met. This simply goes back to the golden rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
This is a very damning statement made by an outsider. We all should be looking in the mirror.
True, and I have. Forgive me; I didn't mean to condemn. I think there are things that all people need to improve on, and recently I feel I have abandoned my own bigotry. I think that there is a lot of this here; maybe not so much on this thread now, which is wonderful, but from the associations I've had here it has been a very general attitude. But I should not have said people are not Christ-like, and I didn't mean that. What I mean is that the attitude itself is not very Christ-like, and too many here think that way.
Yes...we should ALL be looking in the mirror! That would include EVERYONE! I will admit this has gotten very heated...but ALL of us are guilty of it...and most of us have responded by 'looking in the mirror' (more because of the conviction of the Holy Spirit) and making appologies where needed. To say it was just everyone else 'picking on' Jodrey would be unfair. I am in no way justifying any of it.
Yes, you are right. About a month ago I would not have been as peaceful as I am now. I'm very grateful for the experience I've had regarding this subject. If you go to Christart and to the area where Jedi presents his 20 pages of research regarding Mormonism, you'll see several of my posts there following, each being quite aggressive. I compared him and other Christians to the scribes and Pharisees. I now realize that I was wrong to do so. I know you all are only doing what you see as the right thing.
On that debate we volleyed Bible passages back and forth, intermingled with insults. It made me quite angry and I began to feel the Spirit less in my life, even within two days of the argument, and I knew it was the cause. I relearned what I had before -- contention is not the way to get your message across. I realized I wasn't helping the view most people have of my religion, and more than that, because of the negative spiritual effects, I decided to stop. I haven't been there since. I had already begun posting here, and it was difficult to stay away when people would mock my church, and so I got in some small arguments, but I generally decided to post the references to answers at other sites and leave it at that. In this thread, seeing LL change her opinion regarding the way in which to spread the gospel reinforced my lesson. I have learned a lot here and I'm happy for it. Bigotry is not the way to share the message of Christ, no matter what the parameters of that message are. It isn't what Christ taught.
And country is ok in small doses (it gets boring after a while). NPR does have a few good programs. The Strangites are an interesting topic. Let me know how the book is.
Amen!!! 
All the Glory to God!!!!
