John, who blogs over at The Iron Rod, wrote a comment on my post Mormon Mystery. For John, who rejects the "self-contradictory" nature of much of American protestantism, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "effectively . . . teaches the New Testament and the other scriptures that we Mormons believe are the Word of God," and has a priesthood that is filled with "the best, most kind, most loving, most unselfish, most Christlike men I have ever known." I’ve copied and pasted his comment here for all to see. Enjoy.
I was born into a Lutheran family on my father’s side. And most of my ancestors on both sides of my family were German Lutherans who settled in Iowa and Nebraska. I was "baptized" a Lutheran when I was a baby, but because neither of my parents were particularly religious, I grew up belonging to whatever Protestant denomination had the best choir in the neighborhood where we lived. My atheist father, the one from the Lutheran family, loved to sing in a good choir, and so that is how my parents chose what Protestant church they would attend together. Over the years I grew up as member of a Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist congregation.
I was more religious than my parents or any of my many other siblings and became disenchanted with some of the traditional Christian teachings when I was a teenager. During my junior year of high school, I moved from Nebraska to El Paso, Texas where I met some very attractive young women who decided that I should become a Mormon. I was not especially popular in high school, and I was flattered with the attention they gave me.
Well, to make a long story short, I tried to "stump the Mormons" when I met the Mormon missionaries that these girls introduced me to, and to my utter amazement, they answered my theological questions much better than the Protestant ministers I had quizzed about things that puzzled me. And by and by I came to believe that what they were teaching was a more true version of Christianity than I had previously been exposed to. I became a Mormon in February of 1963, during my senior year of high school. And for over 43 years I have been devout in my practice of the Mormon faith.
Today I am an old man who is almost 61 years old with grown children and a couple of grandchildren. I am a high priest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And I have held a number of leadership callings in my church. I just love my church. And I love the men I serve under in the Mormon priesthood. I think they are the best, most kind, most loving, most unselfish, most Christlike men I have ever known. And I think they have become this way because of how effectively the Church teaches the New Testament and the other scriptures that we Mormons believe are the Word of God. I believe the Mormons understand and love Jesus Christ of Nazareth better than any other people on earth. If I did not believe this, I would leave the Church in a flash. Where the version of Christianity taught by the various Protestant denominations seem to be self-contradictory in many ways, the Christianity taught by the Mormons is marvelously self-consistent and also marvelously consistent with the Bible if the Bible is understood in the way that it must be understood in the light of the Book of Mormon which I also believe is the Word of God.
If you ever have any honest questions that you would like to ask me about this Church I love, or about the Savior whom I love even more than my Church, please feel free to ask. The only questions that I will not answer are those that are rhetorical in an effort to tear down my faith in the things that I so fervently believe.
God bless you in your interest in things Mormon. I hope that you get a chance to speak further with the missionaries that you mentioned in your blog post.
The Lutheran Zephyr 