Is anyone going to blog the sessions of this new conference? LDS or evangelical? Gregory? Dan Peterson (Didn’t he say he had the time for this? 
Aaron? Andy or anythingbutlukewarm? I am interested to hear what will be said. I have never met any of these speakers, except very briefly, Bill.
(My wife and I are renewing our wedding vows just for the sake of a joyous celebration of our marriage in the Lord. The service will be at the church building in Ammon, Friday night, May 30th at 6:30 p.m. You are all invited. My four kids are excited. And Pastor Joe Lacy from Rexburg, Idaho will be officiating and sharing a little from the Word.)
I’m in charge of helping make sure the audio and video of sessions get recorded … pray that it works out so sons of people online can benefit from them!
The first thing they should suggest is that people read this little blue thing called the Book of Mormon. That’s probably the first reaction from a “Mormon” these people will get: “Oh, I know… It says that here in my Bible too, and in my Book of Mormon… Oh, you don’t have a Book of Mormon? Well here have this one…”
Hey,
I don’t live in Utah, but I featured this conference on my blog a couple of months ago. If you get any reports from anyone, I’d appreciate any reports pictures, or whatever you might be willing to share. I’d love to put a follow-up story about this anti-Mormon “lovefest.”
Greg West
The Society for the Prevention of Anti-Mormonism
http://www.spamlds.org
Looks like another instance of “my spiritual kung fu is better than yours.”
I took special note of the seminar offering on avoiding tangents and “rabbit trails” and keeping the conversation on the central issues when debating with our Mormon neighbors.
I believe in the real world, they call that “not letting your opponent get control of the debate” and “making sure your soundbites are heard and his aren’t.”
Next time I watch a back episode of “Hardball,” I’ll think of you guys.
Seth:
Isn’t that pretty much how Mormon mission sessions go?
I suppose so.
But I stopped regarding 19 year olds as a valid source of behavioral cues quite some time ago.
Furthermore, there is no push in the LDS faith for the lay membership to conduct interfaith outreach, and even outright proselytizing in the same manner that full-time missionaries do.
This also points to a common misperception among protestants about the function and purpose of LDS missionaries.
LDS missionaries are not trained, intended, or generally interested in debate (at least, when they are doing the job they were trained to do). What an LDS full-time missionary does is TESTIFY.
Period. End of story.
They don’t debate. They don’t dialogue. Really, they don’t even nurture or befriend all that much – at least, it isn’t the main focus. They are there to simply testify of the truth, not to argue with you.
Yet most evangelicals mistakenly think that this is exactly what missionaries are for – debating the Gospel. So, many of them whip out the boxing mitts looking for a good scrap. But that’s not what 19 year-old missionaries are about and they are instructed to avoid such combative types of engagement. Many choose to disregard this counsel, and so much the worse for them. But there it is.
Regardless Greg, you and I are grown men. I’m sure we are both capable of choosing a correct and mature approach to Gospel discussion and dialogue without reference to what anyone else is doing.
Point of fact: “Mormon mission sessions” go as follows:
the elders are invited over to “give a lesson”
the investigator asks questions and the elders answer. then if there are no questions asked they proceed to discuss (2 way communication) a lesson about “Mormonism.”
in case of disputes the scriptures come out and the topic discussed further until either an agreement has been reached or the elders depart in peace to look into the matter for their own understanding.
in each case both sides are heard.