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Hal,
Thanks for your answers and I will watch the video. I am not at all uncomfortable visiting the mormon site. I have researched the site on many occasions. I respect your beliefs. I enjoy open communication. I was a little put back by your calling my actions cowardly. Coward is a very strong word in our part of the country. However, I do forgive you for your behavior. I will never lead or encourage personal attacks on individual members of the mormon faith. Yet, I will continue to study and develop questions regarding comparisons between the "restored gospel" (your words, not mine) and historic Judeo-Christian doctrine. I teach on facets and variances that appear in many different belief systems. I believe it only fair to present the information and allow people to make up their minds about what to believe.
Just to clear up a few areas... I do not draw my income from The Church on Main. My resources come from the ownership of two local restaurants. I am not at all prideful about the membership numbers at our church. As a matter of fact we, The Church on Main, do not make church membership a huge priority. We prioritize following Jesus Christ and seeking to live life as He instructed. You still have not written what your personal doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ is. I would enjoy reading your theology regarding that. Also, I desire to know why the "Gospel" had to be restored, whom restored it, exactly when it was restored, and if the prophets of old messed it up what in the world would qualify a self-proclaimed modern prophet as the one or ones to "restore" it? Please, help me make sense of the senselessness that I perceive from your words. I welcome your reply.
Brian
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The fact of the matter is that, despite his insisting that he allows people to make up their minds after "fairly" providing the information, he is very much against the Mormons, or was anyway. He was not very fair in the things he said about us. However, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt in hopes that he has changed for the better.
The other thing I wish to comment on was the fact that he seemed to be defending himself against the things that were in my document. He insisted that he receives no money from his church and he also kept attacking the words "restored gospel." Now, even though I am the author/compiler of the document I sent him, I rely almost completely on Bible verses in the text. His angst against the word "restoration" is not really about what I said but rather about what the Bible says. If he has issues with the idea of restoration then he must have issues with the Bible, which teaches the idea over and over.
Regarding the money that his church brings in, despite his insistance that he receives none of it is beside the point. He may not personally get money from his work in the church (which is commendable, if it is true) but there are other members of the clergy in his church that do receive payment for their services. He has associate pastors and other members of the staff that get paid for what they do and that is against what the Bible teaches. Even if he denies that any of them get any money now (which he hasn't, he only denied that he gets money) his church still brings in a lot of money that has to be going somewhere. Many of his members (in 2006 anyway) said that they paid offerings to the church as "thank offerings" for the pastor. I hope that it now goes to charitable things rather than into the pockets of the clergy.
Another issue I have with what he said is "I will never lead or encourage personal attacks on individual members of the mormon faith." I don't know if he was meaning that he won't do it again or if he meant that he has never done so. I hope it was the former and not the latter, because the latter is a lie. He didn't seem to respect my beliefs in the past, but I hope he now does, even if he disagrees with them.
I sent him a response explaining why I had used the word "cowardly" and let him know that I hoped we had both matured some since our encounter in 2006. I also apologized in hopes that my words would not create a chasm between our small, but growing, understanding with one another.
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Pastor Stewart,
I don't have a lot of time at the moment to write a full response, however I wanted to let you know why I used the word "cowardly." The reason I felt I needed to use that word is because, from my perspective, my encounter with you appeared to be somewhat cowardly. Let me explain. We met in person after you had said some pretty bad things about Mormons on your radio program. I was upset by those things yet I figured you would try and confirm the truth or error of what you said if you had the chance. When we met in person you didn't make any such attempt, and in my eyes it seemed as though you were trying to avoid talking to us. Granted we were both in a hurry and I could have simply misread the situation (I hope this is the case) since I was much younger than I am now.
I hope that no harm has been done in this regard and I offer my apologies. I think we have both matured since then.
I will write a response to the remainder of your inquiries this evening or tomorrow. I feel as though I have given to you my personal beliefs about Jesus Christ, however I will be glad to go more in depth when I have sufficient time.
Sincerely,
Hal
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My more complete response will follow in another post.
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