Conversation With a Pastor (Part 6)

The next day I received another response from the pastor.  It was rather short, but it was sharp.  However, I was pleased to see that he would watch the video I sent him.  I think it clearly states our belief in Jesus Christ and God the Father better than I ever could.  
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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.  

Conversation With a Pastor (Part 5)

After having received his previous two messages I ended up writing a fairly lengthy one back.  
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Pastor S,

I am glad to hear that you have grown as a follower of God in the last 
several years. That is always my hope for those who have faith in Jesus 
Christ. We must always press forward with a steadfast faith in Christ and 
keep his commandments in order that we may bless others and find true 
happiness.

I'm glad that you have looked over the document I sent you. For fairness 
sake I will tell you that I never liked the line "can ensure the salvation 
of its members" in my paper because that is not what I believe a church 
does. I believe salvation comes through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, 
however my experience in Mississippi was that many people believe that a 
particular faith (i.e. the Baptist Faith or the Pentecostal Faith) is what 
ensures their salvation. This document was not written specifically for you 
but rather to all who profess to believe the in the Bible.

Before I write any further I want you to know that one of the main reasons I 
decided to write to you at all is because I felt it was my duty to do so. 
See, while I served in the Columbia and Tylertown areas I had a 
responsibility to testify of Jesus Christ and of his restored gospel upon 
the earth. When I had occasion to meet you in person I was in a rush and 
was not able to speak to you at length. It has always bothered me that this 
was the case. Seeing how you are one of the great spiritual leaders of the 
area I was always bothered that I was not able to bear my testimony of Jesus 
Christ to you. I feel as though I short-changed both myself and you, and so 
I want to do so now.

I have a testimony of Jesus Christ and I know that he is the son of the 
everlasting God. I know that he came to the earth, that he suffered and 
died for my pains and sins and that he was resurrected. I know that he 
lives today. I know that he has revealed himself to prophets in our day and 
that he leads the work that I spent two years of my life teaching. If it 
were not for him then all life would be wasted. Without him we would never 
have the opportunity to repent and find forgiveness of our sins and without 
him there would be no resurrection from death. I owe all I have and all I 
am to him, and I love him with all my heart. He is my friend and he is my 
Savior.

I am saddened to see that you feel negatively about my faith, however I am 
not angry with you for it. I believe that all men and women have the right 
to believe in what they want to believe, and worship how they want to 
worship, and it is never right to force anyone into principles that they do 
not believe simply because we disagree with them. I did not write to you 
expecting that you would be converted to my faith or to make you believe 
exactly what I believe. That was not my goal. My intention was to let you 
know of my testimony of Jesus Christ, because I was never able to do so when 
I met you. I also wanted you to know that Mormons are not evil and that we 
do not seek to force our religion on anyone. We ask people to bring all the 
good and true principles that they have and then see if we can add to them. 
We never ask anyone to deny the truth they already have. To be fair, some 
of us are a bit overzealous and forceful at times, however you by your own 
admission know that people are not perfect. We are simply doing the best we 
have with the knowledge we have, and nobody should be faulted for being too 
faithful.

Since you were able to figure out which faith I belong to based solely on 
the Bible references I sent you, I am going to pass on expounding on the 
different topics you asked about at this time. My guess is you probably 
know what I believe. Honestly, the document I sent you answers all of your 
questions to some degree. After studying that, if you still have questions, 
I would be happy to answer them.

For now I will bid you farewell. I ask that you keep me in your prayers and 
I will also keep you in mine.

Sincerely,

Hal Waldram
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I tried to be a civil as possibly but I did not want to answer every question he had (at least not in its entirety) because I was pretty sure he knew my beliefs and was simply looking for a way to get me to say something amiss.  I hope this wasn't the case, but I always work on the side of caution in cases like this.  

I also sent him the following video in the next message to him.  I sent him a YouTube link just in case he was worried about going to an official LDS website.  I figured this video would provide the LDS outlook on the nature of God the Father and Jesus Christ better than any way I could explain it.  Elder Holland has a profound way with words and speaks with the Spirit every time he speaks in a meeting.