Can LDS members read non-Mormon literarure?

[NeuroTypical]

Can LDS members read non-Mormon or anti-Mormon literarure as they are searching for answers to their spiritual questions?

Good grief. Mormons aren't chained to walls and told what to do. The church doesn't hold a whip over our backs or a knife to our throats. Use of the word "Can" is insulting. You don't give up your agency, your humanity, your individuality when you are baptized into the church.

The church is like someone offering a cookie. If we accept it and like the taste, it offers the recipe and invites us to become bakers to share cookies with others. You don't want no cookie? You wanna eat and make toffee instead? Go for it. I mean yeah, if you're going to be a cookie baker for the church, you agree to a certain way of doing things, but it's not like you're an indentured servant.

Not sure what you've been reading that makes you think we are - but you're a bit off base TimP.

[sister_in_faith]

I personally don't feel any restrictions on what I read from the church, I do, however from the spirit. If I go onto an ex mormon website usually the spirit whispers to me that I could be doing something better with my time.

The reason I started expoloring anti mormon things on the internet and at the local bookstore, was because I wanted to know everything that was out there about the church so that people who come up to me and ask questions couldn't take me by surprise with wierd questions. I watched hours of videos of protesters outside general conference, the prop 8 protests, etc, and went to all sorts of anti mormon websites. It NEVER even challenged my testimony. The spirit was with me and helped me sort thru everything.

I did feel a little sheepish about doing it, because I figured we probably weren't 'supposed' to be doing it. But I am free to do whatever I want to do. I don't usually read anti lit now because I feel like I have better things to do with my time.

[skippy740]

Good point! I think racism will be publicly accepted looong before the church is. I'm okay with that.

I'm sure you meant to say that we can laugh about the racism of the past long before the church is accepted as a non-cult religion.

[dahlia]

To me, one of the most attractive principles of the Church is that you are invited to read and study on your own, to come to your own conclusions. I read a lot of anti-Mormon sites before and while taking lessons because I wanted to learn both sides of the story. Now that I am a member, I rarely read them. What's the point?

I realized that many on the anti sites had problems that weren't really associated with doctrine - they wanted a different role as women in the church, they had a problem with a bishop and let that color their whole outlook, they came from sexually repressed backgrounds and when they wanted to become more free sexually, thought they had to leave the church to do it (I'm talking about within marriage). I think some of these folks need analysis. Years of it.

I don't read a lot from other religions, simply because I don't have time to read anything that isn't work related. I have read Catholic, Jewish, and Buddhist literature and would read them again. Though I don't want to be a Buddhist, I find Buddhist thought and the idea of 'right speech, right action, right livelihood, and right mindfulness' very attractive and useful in almost any religious framework. I didn't lose my intellect when I joined the Church and wouldn't have joined if I thought that would be required of me.

[belledame2]

I love to read a lot of books. I love the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Nag Hamadi Library, the Apocrypha, Rough Stone Rolling, Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler, The Gold of Exodus, pseudepigrapha of the Old and New Testaments, Strong's Concordance, Ernest Hemingway, etc.

[Spartan117]

I'm sure you meant to say that we can laugh about the racism of the past long before the church is accepted as a non-cult religion.

I sure did

It's amazing how a little detail like that can change an entire post

[mordorbund]

Good grief. Mormons aren't chained to walls and told what to do. The church doesn't hold a whip over our backs or a knife to our throats.

Whoa, whoa, WHOA!! How do you explain THIS?

[RipplecutBuddha]

Whoa, whoa, WHOA!! How do you explain THIS?

Easy, Abraham was never a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints...and the dude holding the knife wasn't either...nor was Abraham acceptive of the knife-dude's religion...in other words, the picture is irrelevant.

but the inclusion of it in this discussion.....funny indeed

[RMGuy]

Whoa, whoa, WHOA!! How do you explain THIS?

I don't think you really want me to answer that.

-RM

[Snow]

Can LDS members read non-Mormon or anti-Mormon literarure as they are searching for answers to their spiritual questions?

Well... they can... but I advise against it. This one time, this guy I knew at band camp read some non-Mormon literature, CS Lewis I think, and nothing happened right away, but the next day, he suddenly exploded into flames and died a horrible fiery death.

That's not to say that everyone who read non-LDS literature self-immolates automatically. Another guy I knew once read some St. Augustine, City of God and now he is doing hard time in the Big House in Sing Sing.

Lesson learned, I guess.

[MarginOfError]

I'm mostly amused by the fact that in the forum home page, the title of this thread reads

"Can LDS members read..."

Sometimes I wonder.

Well, now that snow has just chimed in on his lessons learned, I'm mostly amused by that.

[volgadon]

Well... they can... but I advise against it. This one time, this guy I knew at band camp read some non-Mormon literature, CS Lewis I think, and nothing happened right away, but the next day, he suddenly exploded into flames and died a horrible fiery death.

That's not to say that everyone who read non-LDS literature self-immolates automatically. Another guy I knew once read some St. Augustine, City of God and now he is doing hard time in the Big House in Sing Sing.

Lesson learned, I guess.

I wish someone had cared enough to warn about these kinds of things. My life is now a never-ending downward spiral of scholastics, deontology and requiems-n-spirituals.

[skippy740]

This one time, this guy I knew at band camp...

Uh... are we supposed to get that reference? That's an R-rated movie you know! (And yes, I saw it. Guilty as charged.) :)

[Dravin]

Uh... are we supposed to get that reference? That's an R-rated movie you know! (And yes, I saw it. Guilty as charged.) :)

I can totally see Snow as an attendee at band camp... though I see him more as a Simon Cowell figure.

[annewandering]

Lol! ok where is the laugh button? shaking someones hand in thanks just isnt the same as laughing.

As far as reading antimormon literature I wouldnt. It makes me feel OCD trying to get the stench off my mind.

[ConvinceTheWorld]

Mormonism does not have an "index of forbidden books"

It would be contrary to the church and our very divine gift of Free Agency for the church to tell us that we absolutely CANNOT do something. We CAN do anything we want. However Im sure any faithful latter day saint would use the guidelines of the Book of Mormon to decide whether or not what they are reading is beneficial.

If it entices and teaches to do Good, it is of God. If it teaches and entices to do bad, it is of the Devil.

Again, it is really our own individual choice.

Edited October 16, 2011 by Just_A_Guy

[Suzie]

Mormons can read whatever they feel to read. Whether they should or they shouldn't, that's a different matter. I think it's a personal decision.

[pam]

No we are not allowed to read non-Mormon literarure. :)

[HEthePrimate]

If we weren't allowed to read non-Mormon literature, we wouldn't be allowed to read the Bible, seeing as how it was not written by Mormons.

[mnn727]

I was woncering where you got your answers to questions since there are so many out and out differences between what the Bible teaches and what the LDS Church founder, church leaders, teachers, apologist writings, and doctrines say?

Actually there are no differences at all.

Only differences in intepretation.

A wise man once said:

1) Most doctrinal issues boil down to interpretation.

2) Our interpretation isn't unreasonable.

3) If you think our interpretation is unreasonable, then it all boils down to opinion.

4) I'm not about to argue an opinion with you.

[LeKook]

Since I only speak English, I can only read non-Mormon literature if it's in English.

*insert applause here LOL*

[Ingbert]

Can LDS members read non-Mormon or anti-Mormon literarure as they are searching for answers to their spiritual questions?

Or are you constrained to read only LDS litereature disregarding all else as I understand it is while you are on you LDS missions.

I don't know what, if any, official stance is and haven't read through the rest of the thread yet, so I can only give my opinion here. I'm one of those people who reads everything. When I was first meeting with the missionaries before joining the church, I often read other stuff, some of it downright anti-Mormon. They never discouraged it, and it often led to some really good questions I never would have thought up on my own.

My personal theory is that truth is truth, no matter what else you read. It may lead to questions, maybe even doubts, but if you approach it with openness and prayer, ultimately the truth will win out, and leave you with a much stronger faith when it does.

As for what the missionaries are allowed to read, I can understand restrictions there. They have a job to do and need to stay focused.

[mnn727]

Seems we may have scared off another one, the O.P. hasn't posted here in a week.

Hopefully he is reading the answers.

[Ingbert]

D&C 88:118 And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.

That is the world of the Lord as to what we should read and study for the answers to spiritual questions.

Can we read non-Mormon or anti literature? For information about the LDS church/Mormonism, I'd say the best source of information is to go read books from Mormons. Non-LDS works (Like the "Idiot's guide to world religion" that I bought to study for a CLEP test) had partial and flawed information regarding the The LDS Church. Reading Anti-Mormon literature won't do anything to edify one's testimony of Christ. Most of it is written with the intent to create doubt and confusion. They are written with malicious intent by people who have no intention of teaching truth about the LDS church. One could respond to the anti-mormon and lay out evidences that disprove every argument he is trying to make, and the anti-mormon will ignore it. It is intellectual dishonesty at its finest.

As for missionaries, they are limited in what they read because their mission is to invite others to come unto Christ through faith in his name, repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost. They teach the very basic principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They need to understand the "milk" of the gospel incredibly well. The missionary library contains approved works that outline these basic principles extremely well. Reading anything else distracts from the basics of that work.

Ultimately, one can read whatever they want but to obtain spiritual knowledge, one must ultimately go to the creator of all things. There is a reason the scriptures say "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God." When we ask in faith and real intent to know the truths of God, he answers through the holy ghost and knowledge taught from on high will bring a more profound answer to the greatest spiritual questions one can have.

That's a great answer

I think it boils down to not so much what can we read as to why are we reading it.

[Mamas_Girl]

I think it boils down to not so much what can we read as to why are we reading it.

Absolutely. I've read/listened to quite a bit of the anti-Mormon literature in order to answer my family's questions, (I'm the lone member of the LDS Church). Oddly enough what I felt when reading that stuff was a sadness. Sadness thinking how the time and money put into creating these publications and such, could have been put to better use preaching their message of Christ's love. Yet I could feel their hurt and their hatred in their message based on a combination of lies and half truths. An even sadder fact was the Spirit was telling me that it was intentional and not ignorance.

The spirit of the anti-Mormon writings is that of contention. The Lord states in 3 Ne 29 "that the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention..." Thus I would ask, why would anyone wish to read AM literature?