DiscussMormonism.com

I hear people saying this from time to time, and I thought I'd see where we are as a group. What do you think about the LDS church as a whole and its influence on the world?

I'll start this out by voting that on balance, it does more harm than good. I recognize that it does good in the world, but from personal experience, it is a manipulative and rather soul-damaging religion (but I have no strong opinions about this. LOL).

Dang, only four responses. But this is shaking out like I thought it would. I suspect there are a few people in the world who think it's wholly good or evil, but not many.

I voted more bad than good.

Bond...James Bond wrote:I voted more bad than good.

Nobody has an opinion? I'm disappointed.

Runtu wrote:

Bond...James Bond wrote:I voted more bad than good.

Nobody has an opinion? I'm disappointed.

I always have an opinion, Runtu!

I voted more harm than good, but I'm not talking 60% harm, 40% good. I'm talking 90% harm and 10% lame-ass good. The good other churches do makes the Mormon church's good pale in comparison. That's my opinion.

KA

I didn't see an option for "The church is totally irrelevant outside Utah" so I voted neutral. I know many of you are in Utah and feel the church's influence in your daily lives, but once you get away from the high concentrations of Mormons, the church is irrelevant, unknown, and has no influence at all. It's simply a religion of good, family oriented people who believe silly things and follow conservative old men from Salt Lake City. Utah in the 1800s under Brigham Young was a scary and dangerous place, and I consider the church under his reign as evil. But their mainstreaming efforts have been hugely successful and I give the church huge props for abandoning the twin evils of polygamy and institutional racism. The modern LDS church is not evil. Some of the cult-like aspects remain in place, but its not Jonestown or Waco. I put it on the same level as Jehovah's Witnesses or Scientologists - weird and cult like in some aspects, with the potential to screw some of its members up psychologically with its bizarre teachings, but not dangerous to the outside world, and not evil.

Runtu wrote:

Bond...James Bond wrote:I voted more bad than good.

Nobody has an opinion? I'm disappointed.

I'm voting 78.3% bad, 21.7% good. And that 21.7% good is morals and charity stuff that could be done just as easily by any other charitable organization.

SatanWasSetUp wrote:I didn't see an option for "The church is totally irrelevant outside Utah" so I voted neutral. I know many of you are in Utah and feel the church's influence in your daily lives, but once you get away from the high concentrations of Mormons, the church is irrelevant, unknown, and has no influence at all. It's simply a religion of good, family oriented people who believe silly things and follow conservative old men from Salt Lake City. Utah in the 1800s under Brigham Young was a scary and dangerous place, and I consider the church under his reign as evil. But their mainstreaming efforts have been hugely successful and I give the church huge props for abandoning the twin evils of polygamy and institutional racism. The modern LDS church is not evil. Some of the cult-like aspects remain in place, but its not Jonestown or Waco. I put it on the same level as Jehovah's Witnesses or Scientologists - weird and cult like in some aspects, with the potential to screw some of its members up psychologically with its bizarre teachings, but not dangerous to the outside world, and not evil.

You and I voted the exact same way. This is an excellent articulation of how I feel as well.

Great minds! LOL

Edited to add----It's obvious that neither one of us live in Utah. ;)

I'm voting that the church does more harm than good. I'm not sure that makes the church "evil" as I don't believe in a biblical or religious concept of evil. I think that any organization that stifles free thinking and discourse is essentially harmful.

silentkid wrote:I'm voting that the church does more harm than good. I'm not sure that makes the church "evil" as I don't believe in a biblical or religious concept of evil. I think that any organization that stifles free thinking and discourse is essentially harmful.

I asked that specifically because I think some people do think it's evil, whereas most of us are somewhere in the middle. But I understand the distinction between harmful and evil.