I have also had numerous callings in my 18 years in the Church (Nine wards in three countries) and I can only think of two or three people who were even subjected to anti-Mormon literature. I mean let’s be honest, Mormons are told so many horror stories about books critical of the faith that they are scared to death of them. Your spirituality would drop through the floor if you even get near one. If a neighbor or acquaintance tries to speak to you of anything critical of the faith, you’re to report it to your bishop in your next temple recommend meeting. Why do you think the "More Good Foundation" exists? It is trying to circumvent the inevitable exposure Mormons will have to the plethora of anti websites. Same as Allen Wyatt's stunt with the domain names.
Well, if what bsix says is true, then they shouldn't be worried at all because they are all ineffective. But the fact is these efforts exist because they are effective.
When I attended the FAIR conference back in 2001 I brought along a dozen or so copies of JP Holding’s book called the Mormon Defenders. I passed them out to various apologists who wanted to tear it apart in an upcoming review. Dan Peterson asked for as many copies as I could spare. At the conference I remember walking up to Lance Starr and asking him if he had requested a copy. He didn’t make eye-contact, but said very roughly “NO I DID NOT.” And he then turned his back to me and walked off. It was only at that point that I realized some of the Mormons were offended that I would bring such “evil” into their presence.
I had also stayed with another FAIR member during that weekend and his wife told me she had to pray before letting me in the house with those books. She came very close to kicking me out because I brought that kind of evil into her home.
When I was investigating the Church at age 17, my Grandmother had mailed me a transcript of the John Ankerberg show. I was just curious about some of the stuff it contained and didn’t really realize it was anti-Mormon at first. I took it to school with me and during lunch I gave it to Rhonda, the Mormon girl I had a crush on; the oldest child in the LDS family that introduced me to the Church. I asked her what the heck this stuff was. She read for maybe 20 seconds and then starting balling. I mean she was really crying up a storm and said, “Kev, this is anti-Mormon literature!” She then ignored me for the rest of the week along with her entire family. The assumption was that just because I had been subjected to anti-Mormon literature, that I was already convinced of it. They made absolutely no attempts to answer or resolve anything for me because it was as if they felt they might be converted too, or at the very least, their spirituality would sink. I was more offended by their reaction to me than I was the material itself. Later after I was baptized and served a mission, I learned how taboo it was to even speak of books critical of the faith. Here are some comments from the FAIR/MAD forum:
bsix: In large however, antiMormon propaganda does not seem to be converting members to traditional Christianity in large numbers
And to be honest, Mormons are not subjected to it either. In my experience, those who are subjected to it are almost always affected by it. This is why the Church puts so much effort in trying to control the members, scaring them into ignoring any critical information thrown their way.
Nehor: The problem is incentive.Their rewards system is not as good. Mormonism tells me I can be a God and rule the cosmos with my wife or even possibly wives around me forever. It tells me the Universe will bend to my will and whim and that I have eternity to play around with creative power making more perfect and much neater things.
Wow. How many times have Evangelicals said this was the LDS “incentive”, just to be told they are intolerant, bigots, ignorant and that none of this is official doctrine?
Libs: the anti-propaganda doesn't work, because most LDS can see right through the distortions they put out there. Plus, most of us have a good strong testimony of this Church. That's really the bottom line. And the ex-lds I have had contact with..many not only didn't understand LDS doctrine, but they never had a testimony of the church.
This is the usual rationalization offered and assumed. If someone falls it is because they weren’t really Mormon to begin with. But then, Mormons are conditioned into this type of thinking too. The fault is always on the part of the one who falls away. It cannot possibly have anything to do with the convincing power of the arguments “antis” use.
But let’s deal with some facts. Do LDS apologists really want to compare the effectiveness of each side (LDS missionaries and anti-Mormons)? When I served my mission there were 29,000 missionaries and the Church was baptizing around 400,000/year. Lately the number of missionaries has doubled while the converts are practically cut in half. The Church was averaging ten converts per missionary whereas it now averages between 4 and 6. And what has changed over the past 10 years? The information superhighway was not available in the 80’s. That made it extremely easy for the Church to shield its membership from the critical arguments. Ad let us not forget that of those hundreds of thousands of converts, more than half will fall into inactivity. How many of them leave because of anti-Mormonism? Who can say?
Missionaries aren’t likely to find prospective converts without either internet access, or friends who do have access. Anti-Mormonism is winning, to be sure. Bsix is kidding himself. I have stated on numerous occasions that I do not want my wards knowing about my website because not everyone had a bulletproof testimony and what happens is that the typical Mormon stumbles on my website and starts reading refutations to arguments he never knew existed. And then he probes further and starts looking at the critic websites. Next thing you know we have another Mormon who is struggling on the fence. That is all it takes. I have always known how powerful the critics’ arguments are. Just look at the ridiculous apologetics that is taking place on the Book of Abraham. You got BPT (Bullet-Proof- Testimony) Mormons making up these ridiculous excuses as to how Smith could get virtually everything wrong and still be an inspired prophet of the restoration. This won’t fly with most Mormons and I think they realize this. Heck, most Mormons don’t even know where the Book of Abraham came from, nor do they tend to read it unless they are following along in Church. Nobody in my ward can tell me squat about it. None of them realize that it can be tested, unlike the Book of Mormon, and confirm or disconfirm whether or not Smith was a prophet. The Church should like to keep it that way too. Ignorance is bliss.
But there really are some “bad” arguments out there and some of these Evangelical Churches are probably doing more damage than good for their own side. The DVD that is being passed out is perhaps 90% crap. Perhaps only 10% of it is sound enough to persuade most Mormons, but Mormons look for the obvious errors and then uses this as the reason for discarding the entire thing.