Changing tides: the road toward ecumenicalism

[Anonymous]

It seems very interesting that during the last decade as society has become more permissive of gay marriage that the Church has aligned more with those that it would disagree with on many theological issues. For instance evangelical Christians would constantly flood their bookstores with anti-cult works, including anti-Mormon stuff. Yet during the political campaign of 2012, Billy Graham took the LDS Church off of the Cult list.

In my own personal life:

Recently, I found myself defending Catholicism’s position on apostolic succession. The argument that was made by Professor Bart Ehrman in his work Lost Christianities is the fact that Paul never established bishops to take care of the religious communities that he established and that Bishops were an invention after the apostles died. I disagree and maintaine that this is the entire point of the Catholic premise of apostolic succession is the fact that bishops were ordained by the apostles before they died.

Additionally, wasn’t the removal of the Catholic Church by the LDS Authorities from the listing under the Great Abominable Church or Church of the Devil from Bruce R. McConkie’s Mormon Doctrine evidence of the church moving more toward ecumenicalism?

Now, IMO I don’t think ministers getting paid is an issue since the church employs thousands of seminary teachers that make a decent living with retirement in tact. I think the problem with a paid clergy is the motivation behind what they do; Are they doing it for money alone? Yet, the Levites in the Bible were supported by their communities to perform temple ordinances. I can see how the church could mitigate its attack against paid clergy. The argument shouldn’t be that the ministers are getting paid for what they do, for there are many great men in the ministry that get paid; it goes back to the question on authority. But, in the ministers’ own minds, they received their authority because they went to divinity school. According to cultural relativism, understanding the evangelicals or other Christians on their own terms, obviates arguments against them on this point of a paid ministry.

I also find it remarkable that 6 out of the 10 Hugh Nibley Fellowship recipients are pursuing PhDs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in religious studies chaired by Bart Ehrman the eminent Biblical Scholar. Yet it doesn’t phase me as odd since Stephen E. Robinson of “Believing in Christ” fame received his doctorate there under Ehrman’s tutelage.

[Anonymous]

jamison wrote:

It seems very interesting that during the last decade as society has become more permissive of gay marriage that the Church has aligned more with those that it would disagree with on many theological issues…during the political campaign of 2012, Billy Graham took the LDS Church off of the Cult list…Additionally, wasn’t the removal of the Catholic Church by the LDS Authorities from the listing under the Great Abominable Church or Church of the Devil from Bruce R. McConkie’s Mormon Doctrine evidence of the church moving more toward ecumenicalism?

I see some of the things you mention as being more about superficial PR moves and politics than a conscious effort to make significant changes by Church leaders. I think they have ulterior motives where they mostly want more mainstream acceptance of the LDS Church and if certain groups of other Christians oppose abortion, same-sex marriage, etc. then they see them as useful political allies. Not that the current Church leaders necessarily feel any particular animosity toward other churches but some of the doctrines like the restoration, priesthood, temple marriage, and the WoW are not exactly about promoting unity and common ground with other churches but instead they are largely about playing up the differences and what supposedly makes our own little tribe special and better than outsiders. I don’t really expect these doctrines to change much any time soon but it would be nice if Church leaders would at least tone it down with some of the talk about how evil and wrong the world supposedly is like we heard multiple times in the last conference.

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