The LDS position on the Book of Mormon is that it is revelation of equal weight with the Old and New Testaments. That is crucial: it is revelation, and was revealed to a prophet who in every respect is the equal of Moses. The LDS are not scriptural fundamentalists (continuing revelation always trumps mere scriptural citation) but in order to believe the rest of their theology one must accept both the Book and its prophet.

To do so is to accept also that the Church became apostate practically before it was formed as a Church, which essentially nullifies most of Western Civilization. At the very least it nullifies the Church and her entire sacramental structure, which I would describe as evil.

That the Book of Mormon sounds like the KJV is not surprising--the KJV was the only biblical idiom in early America, its cadences understood and felt deeply even by the most avid Enlightenment disbelievers. Unlike the Christian scriptures, however, it is uniquely topical, addressing itself to almost all of the (Protestant) religious controversies of the 1820s.

One of my LDS friends, hearing me proclaim a kind of latitudinarian Anglican position (to which I foolishly held for a while in the 1980s), replied, "That's what I would believe too, if I didn't have to believe the Mormon position." God bless him, he still does. But as a Catholic I also have to believe that not only was Joseph Smith wrong, he was probably a charlatan, and the book that was given to him by the angel Moroni is a fanciful thing, evil in its effects.

I am curious as to what you found to be evil in the Book of Mormon?

My reading of it found it to be very similar to the King James Bible in both wording and doctrinal content.

My comment was indirectly prompted by Jack's post #76, where he mentioned "Our particular congregation has a highly traditional liturgy, no rock music or praise teams, no creeping feminism, etc." (I know even less about the U.S. brand of Lutheranism.)

It's clear Pat's not thinking two or three steps ahead.

Right now Pat's fighting the ACLU in its attempts to purge religion from the public square.

But that's one seperate battle. Being told that questioning Mormon believes is now completly off limits is another one entirely. He doesn't see the pandora's box he's opening up because he wants to protect Romney as a viable candidate to conservatives despite his religious beliefs.

Former Rockford Institute President Allen Carlson has been trying to do the same thing with the John Howard Society, unite Christians and Muslims together we because both hate gay marriage.

I am in the PCA, a breakaway group from the degenerate 'mainline' presbyterian denomination.
We have had URC men in our pulpit.
Our particular congregation has a highly traditional liturgy, no rock music or praise teams, no creeping feminism, etc. We even
publicly read Lutheran confessions at times. I have visited LCMS congregations and found them congenial. I agree that separate small denominations preserve the Faith for those inside them, but we are all small compared to the liberals and even certain cults. My point about Luther was, I wish some unifying but biblical resolution could have been achieved; but the Catholic church at that time was so heavily invested in its own program, I recognize that that was not a realistic option.

No doubt I was still in a combative frame of mind, from debating Kevin Rudd, when I responded to your post. I'm glad to have Reformed and Anglican and Roman brothers who wish to combat the secularist threat to our society.

I think the one advatage that you and I have is we can seperate ourselves from the apostate and perverse leadership of our respective confessions. I don't need to be in fellowship with the apostate and degenerate Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We can re-constitute ourselves when the institution goes bad.

I believe there is nothing but a very bleak future for the institutional churches and for America in general. I think we are going to have to just do the best we can to create little islands of civilization in the new coming "dark ages." I don't know what else to do but pray, home school my own kids, create new church structures from the rubble that now exists, and live (as best I can) as a militant Christian in a secular world. Thankfully, this world isn't all there is.

BTW, are you in the United Reformed Church or some other group?

I'm sorry that I was unclear, I was not in any way blaming Lutheranism for follow-on events. I am in a Reformed church and heartily believe the reformational doctrines of Luther and Calvin. I only wonder sometimes if creating our own churches with correct doctrines also contributed to events that are quite negative. I believe in the concept of the 'invisible church' of true Christians, but I also lament the fragmentation in the churches; which fragmentation the cults happily exploit. I don't pretend to know what the best thing to do is, other than try avoid further fragmentation. Thank you for your thoughtful response and corrections.