Thoughts on Being in an LDS Bible Video

That’s me on the right in the picture above. This is a cropped screen shot from the most recently released clip in the series, “The Life of Jesus Christ Bible Videos,” produced by the LDS Church. This particular clip is titled, “Jesus Declares He Is the Messiah,” and you can view it on the series website (scriptural passage attached), on YouTube, and below.

There’s a lot to be said about this little clip. I’ll start with the most superficial things, and move to deeper topics.

Beginning at the least important issue, yes, that’s really my voice speaking Hebrew at the beginning of the clip, just as it's me playing the rabbi at the front of the ancient synagogue. I was in David Rabi’s Hebrew classes at Bryn Mawr College back in the later Seventies. (He is now both a Ph.D. and a rabbi—yes, Rabbi Rabi—and he was a much finer teacher than I was a student. Don’t blame him for my mistakes or delivery, please. And if anyone can get a word through to him, please give him my best!)

This was all filmed out at the now-barely-year-old LDS Film Studios site out in Goshen, Utah, where they have built a magnificent set that can be made to look like a variety of ancient sites in the Old and New Worlds. Our little synagogue was set up in a mere side room, magnificent though it was with its upstairs gallery and all. During filming, I was impressed with the high production values and professionalism evident throughout the experience. And yet this was clearly an LDS production, rather than a Hollywood one; when one crew member sought one of the lead actors, this answer was perfectly acceptable: “Oh, he’s off praying; he’ll be back in a moment.”

The scriptural incident being portrayed here is, of course, from the New Testament, Luke 4:15-30. The clip begins in the synagogue with me reading from the Hebrew Bible, the book of Isaiah, specifically Isaiah 60:21-22. The King James Version renders this into English as follows:

21 Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.

22 A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time.

 Jesus then goes on from there, reading the first verse and a half of Isaiah chapter 61. (Strictly speaking, the account in Luke quotes the ancient Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures, the Septuagint, where the wording differs slightly from the Hebrew as we have it today).

The portion of scripture that I read in the clip actually means a lot to me. Another way to translate the first phrase—v’amekh kulam tzaddiqim—is, “and your people shall all be Saints.”  That’s a mighty big responsibility no matter how you translate it, and one that flies in the face of the spirit of our times.

It’s also intriguing to me to read v. 22 as a reference to the (Latter-day) Saints as well. While wearing my writer’s hat, I’ve been busy analyzing LDS growth patterns for my forthcoming book, The Future of Mormonism; we have become a numerous people, and we seem bound to become a truly huge one.

But the main event, as it were, is neither my minute in the video sun, nor my poor showoff of my college Hebrew. The real message of this video is that, in this incident, Jesus unequivocally declared himself to be the chosen Messiah, the veritable anointed one, the Christ.

Oddly, this is not the most popular message among some Christians today. There are some who say that Jesus never really declared himself the Messiah. For others, it seems almost an embarrassment in our multicultural world to take such an “exclusivist” stance (for, indeed, if Jesus is the Messiah, this gives him a privileged position among the spiritual leaders of the world, to say the very least).

It is my position, and the LDS Church’s position, that Jesus did indeed declare himself to be the Messiah. That certainly seems to be integral to all the New Testament Gospel accounts; without the central claim that Jesus is the Messiah, the Gospel narratives fall into pieces, a few moving stories here and there, told to no overall purpose.

Even in this brief clip, the account of Luke portrays Jesus’ message as one that is meant for all peoples; certainly the reference to Naaman the Syrian—a Gentile if ever there were—gets that point across. Christianity as a whole has a long way to go to show respect to the other religions of the world—all those centuries of literally demonizing of other faiths, even today, is something ultimately unChristian—but there is no denying that ultimately Christianity is indeed built around the bold declaration that Jesus is the Christ, and the only such.

I find it particularly ironic that this bold declaration is being heralded by the Latter-day Saints, whom so many others claim are not Christians at all. The point of these videos is primarily for the edification of LDS Church members, but I would think that at least indirectly the videos make the point clear that we are indeed centered upon Christ. (I dwell on this point at length in another of my books forthcoming this summer, What Mormons Believe.)

I am deeply honored to have had the opportunity to be a part of this production. I hope that this and the other videos in this series edify the Saints, and give all people pause to consider the central claim of the Christian message, that God lives and Jesus is His Christ.

[Readers of this blog are invited to become official “followers” through the box above and to the right.]

Copyright © 2012 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.

The LDS Faith on Trial in 2012

I had hoped it would not come to this.

However naïve I was, my hope was that the number of people who would attack the LDS Church itself during the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign would be relatively small. However, I see now that this hope was utterly in vain.

• Despite statements by religio-political group officials that Mitt Romney’s Mormonism was not a factor in the South Carolina primary, people interviewed by The Daily Caller spontaneously brought up Romney’s faith as the reason they were leery about voting for him. On Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, the interviewer also pointed out that being Mormon hurt Romney in South Carolina.

• Heading into the Florida primary, it is noteworthy that at Rick Santorum’s speech in Coral Gables today, the Los Angeles Times reported that “people sat in front of giant posters warning voters that Mormons worship false gods.” The Times reporter interviewed a Santorum supporter holding a poster saying, “Americans, Beware. Mitt Romney is a lifelong Mormon.”

• The person who introduced Santorum at his speech today was Rev. O’Neal Dozier, whom the Palm Beach Post reported as saying that “The American people will not vote for a Mormon to be a president of the United States.” This is the same man who told the SunSentinal last October that “Mormonism is a cult … Once people really understand Mormonism, they will begin to lose faith in Mitt Romney.”

Examples could be multiplied. The overall conclusion seems inescapable: in this presidential election cycle, at least through the Republican convention in August and quite possibly through the election itself in early November, the LDS Church and the Mormon faith will be on public trial.

I have long known that anti-Mormon authors, predominantly evangelicals, have spread misconceptions and misinterpretations about the Church. What is apparent from these articles, and from the comments I received in response to my recent online article on why evangelicals are opposed to the LDS faith, is that huge numbers of people actually believe this anti-Mormon trash-talk. They really believe that:

• Mormonism is an unchristian cult.
• Mormons teach that Jesus is not even divine.
• Mormons teach that Jesus and Satan are somehow equal or in cahoots because “they are spirit brothers.”
• Evil things happen in LDS temples.
• Mormons forcibly convert people posthumously.

and a ton of other things that are equally false.

Please understand—for me, this is not about the presidential election. (My own political stance is in a different direction.)

My concern is about spreading the truth about the Church and the Gospel. On the one hand, anti-Mormon lies and misrepresentations are getting unprecedented play in the media. On the other hand, this “Mormon moment” is an opportunity, largely still unrecognized, to spread the truth about the Church and the Gospel.

So what is to be done?

 Let me tell you what I am doing, and what it is that you might do to be a part of it.

Three years ago I started a blog, LDS 101: The Latter-day Saint / ‘Mormon’ Faith, to answer basic questions about the faith. I didn’t know much about blogging then, and was not able to generate sufficient interest in the blog to keep it going. Now, however, I know a lot more about promoting a blog, and so I have reactivated it. (My first substantive entry: “Do Mormons Teach that Jesus and Satan Were Spirit Brothers?”)

My plan is to use that blog to answer specific anti-Mormon claims, something that is outside the mission of the Church web site most of the time.

There are two ways that you, readers of this blog post, can be a part of this (and I know that that includes a lot more people than the official “followers” of the blog):

1. When you come upon people who bring up specific distortions or falsehoods about the Church or its doctrine, please refer them to LDS 101. I may very well have addressed that specific distortion or falsehood. If I have not done so yet, the readers are welcome to bring up their own questions or issues for future posts.

2. Drop in yourself. Critique what I have to say so that I can make it better. Suggest questions or issues for me to address.

These are things that anyone can do. If we all contribute, we can stand up for truth together and further that cause. I hope you will take me up on this invitation.

[Readers are welcome to become official “followers” of this blog through the box in the upper-right-hand corner.]

Copyright 2012 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.

 [The image of the Nauvoo Temple ruins was obtained from Steven D. Cornell’s utah-rchitecture blog, and is in the public domain.]

New on "LDS 101":Do Mormons Teach that Jesus and Satan Were Spirit Brothers?

This post on the LDS 101 blog deals with something that anti-Mormons often throw against the Saints: the idea that 'the Mormons teach that Jesus and Satan were spirit brothers!' (cue creepy music crescendo). Enjoy.

Rebooting the "LDS 101" Blog

It has become clear to me, from the comments I've been getting to my recent online article on why some evangelicals oppose Mormonism, that there is not only a great deal of misinformation about the Church--but tons of people actually believe the misinformation. So, to avoid this blog being completely overwhelmed with responses to the trash that people believe about the LDS Gospel, I am reactivating my blog, "LDS 101: The Latter-day Saint / 'Mormon' Faith." Drop on by.

Do Rational People Believe in Mormonism?

It has long been observed that Latter-day Saint theology and scriptures include many distinctive beliefs, beliefs that are quite different from those of majority Christianity. But in the minds of a lot of people, unfortunately, "different" means "strange," even "weird." The cheap shotgun overview of LDS theology that The Book of Mormon musical springs onto people without context or explanation lends itself to this sort of interpretation; I am sure that I am not the only Saint who has had a long-time friend say, after viewing a number from the musical, that "You believe some weird" things.

The current U.S. presidential campaign is going to bring much more public attention to distinctive LDS beliefs, such as our beliefs about the origin of the Book of Mormon (the real-life scripture, not the musical); Joseph Smith's visionary experiences; the doctrine of exaltation; the premortal existence; the three postmortal degrees of glory, and so forth -- hey, these days even the practice of tithing is getting scrutiny in the media. I could go into the historical and theological foundations for belief in each of these items of doctrine, and perhaps in future posts I shall. For now, however, I'd like to consider something a bit more emotional, the sort of knee-jerk reaction that I'm hearing more of lately: "How the heck can rational people even believe stuff like this?"

This was brought to mind by a reader's response to a piece I wrote recently for the Yahoo Contributor's Network regarding why evangelical Christians oppose the LDS faith. One reader responded:

Never mind talking about whether or nor they [i.e., the LDS] are Christians. Ask them about Jaredites, Nephites and Lamanites in North America between 1000 BC and 400 AD. It is the most bizarre histroriography imaginable. As the late columist Bob Novak once rhetorically asked "How can any rational person believe this?"

We'll return to the matter of Book of Mormon historiography on another occasion. As it happens, the late Robert Novak, political columnist, had not actually asked this question himself. In reference to the run-up to Mitt Romney's 2008 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Novak had mentioned that there was a big difference between the opposition to Romney the Mormon in 2008 and the opposition to John Kennedy the Roman Catholic in 1960, when a number of conservative Protestants voiced concerns that a Catholic President would take orders from the Vatican. As Novak put it:

Nobody is suggesting that Mitt Romney as president of the United States would be taking orders from the president of the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City. The Republican whispering campaign against Mormons is broader-based on ridicule of the church's doctrine. I have heard Republicans who have read the Book of Mormon express astonishment that any rational person could believe that fanciful stuff. [Emphasis added.]

Here is how I responded to my reader, and how I would like to have responded in 2006 to Novak's unnamed sources (edited, and links added):

Consider this. The fact is that many people, including many esteemed in their professions, believe LDS theology and claims about the Book of Mormon.

Let's consider just a few of my personal acquaintances. Here in New York, I've known four top biomedical researchers at the prestigious Rockefeller University who are faithful, believing, and practicing LDS -- two of whom served as my bishop, and the third of whom was in my stake presidency. My friend Rob Comstock, at the top of the game of the fashion industry, appears in one of the "I'm a Mormon" spots. Another friend of mine, Admiral Paul Yost (Ret.), commanded the U.S. Coast Guard. (For that matter, I myself am an elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association, a distinction of note.)

Beyond my own acquaintances, two of today's best-selling fiction authors, Stephenie Meyer of Twilight fame, and Orson Scott Card of the Ender books, are practicing Latter-day Saints, as is nonfiction business and lifestyle author Stephen "7 Habits" Covey. I could go on for pages mentioning physicians, medical researchers, creative arts professionals, university academics, attorneys, financial professionals, business leaders, and so forth, all practicing Latter-day Saints.

The point: You don't get to these sorts of positions by being irrational. The evidence clearly shows that huge numbers of rational people believe LDS theology. This does not prove it true, but it does prove that Novak's unnamed sources were foolish. People who would actually like to learn about the LDS faith held by some of our more scholarly Saints might find it beneficial to consult Susan Easton Black's edited book, Expressions of Faith: Testimonies of Latter-day Saint Scholars, or Henry Eyring's Faith of a Scientist.

 Yes, rational people believe in Mormon doctrine. Latter-day Saints need to be aware of what is apparently a widespread prejudice regarding our rationality. Beyond that, as my late mother, brought up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan would have put it, "you need to straighten them out." Indeed.

Of course, all of this raises the question of how rational people came to believe in the Book of Mormon. But that is a topic for another post.

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[The reproduction above of Rodin's The Thinker was obtained through Wikipedia and is in the public domain.]

Why Evangelicals Oppose Mormonism

Never more than this presidential election season has the stark opposition of many evangelical Christians to the LDS faith received more attention in the national press. Yet, the reasons for that opposition are unclear to many people, and for that reason I suspect that many people in the public are confused about that most basic of questions about Mormonism: "Are Mormons Christian?"

In my latest piece on the Yahoo Contributor Network, I hope to bring some clarity to this issue. It is titled, "Why Evangelicals Oppose Mormons: Word Games and Fear." Them's strong words -- but, I dare say, accurate ones. And it's no picnic being called a cultist, either -- something that many evangelicals say every day, concerning up to one-quarter of the American population.

Do feel free to send this post around by e-mail, by means of the "envelope" icon below.

Mitt Romney's Tithing

Readers who know me personally know that I will not be voting for Mitt Romney's party come November. (After all, I have just renovated the Mormons for Obama blog.)

But fair is fair. I for one have had enough with articles in the American press insinuating that there is something nefarious about Mitt Romney giving millions to the LDS Church in stock. I have so had enough that I have just published a piece through the Yahoo Contributor Network on this issue, titled, "Heart of Romney Furor: He's Just Being a Good Mormon." Read and enjoy.