A lot has been written in recent years about tensions between the evangelical community and the LDS church. Are those tensions indeed real, are there some ecumenical issues that have to be addressed, and if so, how can they be addressed?

Wickman: I think if they exist, they’re one-sided. They don’t exist on our end. As I said, we believe in Jesus Christ. We teach him, and him crucified; we teach his teachings and doctrines; we find a sense of brotherhood with everyone – regardless of their faith affiliation – who share such beliefs.

Nelson: I would support that view. I believe that in the humanitarian aid to which I made reference, we partner with other faith-based organizations. For example, we do a lot of work with the Catholic Relief Services. We’ve done significant work with the Islamic Relief Worldwide organization and a whole host of other agencies with whom we have cooperated in providing relief for others.

There are other ways that we work with other folks, like in interfaith roundtables and multidenominational services that we hold here in the headquarters in the city of Salt Lake. The church has given financial support to other faiths. Brother Wickman mentioned the tsunami in Southeast Asia. We’re still giving help over there.

We’re still helping Indonesia, in the Banda Aceh area particularly, with rebuilding their schools, rebuilding their mosques and bringing copies of the Koran to those people.

Wickman: We don’t see it as an ecumenical thing. We don’t feel any need to conform our doctrine to somebody else’s. We teach the principles as we understand them and, for all the reasons that have been mentioned, try to be friends to everyone.

See Mormonism in Modern America.

Like each of our friends of other faiths, we welcome your questions about what we believe. We like it when you come to us rather than to fabricated sources for actual dialog about our faith, our doctrines, and the ways we live our lives.  Two leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (”Mormon” Church) respond to questions from Pew journalists regarding some of the oft-repeated misconceptions about our beliefs, as follows:

Let me read the results of another poll. This is from February 2007. The question was, “We’d like you to think about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. What comes to mind when you think about this religion?”

These are the top five or six responses, in descending order:
Eighteen percent: “polygamy.”
Ten percent: “Salt Lake City, Utah.”
Seven percent: “good people, kind, caring, strong morals.”
Six percent: “dislike their beliefs, don’t agree with their doctrine, false teachings.”

And two more:
Six percent: “door-to-door evangelizing.”
Six percent: “weird beliefs, strange, cult-like.”

Do these findings surprise you in any way? Do they alarm you in some way?

Nelson: My goodness, those are clearly expressions of lack of information and lack of understanding. That’s not surprising.

Wickman: Except for “Salt Lake City” and “have strong families and moral values,” there’s not one of those responses that is a very accurate description of who we are or what we believe. As I said earlier, we’ve learned from experience that the more others know about us, the more likely they are to like us.

They may or may not agree with all of our doctrines, but in terms of liking us and realizing us as good people who are involved in the mainstream of society and who are trying to be contributing members in our communities, I think those who know us would agree that that’s pretty much who we are.

Nelson: Let me take you back to a few years ago when communism was still bearing sway in Eastern Europe. One of my responsibilities was to talk to the leaders of a country under the yoke of communism, and I was trying to petition for permission for our people, our church and our missionaries to do their work there. They didn’t want us; they didn’t know us; they didn’t understand us. So I said, “Now, are you embarrassed by the fact that your mortality rate from alcoholism is higher than any other country in the world? We can help you. We can teach your people a better way of life.” And so we did; they allowed our missionaries to come, and they’re happy we’re there now. It all started with that original resistance imposed because of lack of understanding, lack of information and just kind of a rejection phenomenon just on general principles.

For many people outside the church, the present seems like a special time for the church because it is getting so much attention. Why is this happening? Why does the church seem to be the focus of so much attention? What’s happening in American society?

Nelson: I think, for one reason, real-thinking people are very concerned with what’s happening to society. The symptoms of immorality and social decadence are alarming, and people are honestly looking for a better way of life. They’re looking for the truth. They’re looking for something they can cling to.

Wickman: I think that’s a good answer. I think people are looking for a better way of life. And I think that current events have had a way of catapulting the church more into the news, certainly in the person of prominent political figures in each of the major parties in this country. That’s certainly been a factor.

I think the church is simply larger than it was once upon a time. I think that it’s more evident in communities across the land and across the world. We’re close to having 13 million members, which by comparison to some denominations isn’t that large, but when viewed particularly in the United States in the sense of community, I think most people are aware that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is there. They drive by our meeting houses. They see our young people with their suits and their black name tags – our missionaries. I think these are all factors.

There are other people of prominence who have been Latter-day Saints who achieved a measure of success and acclaim, everything from the sports world to the business world. And I think all of those factors combine, and doubtless others that we haven’t mentioned would help to explain the interest.

I think the Olympics here in 2002 was a curtain raiser for many who didn’t know anything about Salt Lake City, much less our church or the community, until they sat through 14 or 16 days of coverage on the Olympics. Those are some thoughts that come to my mind.

Nelson: Here’s another thought that comes to me, and that is that nearly everybody has a neighbor who’s a member of this church. There are what, about 200 countries in the world. We have at least one member of the church in every nation of the world now.

See Mormonism in Modern America.

Mitt Romney served an LDS mission, or mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Missionaries are young men and women who consecrate two years of their lives to bringing the light of the gospel to the world.

A Pew interviewer asked two Mormon leaders about members and missionaries involvement in international issues. The conversation is recorded below.

The church has more than 50,000 missionaries. Many of them are presumably knowledgeable about world affairs because of their missionary work. Does the church take positions on international issues, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict?

Nelson: Our first mission is to teach the gospel and to care for our members. We are an international church. We have more members residing outside of the United States than we do within the bounds of this country. Our members come from all sides of all political questions. We don’t wade into the political debate on such controversial issues as Darfur and the Arab-Israeli conflict, but the church has committed to providing relief and development projects for humanitarian purposes in those countries and in other countries all over the world.

For example, the church provides relief to both the Israelis and the Palestinians, and in the year 2006 we responded with significant relief for the people suffering in Sudan.

Wickman: For the very reasons we talked about earlier when you were asking about political involvement, the church really tends not to get involved in political controversy, whether it’s here or abroad. It does teach the principles we’ve talked about. It does have a very significant humanitarian effort. Elder Nelson gave some examples of that.

Another notable example from the recent past would be the tsunami relief that the church provided, across the Indian Ocean from Indonesia to India and beyond, and here in our own country, of course, with Katrina.

But the church is more interested in teaching its principles and lending a hand to people where it can than it is in weighing in on politics, and that’s one of the reasons why you don’t hear us saying much about those events.

One comes away with a sense of the church having this determinedly circumscribed role in public life, that while the church – through its missionaries – actively proselytizes, the church’s official position is, “We’ll let our religious life be our role in public life; we’ll let it speak for itself.”

Nelson: It’s pretty simple. We care, and we would like to do unto others as we would like them to do unto us. We love one another and we show that by helping, by serving. There is a lot of interest in the humanitarian assistance that we give throughout the world, and it’s very, very significant. But even more significant is why we do it. We do it because we care, and how we do it is that we teach our people to go without meals one day a month and contribute the money they would have spent on those meals to a fund that is used for the care of the poor and the needy.

It would be a misperception to view this church as wealthy, well-provisioned, with storehouses that are bulging and so on. Our welfare efforts come from people. There are people who are going without their food and contributing their money, time and talents just for the privilege of helping to serve other people.

That’s the story; not the largesse of our gifts, but the hearts of the people who want to help.

Wickman: Institutionally [the Forum has] described the church’s position about things, but, again, church members individually, acting in their capacity as citizens, are encouraged to get involved and express their views, and obviously there are some in our own country who are doing that every day.

See Mormonism in Modern America, Pew Forum

Additional Resources:

Learn more about Mormon missionaries at the official site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (inadvertently called by friends of other faiths as the “Mormon Church”).

The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and goes hand in hand with the Bible. Request a free copy today.

Attend a local Mormon Church meetinghouse.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes called the “Mormon” Church), has received much media attention in recent months. Mitt Romney has been a figure whose prominence and identity has captured the thoughts of everyone on the entire political and religious spectrum. Since 57% of those polled by CBS several months ago revealed a lack of knowledge regarding Mormon beliefs, we will post here a few questions and answers about the Church to respond to that need. To know Mitt Romney is to know something more about the faith of a Latter-day Saint.

In simple language, what are the most important things non-church members should know about the church?

Russell M. Nelson

Elder Nelson: They should know that we exist to bring love and concern for the eternal welfare of all humankind, regardless of religious belief, race or nationality. We believe that we are truly brothers and sisters, so we want to project the message that we care. We love one another, and we hope to bless the lives of all mankind.

What should be the church’s role in public life?

Nelson: Our objective is to bring happiness to people, strengthen their families and make them successful in life. You can hardly isolate that from the laboratory of their existence, which is the workplace and home.

Elder Wickman: The prophet Joseph Smith was once asked how it was that he was able to “govern his people,” as the reporter put it. Joseph responded that he taught correct principles and let them govern themselves. The church really does not see that it has an institutional role in public life as such. But the principles that it teaches and the encouragement that it gives to members to participate actively as citizens in their land – wherever that may be – naturally lead to Latter-day Saints who do become involved. And of course you’re familiar with some of those who have become somewhat prominent in our own country.

Lance B. Wickman

You have to remember, too, that the church has an active presence in more than 160 nations – and members beyond that in others. So you’re talking about a worldwide organization, and these principles are taught everywhere. How those people become involved in their respective communities is going to differ widely depending on where they are and the government system under which they live.

Nelson: I believe that experience has shown that human nature cannot be changed by reforming public policy. The change comes by exposing the human mind to a higher way of thinking – to teach the teachings of the God of the world as the Lord Jesus Christ. Then if you teach his principles, the people can govern themselves more appropriately, as Elder Wickman has explained.

We feel that as we maintain the integrity of our religious institutions and preserve tolerance of each other’s sacred beliefs, we can preserve the strength of pluralistic society. We can promote tolerance and

understanding.

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Mitt Romney is committed to faith, family, and country. His faith embraces belief in a literal Father in Heaven, the atonement of His Son, Jesus Christ, a little redemption and the possibility of eternal life for all who follow him. Mitt’s life, which is readily accessible in video recordings, documents he has signed and advocated, government and civic records, attests to an alignment with his professed values, and a love of home that mirrors his moral and ethical beliefs.

We invite your sincere questions about Mitt Romney’s faith.

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Q/A above from Pew Interview, Mormonism in Modern America

Additional Resources:

Learn more about the Mormon Church at the official site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (inadvertently called by friends of other faiths as the “Mormon Church”).

Learn some basic beliefs of the Mormon Church.

The Book of Mormon is a companion to the Bible. Request a free copy.