If you follow me on Facebook (and you should), you know that I spent Thursday and Friday wandering around Utah in this shirt:
I figured Mormons understand evangelization and wouldn’t be offended by my offer of dialogue–but I ran it by some LDS friend first to be sure. They thought people would be far more curious than offended, so off I went. When I got to Temple Square on Thursday afternoon, I went straight to the visitors’ center to ask for a tour. But I’m not a jerk, so I told the missionary there who I am:
“Just so you know, I’m a Catholic missionary. I don’t want to step on any toes but I’ve got some pretty deep questions that I haven’t been able to find answers to in my research.”
Every time I met a different missionary, I told her something along these lines–I didn’t want anyone to feel ambushed when I started asking for answers beyond the basics. Unfortunately, anything beyond the basics was met with confusion. One missionary told me she was a polytheist, another said she definitely wasn’t. They didn’t know if their Prophet was infallible and didn’t want to say if Heavenly Father had a father. They didn’t know the formula for baptism and were pretty sure they don’t pray to Jesus. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I wasn’t going to get my confusion about Mormon doctrine resolved here.
But let’s be fair: how many 20-year-old Catholics could answer hard questions like that? I would hope that the ones who are in full-time ministry would have a grasp on theology, but if mission work is pretty much expected, as it is in the LDS church, there’s no guarantee of any theological sophistication in any given missionary. And I think they were told not to answer complex questions, which actually makes a lot of sense to me. Mormon theology can sound pretty crazy–as can any theology if you’re not used to it; after all, I worship a cracker. And these ladies aren’t just random Mormon girls trying to answer a question–they’re wearing name tags, which makes them authorities in the eyes of the world. So if they try to answer one of the harder questions and mess it up hardcore, they just further the stereotype of crazy Mormons.
Rather than give a wrong (or even unclear) answer, they just don’t touch the tough stuff. I can understand. And I didn’t go there to destroy anyone’s faith, so I admired the landscaping, listened to their heartfelt testimonies, talked about how faith makes trials bearable, rejoiced in our mutual love of the Lord, collected my free Book of Mormon, and moved on.
The next hour wandering Temple Square elicited no questions except from one Protestant (about whom more another time). So home I went, hoping for a busier day at BYU on Friday.
After my uninformative evening at Temple Square, I figured my best bet would be to approach a theology professor at BYU–surely those guys would have answers. And friends, I was not disappointed. My hosts had recommended that I speak with their neighbor, Alonzo Gaskill, a Mormon professor of World Religions and convert from Greek Orthodoxy. From the moment he opened the door, I was blown away.
Seriously, this guy is one of my favorite people I’ve met all year. He spent three hours–THREE HOURS–answering all of my questions and asking all about me and sharing his testimony and offering to pray for me and even–after THREE HOURS of helping me understand Mormonism–making a donation to my ministry. Really, a prince among men.
But I wouldn’t recommend that any of you talk to him. Because Prof. Gaskill is really convincing. I mean, I think I emerged fairly unscathed (although you can always pray for my faith and perseverance), but this guy absolutely obliterated the stereotpye that Mormonism is irrational or incoherent. He was using Scripture and the Fathers and doing a fantastic job. And he was kind and reasonable and interested in answering my actual question, not the question he wanted to answer. He wanted my opinions on things and appreciated it when I corrected his understanding of Catholicism. He clearly respects the Catholic Church and respected me as a Catholic and as an intellectual. Maybe one day I’ll write something for y’all about Mormonism but for now suffice it to say that it’s a lot closer to orthodox Christianity than I ever thought possible but that I’m still not convinced.1
Coming off of that high, I went back out on campus. I’d wandered for an hour earlier, feeling super-awkward and in-your-face in my shirt, but nobody had approached me. This time, I tried standing by a bench praying a rosary. I think it was pretty clear that I was waiting for people and this time I had a little more luck: four conversations in two hours.
Interestingly, only one person actually had a question. She wanted to know what rosary beads were, so I explained the rosary and the mysteries and how it’s a Christocentric prayer. She was very attentive and after we talked about her life a little bit, she headed home.
The other three conversations were just young men who were trying to be nice. One guy came up to me just because he could tell I wanted to talk to someone so we talked for a while about his life and being a person of faith. I had a similar conversation with another young man who told me that he had stopped because “it’s always good to see someone who takes their faith seriously.”
One young man stopped to chat. When I asked if he had any questions about the Catholic faith, he thought for a minute. “I don’t really know much about it, so…I guess, tell me about Catholicism.” Talk about a broad question! I ended up talking about the Eucharist since I figured trying to explain the differences in our understanding of God would be a bit much. Again, very polite and attentive but I wasn’t trying to convince him, really, and he wasn’t interested in being convinced. So eventually, he moved on, too.
All in all, I had a great afternoon at BYU. I was a bit taken aback by the guy who was doing a magic trick that required girls to kiss him–at BYU, of all places–but the marriage proposal I witnessed later on more than made up for it. I got a few quick greetings and a number of smiles–gotta love friendly Mormons. Nobody was rude to me; even the guy who asked, “Are you really a Catholic?” was being friendly in an odd kind of way. And while I didn’t “accomplish” much while standing around waiting to answer questions people didn’t ask, it was a beautiful day with pleasant people and who knows what the Lord is doing in people’s hearts? I don’t at all expect that people saw my shirt, went home to start Googling, and will be joining RCIA in the fall. But if one person who saw me becomes a better Mormon because of it, it was time well spent.
Next up: Sin City with St. Paul Street Evangelization! Come, Holy Spirit.
- Among other reasons: “the gates of hell will not prevail against [the Church]” but it was completely wrong for 1700 years; no first cause; no Real Presence; the King James Version; I’m not convinced by Joseph Smith or his testimony; eternal marriage strikes me as unbiblical; I believe in Ecumenical Councils; I think the Trinity and the Godhead are two completely different concepts and that oneness in being and oneness in purpose are not the same thing; I don’t think the Father was ever human. But man they’re good at families and community and evangelization and modest fashion and just being really good people. [↩]