Speaker's apology to
LDS stirs up fuss
By Carrie A. Moore
In the two months since a leading
evangelical Christian apologized, on behalf of his fellow believers, to
Latter-day Saints for mischaracterizations of their faith, several conservative
Christians have voiced their displeasure with his remarks.
Ravi Zacharias
speaks at "Evening of Friendship" Nov. 14.
At the same meeting, evangelical Richard Mouw said
that evangelicals
have sinned against LDS. Jason Olson,
Richard Mouw,
president of Fuller Theological Seminary, spoke Nov. 14 at the Tabernacle on
"Let me state it clearly. We
evangelicals have sinned against you," Mouw
said, noting a tendency among some Christians to distort the truth about the
beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "We have told
you what you believe without making a sincere effort first of all to ask you
what you believe."
Mouw went on to explain that "we have even on
occasion demonized you, weaving conspiracy theories about what the LDS
community is 'really' trying to accomplish in the world. And even at our best,
we have — and this is true of both of our communities — we have talked past
each other, setting forth oversimplified and distorted accounts of what the
other group believes."
Latter-day Saints have often responded in
kind to such actions, he said, lamenting, "Friendship with each other has
not come easily for our two communities."
He lauded the event as a step toward
mending strained relations.
But his remarks didn't sit well with some
conservative evangelicals, a few of whom have posted lengthy responses to his
published text on their own Web sites and have encouraged others to make their
displeasure known to Mouw.
As the backlash began following his
speech, Mouw, who is also a columnist for Beliefnet.com, a
nondenominational Web site, allowed the text of his remarks to be posted there
with an explanation of the background for the meeting in
In posting the text, still available at www.beliefnet.com/index/ index_10044.html,
Mouw wrote that, "The speech is making the
rounds among surprised and generally pleased evangelical and Mormon
groups."
But several conservatives were not
pleased.
A story following the event in Baptist
Press, which writes about the Southern Baptist Convention, quoted three local
ministers — Mike Gray, pastor of Southeast Baptist Church; Roger Russell of
Holladay Baptist Church; and Tim Clark of the Utah-Idaho Baptist Convention —
saying Mouw unfairly impugned their ministries and
activities by making a blanket apology to Latter-day Saints.
"(Mouw) was
wrong," the story quoted the Rev. Gray as saying. "He had no
business. And it will hurt.
"He doesn't live here
and he doesn't know what we do," the Rev. Gray said. "We haven't been
ugly to our Mormon neighbors. We love them and care about them."
The article said Mouw
had responded to such criticism with an e-mail to Baptist Press saying he
"certainly did not mean to imply that every evangelical has sinned in this
regard," Mouw wrote. "Suppose I were to
address an African-American gathering and say that we whites have sinned
against you blacks. Who would deny that this is a correct assessment? But who
would think that I was speaking about and on behalf of all white people?"
Another Utahn
troubled by Mouw's remarks, Ronald V. Huggins,
assistant professor of theological and historical studies at Salt Lake
Theological Seminary, posted a text of his own in response at a Web site of the
Institute for Religious Research, www.irr.org/mit/authentic-dialogue.html,
under a section titled, "Mormons in Transition."
Huggins said he and other faculty at the
Salt Lake Theological Seminary asked Mouw in August
2004 to "avoid following the pattern he had established in writing and
public events during the past few years of disparaging earlier Christian
efforts to reach Mormons for Christ. Regrettably, Dr. Mouw
ignored the SLTS faculty's concern."
Several faculty at Fuller Theological
Seminary have met in recent years with several religion faculty at Brigham
Young University to discuss topics of faith, and the seminary has hosted a
couple of scholarly forums focusing on beliefs and doctrine of the LDS Church.
"Evangelicals present at the (Tabernacle)
event, even some of those sitting on the stage, went away with the clear
impression that Mouw was aiming his criticism at
them," Huggins wrote.
While he said he agrees that some
Evangelicals "have certainly been unkind to Mormons and have been guilty of
inaccurately portraying Mormon beliefs," the approach "does not
characterize the attitudes and actions of most evangelical churches and
ministries, which is what made Mouw's blanket apology
inappropriate."
He said some Christians in Utah "were
surprised and disappointed by the apparent bad faith reflected in the LDS
Church's post-event coverage; others, including myself, expected it on the
basis of the conviction that, contrary to the belief and hope of many
Evangelicals, the LDS Church does not appear ready for, nor does it seem to
really desire, authentic dialogue with Evangelicals. What the
He said the church "appears to be
interested in 'dialoguing' only with evangelicals who lack an in-depth
knowledge of Mormon history and doctrine, and who are thus more likely to take
at face value the representations of its PR people."
Huggins wrote that two weeks after Mouw's remarks, he and about two dozen local Christian
leaders met with Standing Together director Greg Johnson to discuss the event
and expressed their feeling that Mouw's apology
"was both ill-advised and inappropriate; a significant number of those
present (again including myself) felt it was highly inappropriate."
As for Standing Together, Huggins wrote
that "evangelicals associated with that ministry have developed unhealthy,
lopsided relationships with the Mormon apologists. Several years ago I came up
with a name for this 'evangelistic strategy' — the 'Pander/Slander' method: 'If
you want to pander to the Mormon apologists not ready for real dialogue, the
cost is going to be a willingness to slander the Christian brethren that went
before you.' "
The Rev. Johnson said he told the group concerned about Mouw's apology,
"if the shoe doesn't fit, don't wear it."
"I would not accuse Mouw of hubris or arrogance or being proud. Did he fully
appreciate the ramifications of his statement? Probably not.
I'm sorry that his words and presentations were such a distraction to the
purpose of the evening."
While he acknowledged the remarks were
"very bold, they were his words, not mine. I wouldn't invite a Christian
leader of his stature to the podium and ask him to submit the speech to me.
Some have said I should have."
Despite the criticism, the Rev. Johnson
said he believes "there were a whole lot of people thrilled with that
evening."
As evidence, he said Standing Together has
received more than 400 orders for a DVD or CD of the event. "We get a lot
of notes now from people who have watched it and heard about it," noting
it's been the subject of several radio programs across the country with "a
lot of extremely good feedback."
"I've tried to say to people 'get the
DVD and judge it for yourself.' Focus on the Family
just ordered today 100 sets for their student leadership forum. They just
called to get them. That's a nice thing."
E-mail: carrie@desnews.com