Things I like about the LDS church
One of my complaints about Mormon-evangelical interactions is that we almost never focus on or talk about the positive things we see in the other side’s religion. Evangelicals are pretty infamous for pointing out all the bad in Mormonism, and while Mormons aren’t generally as outspoken in their negativity, I still seldom hear kind things about evangelicals from them. I’m going to end my series on how I got involved studying the LDS church by talking about where I disagree with Mormonism, but first I thought I would buck past trends and talk about some of the things I like.
1. Book of Mormon – As I said in my last post, I like the Book of Mormon and consider it poetic, faith-promoting 19th century fiction. I do not accept it as Scripture written by people who actually existed due to internal problems, lack of historical and archaeological evidence, and rejection of Joseph Smith’s prophetic claims, but still, I have few problems with the text and most of the message of the Book of Mormon itself.
2. Lay Ministry – I think Protestant churches could learn a lot from studying the LDS lay ministry. While I like the fact that our Sunday morning speakers are trained in public speaking and generally able to hold some level of attention, it’s still neat to me that almost all LDS “clergy” are just regular people with no formal training in theology and doctrine. Along those lines, I also think that it’s nice that average members get regular opportunities to speak from the pulpit and address the congregation.
3. Local Organization – I enjoy the way the LDS church is structured on a local level, that it has offices for elders, bishops, and deacons. I’m not crazy about some of the applications of those offices, and I think it’s a shame that Mormons forgot about the offices for female elders, bishops, deacons and prophets, but if there’s one thing I appreciate about the LDS church, it’s the fact that it has a distinct sense of order throughout.
4. Missionary Program – I adore the church’s missionary program. If there’s anything in the LDS church that I’m truly envious of, it’s this. I loved the time I spent on brief mission trips to Mexico for Sumner Presbyterian and I would have loved to have spent more time as a formal missionary. I don’t appreciate that sister missionaries have to wait until they’re 21 and only serve for 18 months, but I still marvel at the program. My husband is quite lucky that I was not a Mormon convert because there is not a chance in hell I would have married him at age 21 like I did; I would have told him to have fun writing to me on my mission.
5. Doctrinal Solidarity – It’s a fact that there’s more doctrinal solidarity in Mormonism than there is in evangelical Christianity. Not as much as some Mormons think, but definitely more, and I sometimes really dislike having to explain why some of us evangelicals think it’s okay to baptize infants and some of us don’t. Some days I find myself wishing that the rest of evangelical Christianity would just hurry up and fall in line with me because I’m obviously right. 
Mormons don’t have to go through that to the extent that evangelicals do, and some days I envy that.
Mormons don’t have to go through that to the extent that evangelicals do, and some days I envy that.
6. BYU – Shameless push for the school I graduated from. I certainly had my differences with a few idiots in the administration, but overall my experience there was great. The teachers were wonderful and generally knew their stuff, it was a clean school for a conservative Christian and I made great friends there. I’m glad they let non-members go there.
7. General Conference – Okay, so maybe this is a partial one. I’m not too fond of the talks that are given at General Conference and the dry style they’re delivered in, but I really like the idea of the entire church gathering together regularly. I wish evangelicals had something like that, but we’re limited to denominational or theme-based regional conferences.
8. Temple Architecture – LDS temple architecture is gorgeous. I wish Protestants had more good-looking monuments and buildings. By the way, why on earth do 99.9% of BYU students who get married locally choose either the Mt. Timpanogos Temple or the Salt Lake City Temple? That’s so ghetto; there’s like, 5 other temples within two hours of Provo, but BYU students never use them. They all get married in the same place. I would have gone with theBountiful Temple.
9. Welfare & Humanitarian Efforts – The LDS church contributes an awful lot of its substantial income each year to making the lives of other people better, and that’s something that they ought to be proud of.
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