Are reports of abuse, scandal, and cult like rituals within the Mormon/LDS true, or slander against the church

Question

Just was dumped by a mormon after a long relationship. He never answered my questions about the Church directly, and brushed aside any concerns of mine. I was just curious of reports one sometimes sees about the LDS are true, and also why they are so very exclusive of non members. I was ecxluded many times because I was not a member. Thank you.

Answer 1

It's not slander, especially the sexual abuse. See the following link...
http://www.rickross.com/groups/mormon.html#Sex_Abuse

That is just a small sample of them, many are still ongoing.

Answer 2

I am LDS.

Abuse-The church does not tolerate abuse of any form. There may be, however, some individual members who are guilty of abuse. In such cases, if the church is made aware, the members are disciplined and, depending on the situation, could be ex-communicated from the church. There are counseling services available for members as well.

Scandal-Again, the church has not been involved in "scandals". There may be individuals who have, but the church believes in upholding and sustaining the law.

Cult-like rituals- I have also participated in all of the ordinances of the church and would say that they are not cult-like at all. Most are brief, simple, and might even be seen as boring to some. The Temple is often seen as secretive because not everyone is allowed to enter. This is no different than Temples in the ancient times. In fact, many of the ordinances under the law of Moses would be considered "cult-like" by most christians today, so I am not really sure what the problem is.

Exlcusion-This is very surprising because we typically try to invite others to participate in all aspects of our religion except the Temple. Hopefully, it was just mis-communication. You must also remember that church members are not perfect, we are humans and do make mistakes.

Finally, if you have any other questions, I would be more than happy to answer them. The Gospel is very important to me and I would hate for you to have a negative feeling about it because of your recent experiences. Please feel free to contact me.

Answer 3

As a fully active member of the LDS church (have been all my life, and I have participated in every ordinance there is to participate in), I can say with no qualms at all that there are no big secret cult like rituals, scandals, or abuse situations. I have heard news stories of members in positions of authority who have done things that are bad, but that is a reflection of the bad choices and sins of those people, and the church deals very strictly with such situations. Polygamy has no part in the church, and anyone who claims to be Mormon and participates in polygamy is a Mormon only in their own mind-- any person practicing polygamy is excommunicated from the church.

The reason that Mormons may seem exclusive is because the most important aspect of the LDS religion is family and marriage. It is our belief that marriage inside the temple is essential to our spiritual progress, and only worthy members of the church can enter the temple.

If your boyfriend was not good about answering questions about the church, it may have been because he didn't personally feel comfortable talking about it. Based on some of the answers you are bound to receive, it should be obvious to see that there are some nut-jobs out there with very strong (and uninformed) opinions about the LDS church. There are a lot of myths and lies circulating about the church, and any attempt to rebuff them is met with the response of, "you are lying, you are covering up." Sometimes it is just easier not to open that can of worms.

Answer 4

Sadly yes there is abuse within the LDS church. But remember there is abuse within all churchs.

Sorry that you got dumped by a mormon. He should have answered your questions about the chruch. Parts of the church we do hold sacred and don't tell what gose on because of the covents that we make with God. LIke what gose on in the Temples.

Most of your questions can be answered by going to www.lds.org. That is where I would recomend going. Don't do a interent search cause you will only find more anti than the truth.

Also talk to the missionaries in your area. They would be more willing to answer your questions also.

Answer 5

I was not a mormon but used to be a Jehovah's Witness and I suspect they operate the same way. They dont want to tell you everything until you are lured in by what you think is good about them. It may be true that every religion has scandals and the more than one wife thing is only in certain sects of mormons. I dont know about cult like rituals in the mormon religion but I think that they say you have to get married in their temple or it doesnt count in heaven. Bottom line is they believe a prophet beyond the Bible and one that contradicts the bible so that is why I dont believe what they teach.

Answer 6

Hmmm... The ones I see on the news are members of the Reformed Church... a splinter group of Mormons that did not want to give up polygamy.... or something (I'm not actually sure how they are different.... just that some of them have multiple wives when those of my church do not)

Answer 7

We'd probably need to examine it case-by-case. On the whole, I've found Mormons to be very decent people and not as religiously repulsive as more fundamental Christian groups.

I don't understand your claim of exclusionism ... I've continually been invited to gatherings and functions with Mormons, though I very rarely accept the offer.

Many "Christian" denominations consider Mormons to be cult-members ... a rather unfair claim. There certainly is a lot of anti-Mormon slander present in our society.

Answer 8

the church is very concerned about the image it was given years ago as a cult.
they practice a faith that is missunderstood by a lot of people as they keep to themselves.
the timple is a spiritual place and what goes on there is for the person whom truelly believes and has a " clean" life.
they will not talk about it to non-believers, or people not a part of the church.
a lot of what they do is out in the open, and you can og to the lds web site for that info. http://www.lds.org/
but what they dont talk about openly is held sacrid to them as things passed down to them from god.
if you are not a part of the church then it is not passed down for you.
as for the rest, a lot of things have been said about the church and its members for years.
i was baptised a member about 8 years ago so i know.
i-m me and i tlk about it.

Answer 9

Seeing as how your question is vague, you have to expect vague answers in reply.
Regarding abuse and scandal, yep, it happens with us too. We're not perfect people, and we're not guaranteed to get into heaven unless we follow God's commandments. (In fact, it's a bit more difficult, because we have more commandments than most Christians, because of the additional scriptures.)
Scandals and abuse happen when people get selfish. As a church, we're not happy with it, because it's damaging to our efforts to be a good example of Christ's gospel.
As for being excluded, you need to be more specific. Were you excluded from a picnic/softball game, or from a sacred ordinance in one of our temples? Hopefully you can understand those activities aren't in the same category.

Answer 10

the mormon church thinks they are betetr than everyone else who is not mormon. and yes the scandals you hear about the church are true. there is a sect that splintered off that still practices bigamy, (multiple wives) and many other past traditions the LDS church has dropped.

Answer 11

You will find that is not Just slander against the Morman church.