The White Man's Burden: A Look Back at a Catholic/Protestant Debate

James White loves to argue. He’s a Fundamentalist [Calvinist] who runs an anti-Catholic ministry, so you’d expect him to be no stranger to controversy, but his appetite for in-your-face confrontation goes way beyond typical anti-Catholic zealotry.

Alpha & Omega Ministries, the organization White runs, has carved a modest niche for itself in the Fundamentalist countercult marketplace, producing tracts and tapes attacking Oneness Pentecostals,

Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and, of course, Catholics. He and his followers pride themselves on their adversarial methods of witnessing to “cultists.”

At least once yearly, White and his friends descend on Salt Lake City during the Mormon Church’s biannual

General Conference. Armed with anti-Mormon tracts, they station themselves at each entrance to

Temple Square and hand out literature telling Mormons why they are going to hell. But leafleting is one of

the tamer methods White employs in preaching his gospel. . . . (continue reading)

Why Mormons Don't Like the Cross

Ever since I began engaging in apologetics with Mormons, back in the 1980s, their skittishness about and rejection of the cross, as a symbol of Christ and His atoning sacrifice, has always seemed odd to me.  After all, St. Paul himself proclaimed to scoffers, "We preach Christ crucified" and "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Cor. 1:23, 2:2).

The rationale I've heard from many Mormons for their aversion to the cross as a Christian symbol has included rejoinders such as, "We don't use them because that's a Catholic thing," and, "Why would I want to see a reminder of the thing that killed Jesus? That's morbid!" The fomer president of the Mormon Church, Gordon B. Hinkley, had this to say: For us [Mormons], the cross is the symbol of the dying Christ, while our message is a declaration of the Living Christ.”

One Mormon missionary who, along with several LDS confreres, attended one of my parish seminars on Mormonism some years ago, told me in all earnestness, "We don't use crosses because Jesus died on a cross. If your brother were murdered with a knife, you wouldn't hang a little knife on chain around your neck, would you?" I told him that this was precisely the point. "What happened on the cross is, in itself, the reason we Catholics display the cross," I said. "The most important event in history took place on the wood of the cross at Golgotha, upon which Christ suffered and died for our salvation."

I could see from the look on his face that that Mormon missionary didn't accept my reasoning.

In a future post on this blog, I'll supply a précis of the Catholic reasons for venerating the cross, whether it be a crucifix (i.e., with the corpus of the Lord affixed) or an empty cross. But for the moment, I think the primary reason, at least from the explanations given by Mormons I've discussed this subject with over the years, is that the cross of Christ is inextricably identified in their minds with the Catholic Church. Until recently, the Mormon Church has been up front in its opinion that the Catholic Church is nothing other than the "counterfeit" church which, Mormons say, arose out of the maelstrom of syncretism, corruption, and heresy which occurred when Christ allegedly withdrew the "keys of authority" from the Church He had established, thus  (c.f., Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1979 ed.], 42-46, 172-174, 712, James E. Talmage, The Great Apostasy [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1968], 130 ff.; and Hugh Nibley, Mormonism and Early Christianity [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1987], 282-288).

In any case, in light of the above, here's an interesting blog piece about Mormons and the cross and why they eschew it. 

Mormonism Goes Airborne

Most likely, this new radio initiative has been planned by the Mormon Church for a long time — they are known to be meticulous planners, after all — but the announcement from LDS Church headquarters in Salt Lake City about its imminent launch of a 24/7 religious radio station comes at an interesting time.

Just last week, the rapidly expanding Immaculate Heart Radio Network of Catholic stations (22 and counting) announced that it has just closed the sale of a new 50,000-watt AM radio station that will blanket all of Utah with 24/7 Catholic programming. It is scheduled to commence broadcasting by mid-summer.

Logistically, the most significant difference between the Mormon and Catholic stations would seem to be, at least for now, that the former can be heard only via the Internet and on select High-Definition radio stations, while the latter, Immaculate Heart Radio, will be booming out across Mormon Country 365 days a year on a powerful AM signal that anyone can hear via radio practically anywhere in the state, plus it will also be streamed on the Internet and made available in podcast form.

The Mormons send us their missionaries on bikes. We send them Father Corapi, Bishop Fulton Sheen, and Catholic Answers on their radios. Sounds like a good arrangement to me.

SALT LAKE CITY 18 May 2009 Mormon Channel, a new radio service of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, launches 18 May and can be accessed via the Internet or HD radio affiliates. The newly created 24-hour, 7-days a-week format is available live online at http://radio.lds.org, but content may also be downloaded.

Broadcasts originate at Temple Square in Salt Lake City and feature a vast and varied array of programming, according to Chris Twitty, director of digital media for the Church.

“We have the responsibility to extend the messages of the Church in yet another way with the new station,” Twitty added. “We have access to all the resources of the Church in creating program content. Though it seems a daunting task to fill the airtime, we have a wealth of information that will be of interest to listeners — much of it new and never before heard or seen.”

Personal interviews with Church leaders are included in a program titled Conversations . In the initial episode, Deseret Book head, Sheri Dew, interviews Elder David A. Bednar and his wife, Susan.

Other program content includes informational packages about the ministry and teachings of Jesus Christ and the doctrines, history and news of the Church. Several planned segments focus directly on young children and teenagers.

A unique program, Into All the World , spotlights the lives of Church members in many parts of the world. “The first interview, for example, invited the stake president in Rome, Italy, to profile the members of his stake and to document their responses to the announcement that a temple will be constructed in their city,”

Additional content includes Music and the Spoken Word, the weekly radio broadcast featuring the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, as well as other choir concerts and events. Further input comes from Brigham Young University, LDS Business College, the University of Utah institute of religion, the Deseret News and Bonneville Productions.

“We’re deeply pleased,” said Bob Johnson, Bonneville International executive vice president and Salt Lake market manager, “to offer Bonneville’s broadcasting resources and industry reputation to further extend the reach and impact of Mormon Channel, a high-quality, values-oriented new product. Through our 29 radio stations in eight major markets coast to coast, we look forward to utilizing the unequalled qualities and capabilities inherent in HD radio technology to share the unique Mormon Channel content with our ever-expanding listening audiences." (Source)

The White Man's Burden

Are you interested in Catholic / Protestant debates and discussions on central theological issues, such as the authority of Sacred Scripture? If so, you'll likely enjoy listening to this classic debate on sola scriptura I did with a certain Protestant apologist back in 1993.

A lot of folks (several thousand, in fact) have listened to the recording of this debate over the years with great profit. You can download it instantly as an MP3 file here. And, of course, it's also available as a 2-disc CD set.

You might also want to check out “The White Man's Burden,” a follow-up article I wrote, discussing this debate, in This Rock Magazine, shortly afterward.

And if you're interested in exploring my other public debates with Protestant ministers, Mormon spokesmen, and others, you'll find many of them here. Enjoy.