LATTER DAY SAINTS: SEPARATING TRUTH FROM HEARSAY

One of the goals of the Godspeed Institute is to foster religious tolerance through education of our neighbors' actual beliefs, rather than hearsay. We believe that hatred is quelled when people stop listening to inflammatory reports about religion and begin listening to each other. We know how partial and misinterpreted beliefs can be conveyed and misused in the world; imagine what takes place when misinformation travels worldwide instantly by high speed Internet. Scott Gordon has served as a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon), holds an MBA from Brigham Young University, and serves as president of the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, or FAIR, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of Mormon doctrine, belief and practice. FAIR is staffed completely by students of the scriptures, ancient languages, early Christian history, early LDS history and doctrine. The team at FAIR has been involved in online services and Internet-based LDS apologetics for many years, and in this hour we explore why.

 

Topics include: the development of FAIR and what the organization does; how it developed in response to misinformation and online attacks about LDS; the most common misconceptions of the Mormon faith; the most common attacks that FAIR staff encounter; how Mormons were persecuted in America; how Gordon can relate to other faiths that have been misconstrued, including Islam since 9/11; the origin of the Mormon faith – how Jesus Christ appeared in more places in the world following the resurrection, specifically his visit to the indigenous peoples of central America; how LDS has helped restore early Christian beliefs that were lost; LDS missionaries; how the concept and event of revelation does not end; and much more.