Understanding the Heart of the Matter

Live from Salt Lake City, Utah, this is Heart of the Matter where we do all we can to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. I’m Shawn McCraney, your host.

Reflections on a Meeting

Our meeting with Joey Scoma last week stirred some things up in our viewers and caused several of you to comment. One individual, my friend and brother in ministry, brother Warren Puckett, who has his own show called Breaking Bread (which is available here on the Heart of the Matter internetwork) …

(SHOW GRAPHIC FOR BREAKING BREAD HERE PLEASE)

… called me for a sit down. Both Warren and I are former active LDS men who have some real heartburn for the institution called Mormonism (and those who lead it) but also for religious institutions as a whole. Well Warren showed up loaded for bear, and gave me a piece of what was on his mind. I was so impressed with the content I’ve asked Warren to take a few minutes and make his case before you all tonight. Brother Warren.

WARREN’S PRESENTATION HERE.

Encountering Joey

Last week… Prior to walking into the studio/church I had intended a full attack on our guest Joey the Reincarnated Joseph Smith. Notes prepared … scathing accusations ready. It had been a while since I wanted to unleash on someone and in my preparation for the show I thought, “I can take people who have been tricked by Smith and all he left behind but to suffer fools who pretend to actually BE him … no … that’s just taking things too far. Joey is just another ________________.

But listening to him I couldn’t do it. Anymore than I could punch a disabled person in the face. In essence, Joey (and his condition) broke my heart and I not only empathized with his emotional and psychological plight, I realized that he was sincere and in need of the King.

In this ministry, we meet “Joey’s” every single week – only they all dance a little bit of a different step. Some are spouses who have come to know the truth about Mormonism while their mates remain dedicated to the faith. They are watching their world crumble in around them. Some are parents who have raised their children to love Jesus only to have the LDS missionaries (or some love interest) steal them away with the beguiling message of Mormonism 1.0.

We meet returned missionaries who came to the truth on the mission – and speaking out choose a life of alienation and rejection. We have the disabled – the physically and mentally – who rarely find a home in the faith – especially the mentally – and of course we have the sinners – the fornicators, the substance abusers, the homosexuals – they are always on the hit list of Mormonism and other forms of organized religion.

The Aftermath and Reflections

I got a phone call from a man days ago who has come to see what Mormonism is along with his wife partly) but her parents (who live around the block from them) keep taking their kids away on outings only to tell them how true the Church is … and how (if they want to be successful in this life) they need to stay true to the church … and not their own parents. You may not understand this but from where we stand, the stench of Mormonism surrounds us.

I have not changed my views on the religion – at all – but the victims – and my approach to them, has been altered. See, as a foaming Evangelical some ten years ago, I could have sat with Joey last week and forced “my doctrines of Jesus down his throat.” I may have threatened him with hell, and maybe even maligned his admitting to being homosexual. I may have tried to first gain His conformity prior to giving my love. I would have done this because I was as blind as an Evangelical as Mormons are as Mormons.

But Jesus has more fully taken charge of my person and as such we were able to all get a glimpse last week with Joey into what He faced during His ministry – frankly, who He came to save – the lost, the broken, the imprisoned of the world. Here’s the thing, and it’s a point most former “LDS turned Christians” do not want to talk about or admit – the fallout from

The Impact of Religion on Personal Lives

Mormonism in the life and psyche of Joey is just as present in the lives of other people who have been beaten and bruised and manipulated by other faiths. I meet and or read emails from them all the time. All the time.

So Mormonism is not alone in the crime of destroying people in the name of religion. LISTEN clearly – Any religion, that worships ANY God that uses tactics of control, fear, guilt, and manipulation on its people will help create the same dreaded results, to some degree or another, like we’ve seen in Joey.

The Solution: A Direct Relationship with Jesus

This is WHY Jesus alone – subjectively followed and understood is the only solution – not “Jesus plus.” Not “Jesus and . . .” just a direct, living relationship with Jesus – directly through His Spirit which brings all who have it into direct living relationship with the Living God.

There is no . . . Jesus and . . . money; no “Jesus and a certain political party,” or – in the case of my friends who love drugs – it does not mean Jesus AND substances! In other words, it’s just as diluting to mix a relationship with Jesus with drugs as it is to mix Him with tithing, church clothes or Sabbath days.

Get it? To me, anything that tries to sidle up as “a partner” in the direct relationship with Him is “bad religion” – no matter what it is.

A Conversation with Joey

So, inviting Joey back up here tonight, I want to begin on this point with Him: “Is Jesus enough and if not, what else do you believe is necessary in your life to fully experience a true relationship with God?”

Discussion.

The EXPERIMENT????

Offer yourself to God, Joey. Ask Him into your life, to forgive you your sin, to heal you of your ailments and demons. Pray with Joey, on the air, for his deliverance from what holds him bound.

Calls?