Heart of the Matter: Sparrows in the Room

From the Mecca of Mormonism – SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

This is Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology.! Show 16 – Sparrows in the Room, April 8th 2008

And I’m Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion., your host.

Invitation to Join Worship

Want to extend an invitation to you – especially if you have been LDS and now feel burned by God – Go to Church. This week. Pick yourself out of bed and go to a Christian Church. Now, if you're looking for a church – and I suggest you shop around – we invite you to visit LORD’S WORD. Meet every Sunday morning at The Gateway movie theaters downtown at 9:15am. We also meet Sunday evenings at the University of Utah from 7-8pm. All are welcome. All. We sing, pray, and teach the word verse by verseTGNN’s Bible teaching series—book-by-book, through the lens of fulfillment and spiritual liberty.. We’re done in an hour. We have people to care for the kids and the teens (if they so desire). Low key, no membership stuff, just Worship, prayer and the Word of God. Do not leave your home church for us, but if you are not attending a church on Sundays, get off yer butt and come on down.

Book Update and Feedback

I WAS A BORN-AGAIN MORMON

(INSERT BOOK SHOT)

Available at: Oasis Books in Logan, Sam Weller’s in SLC, Utah Lighthouse Ministry in SLC, Christian Gift and Bible in Sandy, The Salt Lake City Library, Calvary Chapel SLC Bookstore, Christ Evangelical Bookstore in Orem, Gift of Grace Christian Supply in Springville. Hey, it’s a pretty good book – especially if you want to know more about the Lord and rebirth as a Latter-day Saint or if you are Christian and are looking for a fair representation of what it is like being LDS. Always order online at www.bornagainmormon.com.

Now, my friend Jay Larsen, down in apathy Valley, asked the Provo library to offer the book to the public. He received this back from the Carla Zollinger, the reference manager who said that they were not going to offer the book based solely on a review they read online about it. The review was written, believe it or not, by a fellow Christian who took seven single spaced pages to lambaste the book's content. Mrs. Zollinger stated that the reason the library rejected carrying our book, however was not based on content, but was on the reviewer saying that the book had no page numbers and lots of typos and grammatical errors, which the reviewer said, “may make it difficult for the serious reader to consider McCraney’s unique views.” I want to say publicly here on the air that we have provided a second edition version of the book so the (ahem) serious reader would be able to consider my unique views. I wish the Provo librarians would have requested one from us.

Insights and Anecdotes

Hey, I hope you will all forgive me for the April fools joke last week. We’ve received no small amount of response for the dastardly trick – the most humorous (and sad) from a young woman who burst out into tears and ran screaming through the house that they had gotten to me. We also had an 85-year-old woman tell me she grasped her chest certain that it was the big one. It won’t happen again – at least for another seven years. 🙂

Speech and Influence

A number of you contacted us about my commenting on the lulling LDS speak we hear at conferences and from other Mormon pulpits. Grandpa Al told me all groups centered on controlling their members use speech modification. Lanna wrote and said:

(READ 2)

I think she and Al are onto something there.

Freemason Article (see #3)

One of the first things President Monson has done as president of the LDS Church is to accept a meeting with Affirmation, a gay Mormon support group.

(see #4)

Current Events and Reflections

Let’s PRAY PRAY PRAY

If you have watched the show long enough you may have heard me say that “a good teacher will, when they set out to teach math and a sparrow flies in the room, drop the math book, and teaches about sparrows.” Well, I want to try and be a good teacher.

I had an entire show written last Friday continuing our discussion about the LDS Script – ACT II. But all week long I was being bombarded by one sparrow after another. By this morning, I couldn’t ignore them any longer. And so we will speak next week – God willing – on Act Two of the LDS Script and this week, let’s talk about the sparrows.

Last weekend was the 178th Annual General Conference for the LDS Church. Thomas S. Monson was sustained as prophet, seer and revelator of the Church. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Monson “invited the less active, the offended, the critical, the transgressor,” to come.

Examination of Church Acceptance

back and “feast at the table of the Lord and taste again the sweet and satisfying fruits of fellowship with the Saints.”

It is one thing to say this, President Monson. I mean it sounds nice and everything – like something Jesus would say. But do you really want this to occur? Do your members really want those people who are less active, offended, critical and sinful to come back? I would have to say, from everything I see and hear, that no, you wouldn’t want us all back. Why? Because you never really wanted us in the first place.

Last night we had a TRAVELING PASTOR in American Fork. We had a wonderful time meeting with people who appreciate the show. Thank you all for coming out. I met with a young woman and her husband and little girls. She told me that both her parents were alcoholics when she was a child growing up here in Utah and they were all members of the Church. She said, “I was only a little girl. And I really liked going to church and everything.” One day she turned from everything “GOD” when the Bishop took her aside and told her out of nowhere that she and her family were not “worthy to be members of the church.” She expressed to me how she was just “this young girl with all sorts of family problems” who really needed help at this time in her life but only found herself personally rejected by this heartless attitude.

Community and Exclusion

Why would this attitude exist, President Monson? Why would this attitude exist, President Monson? I sat with a family whose children attend public school in a predominately LDS community not far south from here. In this community, the high school seminary teacher somehow has been allowed to run the activities of the kids. He thought it would be a righteous thing to print a list of LDS kids who are not attending seminary – and then he distributed them to the students at large!

You should have seen this sweet kid sitting there, trying to explain what it’s like attending this school. When Gordon B. Hinckley died the seminary teacher led a “wear your Sunday best to school in his honor.” Text messages passed it along. Naturally, this left five kids wandering around school for the next three days as total outcasts – and the recipients of all the other kid’s condemnation still today. Our heart goes out to you kids who face this junk every day in this state. You have got it tough. May God strengthen you and bless you as you walk this difficult road. But you’re not alone. This sschnit happens at every age. I met a woman last night who was told by her LDS city official that her legitimate business services were not “wanted” in the predominately LDS community that she recently moved into. She has repeatedly been pestered and antagonized by the civic offices of this LDS hometown.

“Come back and feast at the table,” President Monson? Could a man who loves God but smells of tobacco “come back and be welcomed at the feast, President Monson?” How about a family of six – the wife working at the Piggly Wiggly and the husband a security guard with a taste for coffee? Could he “come back” to say, the Capitol Hill ward here in Salt Lake City, President Monson? How do your wards and stakes accept – and I mean love and accept – unwed mothers, tattooed bad-boys, or unemployed men with mental illness and a few divorces under their belt “taste again the sweet and satisfying fruits of fellowship with the saints?” What about people who are just different? People who dress funny? Think differently? Walk a different walk? Are they welcomed?

Doctrinal Influence

Why do the stories like I heard last night flow into my inbox week-end and out, President Monson? I want to tell you why, right here and now: It is because of your doctrines, President Monson. It’s the direct result of “non-Christian doctrines” flowing through the unregenerated hearts of the people who call themselves active. All of your General Conference speeches to your members about treating people of other faiths and beliefs and differences with love don’t mean schnit if your doctrines are going to remain as they are. Lead them to Jesus, President Monson. Lead them to Jesus and Jesus alone. Because it is only through Him that your members will truly be able to love others. It is only when they see themselves as SINNERS – vile, selfish, self-centered,

Critique of Mormon Doctrine and Leadership

ego-centric sinners – that they will, in turn, be able to look on others (beat) with His love. Until then, these utopian speeches of “treating everyone of different faiths with love” and “coming back to feast” are like a pagan reading the words of Jesus into a Pharisee’s ears. Your people, president Monson, have come to believe that they are somehow worthy and justified to God by virtue of their own righteousness. Your doctrines have made them believe that they are going to be God’s someday. Your leaders taught just last week that you are the ONLY TRUE AND LIVING CHURCH ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH president Monson. And you think with doctrines and positions like this your people are going to love people who are down and out and struggling?

ONLY Jesus can do it. Not Mormonism. Not activity. Not your tele-prompted speeches. Only Jesus. Tell them that, President Monson. Tell them to fall broken before Jesus, to repent of their piety, to see themselves for who they really are – and then ask the critics, and the sinners, and the insulted back.

The Rising Ideological War

And the soapbox remains . . .

My friends, I want you to know that we are standing on the field of an immanent ideological war. The LDS Church of today is beginning to take up arms and we are going to see a more militant attitude among the members and leaders alike. On the top end – Apostles like Ballard, Holland, and Nielson – are presenting one side of the front.

Listen to their speeches of late. They are fighting strongly for legitimacy while at the same time demanding respect for tainted views they insist are true and living Christianity. These men are not dumb. They will use whatever means necessary to sway the membership and convince the masses that they are innocent of wrongdoing and benign in their beliefs. At another level, they are allowing non-official defenders of the faith to meet and greet with the masses, so as to spin the traditional LDS stance and make it seem more Christian.

Men like BYU professor Bob Millet are allowed – and are even financially underwritten by LDS money – to step into Christian churches and present their own subjective faith as valid Mormon doctrine. These presentations are duplicitous and often at odds with official Mormon doctrine, teachings, and practice. Why would the leadership allow this? To muddy the waters. To offer spin. And to get the unlearned and trusting to embrace Mormonism as a legitimate arm of Christianity.

Additionally, we will more and more see Mormonism pulling the bigotry card. They will cry hate-speech as much or more than any group seeking to dominate and find legitimacy in religious realms. A recent article in the LA Times is titled “US Muslim and Mormons share deepening Ties” is a must read for anyone interested in this rising tide. There is only one defense, my friends from this prophesied and modern-day onslaught of man–doctrine wrapped tightly in the American flag- the Word of God. Read it, study it, and hear it taught. Predatory groups have always relied on people being ignorant of God’s Word. LDS missionaries will spend no time with anyone who knows the Bible. They will move on to the next door. Teach yourself, teach your children.

Film Script Paradigm

Now last week we introduced a paradigm or model screenwriters often use to help format their scripts for films. The three act script paradigm looks something like this:

  ACT 1         ACT 2       ACT 3
    Set up               Conflict           Resolution

I—————I————–I————–I

We then explained that in ACT I, or the “set up” act, everything necessary to “support” the film was presented. We announced we were going to outline a hypothetical script for a film called “Twistianity” in which the major doctrinal themes and scenes from Mormonism would be presented.

Mormonism's Claims of Christianity

Now before we progress using the paradigm, I have to say just one more thing. If Mormonism today were not claiming to be “Christian,” or the only “true Church on earth,” or didn’t present themselves as “true believers of the Bible,” I would not be doing this show. Really. In fact, I’ll make a deal with the LDS leadership right now –

If President Monson publicly states that Mormonism is not Christian I will stop the show. Deal? You notice that we don’t attack Muslims or Islam, right? The

Main Topic: Challenging the Claim of Christianity

The reason we leave Islam alone is because Islam doesn’t claim to be Christian. They don’t suck unsuspecting people in with claims of Christianity only to feed them an alternative gospel and bind them in religious laws. Notice that we don’t attack Judaism. Why? They don’t claim to be Christian either. We don’t attack Atheists or pagans or witches because they don’t claim to be Christian.

But we go after the Latter-day Saints because more and more they are making a worldwide media-oriented claim to represent themselves not only as Christian, but as the only true form of Christianity on earth! Adding to this unconscionable front, Mormonism has maligned and besmirched biblical Christianity from the first vision on. Even today, LDS missionaries tell people that God told Joseph Smith that all of Christianity was an abomination and that He was going to restore the truth back to the earth through him! As recently as 1990, LDS temple films depicted Protestant Ministers as employed by Satan. And we’re the ones – here on the show – that are being labeled as religious bigots! Why?

The Claim of Mormonism

We don’t claim any one Christian denomination is better than another. We teach relationship over religion. We truly allow all men to worship how and what they may – the Jews, the Muslims, and eastern religions. But when it comes to our position with Mormonism, we merely pose evidence as to why Mormonism is NOT Christian and why they have no right under God’s universe to lay claim to the title. Does Mormonism have a right to exist? Absolutely. Should a member of the LDS Church ever be persecuted or attacked for their respective doctrines? Never, ever.

Let them believe that “God is a polygamous man glorified” for all I care. Let them believe there are sins that can’t be forgiven, that they will become gods, or that Joseph Smith was a prophet or that Jesus is their elder brother and that they are earning their salvation. But no Christian would ever allow you to say that this stuff is biblical or that it is Christian. And when you do, every single Bible-believing Christian should stand up and reject each and every non-Christian claim you make. This is not religious bigotry or hate speech. It’s defining and defending our sacred turf which they are deceptively impinging upon and claiming as their own! Turf where millions of men, women, and children have given their lives to defend.

Listen, if a man snuck into the United States from, say, Russia, and then claimed to be an American Citizen, our own government would stand up and say, “No, you’re not an American. You’re a Russian and you have no right to make this claim.” Would you say the government is bigoted because of their stance? I would hope not. All they are stating is fact. If a person from Russia wanted to become an American Citizen, that is entirely possible. But they would have to take some oaths and recite specific beliefs and agreements to become such. He could not state, “I will live in the US but serve Russia” at his _______________ to become an American citizen. But you all seem to think that a Mormonism can claim to be Christian while at the same time claiming to worship an altogether different God!

The Past Offenses and Views of LDS

What makes this situation even more troubling is the offensive things the LDS church has said in the past (and continues to suggest in the present) against the Body of Christ – against those who have embraced biblical Christianity! And have they ever apologized for saying these things? Never. WHY? Because they consider themselves “spiritually superior” to all of Christianity.

There’s a YouTube clip available online where BYU professor and LDS public relations man Bob Millet says before a class of Brigham Young University students that “they know more about Jesus Christ by virtue of their membership in the Church than all the religious professors of the day.” Let me remind you of some of the other things that the LDS have said about Christianity.

Alright? So are we fighting a fair fight here on the show? Regardless of your position, I hope you can see why we think we are. I hope it is apparent that we are fighting for our turf – just like Mormons fight for theirs.

(Graphic)

(check this quote out)

All right, let’s go to the phones

801 973-tv20
801 973-8820

Hey, go to www.bornagainmormon.com for more information about our ministry, to watch our shows, and to find other information that may be helpful to you.