Why Attend?

A pagan friend of mine asked me tonight, "Why do you attend the Mormon Church if you don't believe the same things they do?"

To explain this all too frequent phenomena (frequent meaning that I am not alone in this position), the initial answer I gave was essentially this:

• Because I need the Priesthood Authority, and the Church has it.
• Because I need the Temple Endowment and Ordinances, and the Church has them.

The rest, I tolerate.

Afterward, upon more deliberate consideration of the hard question, and fearing its weighty implications, I determined to re-examine the situation and give it a more complete treatment.

The powerful thing I forgot to express is that God is not done with this Church as a useful vessel. There will come a time when an outpouring of light and revelation occurs and it will be necessary for people of my sort of mind to be present to receive it.

I have faith and hope in a Reformation occuring within the Church, a return to our Restoration roots. Our doctrines are not so far gone as to be lost -- they are merely being hidden away at this time, out of the gazing eyes of the saints. In fact, they are sitting out in the public eye instead. If the Devil has infiltrated the Church to such a degree that missionary work is more effectively performed by Anti-Mormons and Secular histories, then so be it. At least secular histories have no bias and nothing to prove -- perhaps this type of convert will receive a purer portion of the Gospel than has been had in a good long while.