I've wondered why, in my experience, there appears to be such a remarkable lack of genuine curiosity in so many people about the religious faith of others? When it comes to understanding the religious beliefs of others, many of us apparently have a sound bite understanding -- we settle for a simplified, often sensationalized view of others, much like how we get so much of our views about news from sound bites on network television, because we're too busy or distracted or uninterested, or whatever, to delve deeper.
But when it comes to the religion of others, this has been proven to be a very dangerous thing. When large segments of a population have accepted sound bites and distorted caricatures as reality regarding a particular religious or ethnic group in their society, it has led to persecution, genocide, and extermination on varying scales throughout history, from hundreds to millions. Mormons and Native Americans in the 19th century, Jews in WWII (and throughout their history),
Why do so many Christians, people how profess to believe in Jesus Christ, refuse to evaluate the Book of Mormon on its merits? There seems to be a tremendous lack of curiosity in a book that claims to be a faithful testament of Jesus Christ, that validates the Bible as the word of God, and that testifies of His divinity and mission as the Son of God?
Is it because they think they already know? Perhaps they're simply prejudiced from what they've heard from pastors or others.
Over dinner, I recently asked two cousins of mine-- Linda, a Southern Baptist, and Bill, an Evangelical-- why so few Christians are willing to evaluate the Book of Mormon on it's own merits, rather than listening to what others think of it. My evangelical cousin responded "Because of ignorance I suppose. I myself have not read the source documents." We had a lengthy conversation about our belief in Jesus Christ as the savior and redeemer, and the absolute need for the atonement and repentance, the restoration of the gospel after long centuries of apostasy etc. He admitted that he had been mistaken about our beliefs. I later handed him a copy of the Book of Mormon, and said "here's the source document. I invite you to read it."
My sweet baptist cousin Linda said her husband Kevin had a Book of Mormon and enjoyed talking to the missionaries. I asked her what she knew herself about the Mormons. She said, as closely as I can recall "well, I know that we have Jesus, and you all have Joseph Smith." Uhhh, that's not quite right, my dear.
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