A recent column by prominent LDS writer Orson Scott Card (known best by us non-Mormons as an outstanding sci-fi writer) identifies “feminism, environmentalism, gay activism and militant atheism” as having enormous influence on our culture. While most conservative Christians would agree with that point, they probably won”‘t appreciate his analogy of comparing them to Puritans.
Written in an LDS publication, the column identifies the Puritans as getting rid of fun holidays and entertainment, and imposing their minority wishes on everyone around them: a caricature that certainly wouldn”‘t be appreciated by those who hundreds of years later still treasure the writings of Puritans Jonathan Edwards, John Milton, John Bunyon, and others. (I read quotations from these men and many others almost daily in my readings from Spurgeon”‘s Treasury of David.)
Why would comparing militant atheists to Puritans “play” well in Mormondom? It”‘s because of the LDS assumption that “all their creeds were an abomination,” and that everyone who adhered to their teachings were “corrupt.”
Two millennia of great Christian thinkers, dismissed as corrupt! No wonder Mormons would nod along with Orson Scott Card. And this is not the teachings of old, discredited prophets. It”‘s right in the most-read section of LDS “scripture,” the Pearl of Great Price (Joseph Smith History 1:19.)
Amazing.
