Is the Mormon church the new Catholic church?
First of all, the LDS Church has amassed wealth today like the Catholic church did in its medieval hey-day. The LDS Church, by several reports, currently holds upwards of $100 billion in unspent tithing assets. The medieval church taxed (tithed) the populations of European nations so exhaustively that kings of nations protested they couldn’t get enough revenue to run their own countries. Utah tax coffers suffer this way too.
Like the Catholic church, the LDS Church claims an uninterrupted descent of religious authority from Jesus Christ to their own present-day leader.
The LDS Church operates in a steeply hierarchical, Catholic, papal-style mode of church government, much like monarchy operates in the secular government world.
The LDS Church builds magnificent temples (167 in current operation) like the Catholic system of monumental cathedrals (some 193).
Mormons operate on a works-based, sacraments-based system of salvation. Following the church program/commandments and participating in church sacraments/ordinances produces salvation/spiritual elevation, rather than the born-again, belief- or faith-based system of Protestantism.
Mormons want to spread their wings over all the earth by means of evangelism, imposing an organization and theological orthodoxy that precludes much variety and may even threaten religious freedom, at least within its own ranks. The Catholic church operated the same way in medieval times.
Mormons want to be mainstream in America like Catholics the world over. It seems they have arrived.
Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross
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