Mormons vs. Jehovah's Witnesses

by Downtowner 24 Replies latest jw friends

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  Downtowner

  Forgive me if this has been covered before but I haven't seen anything about it recently.

  In exploring the two faiths, Mormons vs. Jehovah's Witnesses, which were both founded in the 1800s with the Mormons being slightly a slightly older religion it seems Mormons is a more attractive religion than Jehovah's Witnesses.

  Do not get me wrong, I'm not looking at joining the Mormon church. But I still enjoy studying other faiths and different belief systems. The Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses seem to parallel in some aspects but differ on their doctrines.

  Compare the magazines. The LDS church publishes four monthly magazines: The two main magazines, Liahona and Ensign average 84 pages (Special issues even more), a magazine for church youth called New Era with about 54 pages, and a magazine for children called Friend with about 52 pages. The magazines are actual magazine size on quality magazine paper.

  Compare with Jehovah's Witnesses. The Watchtower Study Edition 32 pages monthly. The Watchtower 16 pages bi-monthly, and Awake 16 pages bi-monthly. The magazines are smaller on thinner paper. The layout of the magazines reminds me more of the LDS youth and childrens' magazines layout.

  The Mormons encourage getting an education so you can support your family and the church, encourage a mission of no more than two years, were first to start home family worship, encourage members to include those of other faiths and befriend them.

  Yes the Mormons practice excommunication, but unlike Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons do not have a church doctrine of shunning. I spoke to a missionary once asking their policy on excommunicated members. They said they still speak to them, encourage them, study with them. Quite the opposite of Jehovah's Witnesses.

  When listening to Jehovah's Witnesses talks it seems they all hing around Armageddon, shunning those who are disfellowshipped or disassociated, do not associate with non-Witnesses even family members, study articles why they should follow the governing body and trust them even if they don't agree, study articles on how Jehovah's Witnesses have the truth and how other religions do not. Making every prophecy in the Bible about them.

  From the few Mormon sermons I've heard they do teach to follow the apostles to a degree but not as bad as the JW's do the governing body. The Mormon sermons seem more to teach love, follow Christ and God, study the scriptures, help those in need, even if they are not members. Reach out to non-members, etc.

  I even find the Lds.org and Mormon.org websites more attractive than the simplified jw.org site. It's almost like two groups... the educated and non-educated. I'm sure you can figure out which religion falls in what category.

  Well that's my thoughts for the day.
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  Downtowner

  Oh yes I almost forgot to mention... go to Mormon.org in the search box type "Jehovah's Witness" and you'll see testimonies of Mormons who mention they use to be Jehovah's Witnesses. Very interesting read.
• 

  the girl next door

  Well, this should be interesting. I'm in a lot of cult exit groups and interact regularly with former CoLDS members. Not sure how many might be in this group but I'm sure there will be plenty to discuss. To begin with, what is the point in comparing which cult is better? Both practice behavior, information, thinking and emotional control. Screw them both.
• 

  the truth is mine

  Much of my extended family belong to the LDS religion while my immediate family are all JWs (except me who is an ex JW and current atheist).

  A few other details about Mormons. They tithe and if you do not give your 10% you are excluded from their sacred communion and all church assistance. They exclude nonbelievers from weddings which are held in their temples. They also have very strange temple rituals that are supposed to be kept secret among believers with temple recamends. They believe in laying on of hands and blessings for the weak, spiritually ill and the actual sick. They really credit blessings for healing. They are also very prejudice. Many of the diehards still believe the teaching about native Americans that as they gaine gods blessings they become white and delight-some. After they started to allow blacks into their priesthood in the 70s they amended their holy books to say pure and delight-some. They hate gays and are very vocal about it. They also have a confession system that while it does not involve Disfellowshiping, it does involve confession and atonement. Bishops (kind of like elders) will hear the confessions of young teens and ask very intrusive questions such as if they masturbate or if they have been involved in any kind of sexual activity. Their view on sex is extremely conservative maybe even more so then witnesses. They don't believe in using any type of birth control and if you do not get married after you return from a mission (for men) or before you finish college (for women) you are looked down on and will not get callings in the church. Couple are expected to start having babies almost immediately.

  :Those are just a few of the details about the Mormons that I can think of right now. Some do mirror Witnesses so are way different but they are both cults who want to control.

  One of the Governing body a few years ago was a Mormon previously or had close Mormon ties. I think it was Swingle. I met some of his extended family and was involved in a Judicial Meeting with one of them. My wife and I sometimes joke that he influenced a lot of the similarities. While he was dead by the time Family Worship began that is almost a total ripoff of the Mormon Family Home Evening.
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  smiddy

  There are many so called Christian religions that sprang up in the 1800`s , just to mention a few ,Christian Science , Seventh Day Adventist , 2nd Adventists ,Christadelphian`s , Assembly Of God , etc.etc.as I said there are heaps more , most of them dealing with the End Times , very similar to J.W.s pre-occupation with The big " A"

  AOG as they were then called had a free magazine that was superior in quality and content to the WT magazine which I stumbled upon in the 1950`s that had similar beliefs to the J.W.`s called " The Plain Truth"

  As the girl next door says whats the point of comparing one with the other ? They are all Cults based on a fantasy , in my opinion .

  smiddy
• 

  SecretSlaveClass

  It makes more sense comparing your turds - at least that can serve as a health benefit.
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  Witness 007

  Joesph Smith was given a book by angels....then they took it back. Jesus came to the USA and American indians are jewish.....lol religion!!
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  SecretSlaveClass

  Witness007:

  Actually the angel Moroni never took the gold tablets back. He instructed JS to bury them and to this day they have not been found despite the area in which they were supposedly burried being heavily excavated for housing and businesses. And all those so-called "kingdoms" which existed in the US as claimed in the BOM - not one trace ever found of them despite repeated archeological efforts.

  As for the stories in the BOM - if you thought the bible had nonsensical stories they don't hold a candle to the BOM. The only book Ive ever laughed harder at was perhaps a Douglas Adams book.

  It astounds me how people can swallow such illogical BS.
• 

  Simon

  It's worth comparing them because many think their beliefs are unique and what make them "the one true faith".

  Members don't realize that they are not and that they only exist because of schisms, splits and breakaways from other groups.
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  LisaRose

  The culture is very similar, a cult is a cult. They offer a few benefits that the JWs don't, they don't discourage higher education for one thing, but then they don't allow alcohol or coffee and they make you wear ugly underwear with symbols on them. When I was a JW I used to think they were so weird, and I couldn't understand how anyone could believe such nonsense, now I realize they are just different flavors of crazy, I am sure the Mormons think the same of the JWs.

  My daughter in law is a former Mormon, she was on a mission when she realized she didn't believe in what she was teaching people. I have to say her parents are far more tolerant that the typical JW parent would be about it. Our granddaughter is getting baptized in the UCC church and her parents are flying across the country to attend, I can't imagine any JW parent doing that.