Are you an "anti-Mormon"? Do you really hate Mormons?
Rob Sivulka dialoguing with Mormons at the 2006 Manti Pageant
Just because people may disagree with one another is no reason to think that they hate each other. I have no hate for LDS people. I love LDS people, and I've dedicated my life to saving them from hell. (Yes, ultimately Christ is the one who does that.) I have left all my family, and many friends, to move to Utah in 1996 so that I can bring the light of Christ to such a dark state. I have married a former Mormon whose family is basically all LDS, and I certainly love them.
Now some might say that I have a funny way of showing love to LDS by preaching to them off the street in the way that I do. But this is just myopic. That is one aspect of my life. There are other aspects in which I love LDS in other ways (e.g., praying for them, taking them out for meals and simply listening to them, preparing information for interested LDS to obtain on my web site, etc.). Nonetheless, the ministry I do for them off the street is a way to love them whether they perceive that or not. If love always has to do with the way it is perceived, then parents would always hate their children when they are disciplined. Awakening people in the middle of the night would always be for the moment an act of hate, even if the intention were to save them from the imminent danger of a fire. My intention is to save LDS from their burning homes. Even though I understand when people get so upset at me for doing what I do, what is primary for me is saving them. Worrying about how they feel is only of secondary importance.
As for the label "anti-Mormon," too often this acts as a triggering mechanism for LDS to simply write me off without having to really weigh what I say. Further, the term really is not very precise. I'm not against Mormons. I'm against what they believe that runs counter to the truth. So perhaps "anti-Mormonism" would be more apt. But on the other hand, I really don't like to be caricatured as being against something so much as being for something. It's too constricting to label me in terms of what I'm against. The pro-life movement doesn't like being labeled "anti-choice," for example. I am "pro-Christ." As a result, this entails that certain things, including Mormonism, stand against Christ.
Now of course, LDS will say that they are for Christ; they are called "The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints" (emphasis added) after all. But this simply leads us to examine whether the LDS really believe in the right Christ or not. We need to keep in mind that Jesus did warn us of "false Christs" (Matthew 24:24). It is because I love LDS that I am trying to persuade them to drop their weak Christ by accepting a more powerful Christ (actually, the most powerful Christ imaginable).
R. M. Sivulka
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