Mormonism - An Eastern Religion?

I've had a couple of posts circling in my head over the past week or two. One deals with how conflict is handled in devout Mormon households, and the other involves an excellent video on YouTube about the reasons why many people leave the LDS Faith. But you're going to have to wait for those on another day.

I found myself with a few minutes free this afternoon, and after a rather hectic week at both my day job, and the one I do on the side, I figured I could peruse the internet and see what it had to offer. A blogging colleague of mine made a reference to a group called Sunstone, and so I decided to start there. Sunstone is an interesting organization. I may share more about them in the future.

A month or two back, their blog contained an article about Sex and the LDS Faith. It's something I've mentioned here before, since I think the way in which sex is handled in the LDS Church causes a number of problems. But that isn't the topic of today's post either.

The article that caught my eye first on Sunstone today was one entitled

Mormonism - An Eastern Religion?

You can read the article here. It made for an interesting read, especially since I have personally seen similarities between Mormonism and the Eastern Religions, as well as Mormonism and some of the Traditional Tribal Religions/Traditions in Southern Africa.

There were a couple of things which stood out to me as I read the article, and I thought I might comment on them here. My intention is to share each of these in the context with which they were included in the original article.

...the spirit of Joseph Smith’s declaration that Mormons are interested in all truth, wherever it can be found.

OK, so I got a bit of a chuckle out of this one. Mormons may still teach the acceptance of all truth, but I think you would be hard to find a 'faithful' Mormon who actually takes this to heart. It has been said that if Joseph Smith were to visit Salt Lake City today, he would not recognize the Church which claims him as their founder. Acceptance of all truth and openness to additional idea's would be one of the things missing from the LDS Church. Any discussion about controversial topics will almost always end up with... "Well the prophet said this" or "I refuse to subscribe to your intellectualism"

Along with others, this example illustrates the position of greater spiritual privilege and power given to men in Mahayana Buddhism. This is not to say, of course, that Buddhism has nothing to offer women. On the contrary, I have met with a good number of Buddhist nuns and female lay practitioners in China and have found them extremely devoted to their faith and grateful to be able to take refuge in the Buddha.

The example and discussion previous were about how in Buddhism, men have greater spiritual privilege than women, and are therefore entrusted with more knowledge and power. The last past of the last sentence is the part I take issue with, and I see similar themes in LDS, Muslim and similar religions which require rigid obedience and prescribed methods of dress and behavior.

Are you serious, the religion offers something to women? Really? The option to be servile, keep their mouths shut and do what you tell them to? Religion doesn't offer these women anything, in my opinion it gives them a cause to serve. Just because they have been brainwashed into thinking their divine duty is to serve men and the religion, does not make it right. Something to offer them? I guess is mental slavery is something, then perhaps it does, and I apply this broadly across all the aforementioned religions.

OK - I'll take a minute and calm down... In... Out... In... Out... Moving on.

My sense is not so much that Mormon women really wish to become male in the next existence, but that they are largely uncomfortable with speaking of a Heavenly Mother because very few teachings on this subject exist and because the term “Heavenly Mother” has associations with other “dangerous” things such as feminism, liberalism, and excommunication.

The preceding text speaks of a belief amongst Buddhists that all will have a chance to be reincarnated as men, and thus gain access to the higher blessings. I think you probably already know what I'm thinking after reading that. Of course religions don't want woman to realize their worth... Next thing you know they'll be speaking out against the corruption in the male hierarchy, instead of the men, who stand by quietly, hoping instead that if they keep their noses clean, they too may be chosen by God to ascend the organizations lofty tower.

A recent Ensign article states that when sons and daughters marry and form their own families, “the hierarchy of supervision and control dissolves so that parents and their adult children are on equal footing,”

I literally spent 5 minutes laughing after I read that!! Those of you who know me, may know why! This dove-tails with the posting I'm planning on handling conflict in devout Mormon families. It would seem that the more devout / fundamentalist a family is to a specific religion, the more closed the family is to the outside world, and the more control each generation seeks over the following generation, even after that generation marries and starts families of their own.

And that ties into the last quote which caught my eye as I read the article...

At the same time, women were also invested in the system, gaining more and more power as their sons married and as they assumed the role of matriarch over a large multi-generational family.

That came at the end of a discussion of family relationships, how wife is subject to husband and son to father. It spoke of how while a wife needed to submissive to her husband, she was able to gain power by birthing and raising the next generation of males, and thus becoming a 'matriarch'.

All in all, it wasn't a bad article and did identify many similarities between LDS beliefs and some of the Eastern religions. I just love reading stuff where the author deals with a topic which which theologically sound is not sound logically, and watching as they struggle to try and maintain a balance between the two.