Hi there I am Bobby and host this blog and for anyone visiting thanks for dropping in.
Some people have questioned why I call this blog Mormonism Investigated when clearly I come from a different faith which is Evangelical Christianity (meaning I trust the bible for truth and measure all against that.) And that I clearly am critical of the religion of Mormonism.
This site is for two things.
1, To have dialogue with Mormons on key issues in hopefully an honest and respectful way on what I see as biblical and historical problems with Mormonism.
2, To assist Christians and anyone else who is looking into, or wanting to find out more about Mormonism. When a Mormon hears this they will say, well ask a Mormon. I would quickly say that I actually totally agree with that, my major desire is that More Christians have more dialogue with more Mormons. However there are issues that the Missionaries do not present and there are biblical problems that are not as obvious when speaking to them as their terminology sounds the same but is very different to ours. So when a Mormon says speak to a Mormon to learn about Mormonism I say yes please, absolutely do that, but always look at things from both sides.
Anyway the reason I have given that background is I want to make you aware of a trip I am going on at the end of September till about the 9h of October from Middlesbrough in the North East of England to Utah. I am going there on a mission trip working with Russ East from Utah Partnerships for Christ (www.upfc.org). For any of you who don’t know Utah is an American State which according to the latest Mormon church almanac has an estimated population of 2,737,000 with 1,857,667 of those being Members of the Mormon church. How many of those are active or inactive I do not know, but either way that’s a lot.
10 years ago when at a bible conference I believe God challenged me to go to Utah, I think this is a great opportunity as I will be able to share the love of Christ with many Mormons and also get to know Mormon culture and day to day life a lot more, as well as build good links with Christians over there who are living with this ministry on a daily basis.
Each day or at least as often as I can I will put posts on this blog with pictures and a kind of Journal of what I am doing and who I will be speaking to.
For Mormons reading this who live in Utah please, please hear me when I say I am not coming to protest or in anyway bring contention. Any LDS member or anyone else for that matter who has been around Salt Lake city when general conference is on will know there are so called Christians there shouting about how false Mormonism is and showing disrespect to various aspects of Mormonism.
Despite my issues with the Mormon faith I love the Mormon people dearly and I do not see how totally disrespecting peoples faith and culture in that way or any way is a loving God honouring, gospel presenting thing. Mormons have the right to talk to Evangelical Christians or not, simple as that and that way of presentation is very obtrusive and unhelpful.
That said I will most likely be around General conference, to quietly just chat to people who will chat to me, as well as visiting many other key spots when I am there.
I would love to build as many links as possible when I am there, and build relationships to carry on when I get back, so if you are a Christian over there and will be around salt lake city when general conference is on please let me know it would be great to meet you.
And any LDS who want’s to meet a Brit who is crazy enough to come all the way over to Utah (on mostly my own money) just to be around Mormons then please say hi.
And for everyone else reading please keep an eye on this blog between 30th September and 9th October.
That’s excellent, Bobby! I wish I could get to Utah (about 1,000 miles away from me) so that I could meet you in person. Perhaps you could call me when you’re in the States, as it will be much cheaper than an international call. I have a Google Voice number that should be considered a “local call” (usually free) no matter where you are in the US. I also happen to have some friends about our age (mostly late twenties or so) who live in Utah, especially in and around the Provo area (which is where Brigham Young University, Provo ["BYU Provo"] resides). Most of my friends who live in that area are, so far as I can tell, faithful members of the Church, who would probably welcome a chance to meet someone interested in studying their religion, especially from a day-to-day living standpoint. They may even be willing to let you stay with them for a night or longer if you wish. I expect that the Provo area will be much more representative of “normal Mormon living” at this time of the year than the Salt Lake area will be. It might even be easier to find hotels and such there at reasonable rates.
Interestingly, a Mormon missionary I met while he was serving in Chico, CA years ago will be, with his family, in Chico (where I live) this weekend due to a wedding event nearby. He normally lives in the Provo area, I think.
Would you like for me to contact any of my Mormon friends who live in Utah about you visiting them? (If so, I can send you a private message/email about the details.)
Thanks for all that, my accommodation is all sorted with UPFC and through them I will be visiting many LDS places and I will be visiting BYU and some stuff there so I actually have a fairly full timetable. And Provo is an area I will be spending a lot of time in to. I think in reality I am spending more time with LDS people than I am people who are Christians like me,
Feel free to give any of your friends the address for this blog and if they read it and want to meet the crazy brit that’s cool, but otherwise I don’t wanna be throwing myself onto peoples friends of friends as that might not be comfortable for them. But please do give them this address.
thanks
That’s really cool that you’re going to be spending so much time with people of the LDS faith. Is there a private email address that I or my friends can reach you at (so that we don’t have to post phone numbers and such on the blog)? I’ll spread the word about your trip and this blog.
Yeah no problem its [email protected] thanks a lot!
Thanks for posting that, Bobby. I posted this on my Facebook page to draw attention to this event:
“Attention – Latter-Day Saints living in Utah:
A British fellow whome I’ve been discussing our faith with on his Mormonism Investigated UK blog will be spending 10 days surrounding General Conference (October 2010) in Utah! He will be spending a lot of time in the Provo area and visiting members of the Church. He’s open to being contacted by my friends who live in that area (Utah and Provo). Here is his blog:
http://mormonisminvestigated.co.uk/2010/09/25/utah-here-i-come/“
I must say “Russ East from Utah Partnerships for Christ (www.upfc.org). ” seems to be one of the real Christians, I have never seen any hate from his facebook site.
Bobby, great to see you tonight on Pastor Shawn McCraney’s excellent program ‘Heart of the Matter’ from Salt Lake City! To those readers who aren’t yet familiar with this show, Live from the Mecca of Mormonism: Where Mormonism meets Biblical Christianity face to face, you can find all 236 past shows at http://hotm.tv/shows-2010.htm
You can also watch it live on streaming video, which I did.
thanks for that Alan appreciate it, was cool and kinda weird to actually be on there after all these years of watching. thanks for posting