Many people hesitate to open the Book of Mormon because, frankly, most people just don’t read books these days, especially ones that aren’t romance, action adventure, SF-Fantasy, westerns, or other genre fiction, or that don’t have illustrations.

If people were introduced to actual statements from the Book of Mormon about Christ, faith, and God’s love, I think it would resonate with them. Many would simply understand that it really is about Christ, that it is a religious book that speaks the language of the Bible, that it contains positive precepts. Others might be curious enough to want to read more. Some will have questions that they will pose to their Mormon neighbors or to the missionaries they run into.

I remember people who served missions in English speaking areas telling me about how their companions would teach people by quoting the Book of Mormon and most folks would assume it was from the Bible. The true story of Vincenzo di Francesca, who found a Book of Mormon without a cover or title page in a barrel of ashes, and began using it in his sermons at an Italian Methodist church in New York City, shows that people recognize the value of the words of the Book of Mormon even when they don’t know where they come from.

We can use BoM quotes when they are relevant to all kinds of discussions on the Web, not only those specifically concerning Mormonism.

At least some parts of the Book of Mormon (usually the ones that start off by mentioning a voice like thunder) are the literal word of God, so far as you can use the word literally while encompassing the concept of “said in some language no man living has ever heard, written down by some other guys at some time later, condensed by another guy in a different language a few hundred years later, forgotten for about 1400 years, translated verbally into English by way of miracles by a young, less-than-well-educated man, written down by a different person, and then edited, in some cases, by others still.”

I will, however, testify to the truthfulness about that whole “putting up with stuff for the sake of convenience.”

And, uh, sharing testimonies is good… I have my favorite scriptures posted on my Facebook profile. That counts, right?

Obviously (most) of the Bible and Book of Mormon are not the literal Word of God, since God didn’t speak it, alot of it is history as recorded by participants. However, much of the D & C is the literal Word of God.

This is not the same as the question of whether the Book of Mormon and Bible should be interpreted literally. (ie Did Ammon really smite people’s arms off, Did Samson really have his strength dependent on his hair length).

Just curious about one of the stats you quoted. You said that only 35% of Mormons believe that their Holy book is the literal word of God.

I saw no question directly regarding the Book of Mormon, which is what most people would first think of as the Holy book belonging specifically to Mormonism. Did I miss it?

What is indicated in the report regarding scripture is (quote) More than eight-in-ten Jehovah’s Witnesses (92%), Mormons (91%) and members of evangelical….view the Bible as the word of God…(end quote). In another section showing Literal INTERPRETATION of Scripture by Religious Tradition it says that 35% of Mormons believe the Bible is the word of God to be taken literally word for word, 57% believe it is the word of God but not literally true word for word, or unsure if literally true, 4% said not word of God, and 4% said don’t know or refused to answer.

In surveys of this nature it is easy to misinterpret or misrepresent what the data is showing, and I think it is important to be clear that all the data indicates is that 91% of Mormons do view the Bible to be the word of God, but that only 35% feel it must be taken literally word for word. Also important to note is that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not the only religious organization grouped under the title of “Mormon” for the survey.

Along with Julie’s comments about only 6% of LDS homeschooling, I’ll add that I think among practicing Christians, Mormons tend to be highly tolerant of what they’ll put up with for the sake of convenience.

Your mention of my post created a lot of activity at my site for “Why LDS history shouldn’t hurt your testimony”.

My counter shows 300+ views. Apparently, this topic is of interest to many people. At my site the second most viewed post are those on repentance. There are 8 post on repentance. LDS are hungry for answers to church history questions and to obtain greater understanding about repentance.

I hope to see the most popular sites, with the most capable communicators, address these topics more often because there appears to be a genuine need among those who frequent the bloggernacle. Thanks for taking the time to mention this post.

In my day (cough, cough), the early ’70s, we had to share ST stuff via zines and hand-typed transcriptions and eventually the Blish novelizations. I still have my Concordance (a prehistoric paper wiki), and Enterprise blueprints, and Spock decanter, but I’m afraid virtually everything else has gone by the bye. I went to Patrick Stewart’s first TNG con appearance (Denver) — he stood at the edge of the stage, his green denim workshirt rolled up to his elbows, folded his arms, and spoke *without a microphone* so that all 2,000 of us in the ballroom could hear him clearly. What an actor! what a captain.