On behalf of the Catholic people of Utah, I express condolences to the family, First Presidency and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the death of their beloved President Gordon B. Hinckley. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you at the loss of such a kind and faith-filled gentleman. Our esteem for President Hinckley is profound. While faithful to his religious beliefs, he respected believers of other denominations. He sought to find the common ground that all might work to strengthen the values that we share. His commitment to build a better world, with respect for diversity, fostered good will and community harmony.

In meetings with President Hinckley we encountered his keen sense of humor and his personal humility. His was a wise perspective on the world that included interest in issues of common concern. The world and this community have been enriched by his life. It is our prayer that President Hinckley finds peace in the heavenly kingdom. We will certainly miss his presence among us. (John C. Wester)

Why just the bishop of SLC and not the pope? I suggest that what you’ve mistaken for a positive attitude among Mormons toward Catholicism specifically which you find lacking in Catholicism toward Mormons is in fact a natural majority-minority dynamic–Hinckley was more aware of John Paul the II than John Paul the II was of Hinckley simply because the pope leads an organization with astronomically higher numbers of adherents and amount of influence on the world scene than the prophet. It’s the same reason that people living in Djibouti are probably more aware of Americans than Americans are of people in Djibouti.

I would assume the Pope in Rome did not make a statement regarding Hinkley’s passing.

This is not to prove anything just to point out that the picture does clearly not look how you are trying to paint it.

I’d spin your arguments a different direction. The strength of our position is precisely that we state that most, nearly all, other religions have some truth to them. Some have a lot of truth, some more than others, many also have a lot of philosophies of men mixed in, which is only natural (as we do it too) for people to do once they have some truth and try to extrapolate on it.

But that is a strength of our position. We are not required to condemn nearly every other religion, like many/most mainstream religions do. We simply say they have some truth and we can add further understanding to it.

It’s interesting to note that it’s difficult for a Protestant to say that about is. I can’t imagine the Pope saying, “Joseph Smith advanced the cause of Christ” but I can imagine an LDS prophet saying something similar of a Pope. That seems to completely toss your thesis on its head.

Certainly you can find

Glanz, Rudolf. Jew and Mormon: Historic Group Relations and Religious Outlook. New York: Waldon, 1963.

Am I remembering right that early Mormons probably focused more on connections to Judaism than we do now? I thought that maybe I read that somewhere (how’s that for a reference) but maybe I’m just making it up.

On the question of Mormon attitudes to Jews generally: I see trends going in very different directions. On the one hand, we state fairly regularly that the “Jews” were too obtuse to recognize their Messiah; on the other hand we have the passage in 2 Nephi as quoted above indicating the “Jews” did recognize their Messiah and killed him specifically because of it. (I’m putting “Jews” in quotes since, as I stated in the post, Jesus was a Jew and so were virtually all his followers in his lifetime, and many in the years afterward.)

(This latter view especially presents some difficult theological problems–did God basically set the Jews up to fail? Why did God allegedly reveal a religion pointing the Jews to Christ in the full knowledge that, having recognized him, they would kill him, all in accordance with God’s will, and then God would punish them for it? Are the Jews just a bunch of poor schnooks?)

Similarly, we claim to be the true house of Israel and assert there’s no salvation outside acceptance of Christ (every knee will bow). But we also seem not to have given up on the idea that the Jews are still the Chosen People. Does this mean they can be saved without accepting Christ because of their special status with God? What does it mean to our theology if they can or can’t?

As far as our relationship with Jews goes, from the Mormon side it’s clearly very positive. But I wonder whether this feeling is mutual. As I see it, we love Jews not as the Other but as the Self. In a sense, we think we’re honorary Jews, and this leads to some very enthusiastic, but also some problematic behaviors. Baptizing their murdered relatives might seem “loving” and pro-Jewish from our perspective, for example, but from the Jewish perspective it’s obviously offensive. When it comes to genuine differences between Mormons and Jews, we have difficulty showing respect–on the question of whether Jesus is the Messiah, for example.

Taking in the whole sweep of Christian history, the bar for Christians treating Jews well is pathetically, tragically low, and as we’re not making blatantly abusive statements or smashing people’s skulls in, we’ve probably cleared it quite handily. But that doesn’t mean many of our doctrines aren’t problematic on this score. The heart of anti-Judaism in Christianity is that Jews fail(ed) to recognize that Jesus is the Messiah, (perhaps because they’re obdurately and willfully blind?). It’s an affront to Christians that Jews are reading (some of) the same scripture and not reaching the conclusions Christians have reached. How is this possible? Are they stupid, or are they wicked? Either way, we make statements to this effect all the time. That’s it. That’s the core of anti-Jewish sentiment in Christianity, and we’re by no means immune to it.

Sam,

I appreciate your enthusiasm for the topic! I can’t help but wonder, if you didn’t notice the anti-Catholicism in Jesus the Christ, for example, whether you were the best barometer of anti-Catholic sentiment in your mission? Of course it’s perfectly possible missionaries in your area were entirely respectful of their Catholic neighbors (I don’t mean this snarkily). On the issue of canned apple pie filling, however, we’re in complete agreement. Actually, anything to do with apple pie is disgusting in my view; give me pumpkin pie any day.