Mormons have been in the news lately.  It is interesting to listen to people make arguments for or against your faith.  Most of what I hear doesn’t bother me.  Sure we might fit the definition of a cult if you want to see things a certain way.  I’m not waiting for a space ship from behind the Hale-Bopp comet to rescue me nor am I locked up in my home surrounded with weapons so that I can fight off anyone who might disrupt my way of life.  As far as I see it, I’m not in a cult and if someone else thinks I am, I’m not going to let it bother me.

There is one thing that I’ve heard a few times that does bother me and that is that we worship Joseph Smith.  We don’t.  Never have.  We revere and respect Joseph Smith.  He was a prophet who restored (not founded) the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He translated the Book of Mormon which is our main book of scripture.  He suffered much in life and ultimately was martyred for his beliefs.  He was a great man and those of us in the church have sacred thoughts about him but we don’t worship him.  We also have sacred thoughts about Moses, Abraham, Noah, as well as many other men we consider to have been prophets.  We have a man today that we believe is a prophet, Thomas S. Monson.  We don’t worship him either.

We worship Jesus Christ.  We believe that he is our Savior and Redeemer and that he atoned for our sins.  The Book of Mormon‘s full title is The Book of Mormon; Another Testament of Jesus Christ.  We believe Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith and gave him directions on how to restore the church that Christ organized when he lived on this earth.  The name of our church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Here are some scriptures from the Book of Mormon:

And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ…that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.              2 Nephi 25:26

Be faithful in Christ…may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death,… and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever.                  Moroni 9:25

Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him…                          Moroni 10:32

There are many, many more that speak of Jesus Christ and his teachings.  The whole book really.

If you want more information you can go here and read the testimony of the leaders of the church on Jesus Christ or you can go here for one of my favorite talks of all time.  You can read it if you want but I recommend watching and listening to it.   You can also go here where there is all sorts of info on what we believe about Jesus Christ.  What ever you do, please don’t think we worship anyone but him.