Joe Heschmeyer addresses the question of how to effectively evangelize Mormons. He emphasizes building common ground by focusing on shared beliefs in Jesus’s founding of a visible structured church and then delving into the key difference: whether or not the church experienced an apostasy.
Transcript:
Anyway, I’ve been approached by Mormon missionaries and they think they’re evangelizing me, but I really evangelize them. And I’ve realized that they’ve got a very similar view of authority to us, which I really respect. And you’ve also raised a great point that Mormonism is the logical conclusion of their Protestant Reformation.
I’d like to know what you would think is the best plan of attack, so to speak, to evangelize the Catholic faith to them.
Yeah, so I mean, I did several episode series on Shema Spopri on this, so I’m going to give you the very short answer. And I think it already sounds like you know where to go for the long one. But the first thing, I think it’s good to build up some common ground so that you don’t just come at it as enemies. Because if someone comes at any topic as your enemy, it’s very hard to listen to them, very hard to learn from them. So there’s two things that I find helpful. The first is focusing on, as you point out, that we have a similar kind of conception of authority. We both believe that Jesus founding the church is incredibly important, that there is a visible structured church to which we are called to be members. And then the entire question turns on a really specific question of fact and theology, which is, did the church founded by Jesus Christ go into an apostasy or not? And as a matter of history, and as a matter of Jesus’s divine promises in Matthew 16, we say no. And Mormons say yes.
So I would start with that because there’s many Mormons who will say, well, it’s either us or Catholics who are right. Because either the church went into apostasy and was restored by Joseph Smith or didn’t go into apostasy, in which case we’re looking for a 2000 year old church and the Catholic Church is the obvious contender.
And I’ve had plenty of Mormons kind of agree to those terms at the outset. Now, we would say it’s possible, you know, like it isn’t as if the Catholic Church going into apostasy would automatically make Mormonism true. So we wouldn’t be facing the same binary in the other direction. But that is a helpful way of framing it, where it shows a common, we’re asking the same questions, would be maybe a way to say that even though we’re coming to very different answers, we’re at least taking the issue of the church as, you know, the kingdom of God on earth very seriously and pursuing that inquiry. And then the second thing is, anytime you can build from the common ground, even in the differences, that can be really good. So I’m going to give you just one example for the sake of time. On abortion, most Mormons are incredibly pro-life and praise God, you know, it’s wonderful they are. When you read the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website, they permit abortion in certain cases. The bishop can approve abortions and the church is very hesitant to use the term murder to describe what’s happening, even though they don’t give any explanation for why they wouldn’t be. And that exposes a sort of hypocrisy within their church in a way that I think many Mormons are often surprised. So a lot of times the Mormons you’re talking to are 18, 19 year old kids who are coming to your door. And so for many of them, this is their first time realizing that their church allows abortion in some cases, even though by all logic and reason, this would seem like it’s permitting murder if the bishop says it’s okay. So I have found that to be a particularly poignant kind of point that I’ve, more than any other single point that has been the one that I can tell kind of sticks with missionaries, leaves them wondering like, what is going on there? And that can be a good thing just to kind of begin that conversation. Because once you lay out, you know, here are the stakes, if your church is wrong, you should take this one very seriously and then give them good reasons to doubt that their church is right on major issues.
Let God do the rest from there.
Hey, thanks for watching. If you like this Catholic answer, be sure to like, subscribe, and check out our live streams Monday through Friday, 3 to 5 p.m. Pacific, or find the episode after on YouTube, your favorite podcast platform, or our Catholic Answers app.