Mormons Clarify Beliefs

To clarify common misconceptions about Mormons, the Harvard Latter-Day Saint Student Association held a “Meet the Mormons Q&A” panel yesterday during which they encouraged students to ask questions about the church.

The event began with two brief presentations by Kenneth I. Brewer ’11 and Lindsey R. Brinton ’12, who talked about the history of church and current theological doctrines, followed by questions from the audience.

When asked about the issue of polygamy in an interview before the event, LDSSA Vice-President Morgan T. Pope ’11 pointed out that the general public sometimes held an outdated view of Mormon beliefs.

“People still associate us with polygamy even though it’s been more than 100 years out of practice,” he said.

Last year’s questions focused on Mormon’s missionary work since not many people know why Mormons take time off to go on missions or what they do, said LDSSA historian Nicola A. Harris ’10.

This year, the main themes in the Q&A session were marriage, the value of family, and women’s role in the church.

Attendees asked about Mormon attitudes regarding marriages between homosexual couples, marriage between LDS members and non-LDS members. Others questioned why women were not allowed to be on the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a governing body in the Mormon church hierarchy, and why they are not expected to go on missions to seek converts.

Harris, who will be going on a mission, told the audience that more and more Mormon women were going on missions.

“There’s no stigma either way,” she said. “I want to go because I feel I have this beautiful gift and that’s precious to me.”

Audience member Erin E. Harrington ’12 said she attended the panel because she didn’t know much about the religion and felt that it was easier to ask a group of people rather than her Mormon friends individually.

Panelist Tyler R. Clites ’12 said that he felt like he had been preparing for questions about his faith all his life.

Clites said he volunteered to be a panelist because he has never found it difficult to speak about his religion and also thought the event would be good practice for answering questions on his mission.

Attendee Jeffrey L. Hall ’11 said that he admired the thoughtfulness of the panelists.

“A lot of people don’t know why they do or don’t believe in something,” he said. “I just thought they were able to give reasons...and I thought that was great.”

In the end, LDSSA President Rachel A. Esplin ’10 said she hoped that people left the Q&A understanding that “we’re normal people who want to share our faith and that we’re accepting of other people.”