the average Peter Priesthood

I caught this op-ed in a local paper from a Mormon claiming to set the record straight on Mormonism. It’s a beauty because it illustrates how and what the average Mormon believes. Errors or ommissions include:

• no discussion of the limited geography model; assumes a hemispheric model of the BofM
• claims the moniker Mormon originated in 1930 (though this is probably a typo)
• no discussion of the complexity behind the term “Christian”; just assumes that if someone calls themselves Christian they are
• considers the prophet equivalent to the pope (infallibility anyone?)
• claims LDS stopped polygamy in 1890 (they said they would in 1890, but didn’t until about 1905)
• claims the RLDS (now Community of Christ) are the ones practicing polygamy; they never did and deplored the practice

I enjoy debating apologists online, but it does get on my nerves when I generalize about Mormon beliefs and they insist that average Mormons don’t believe some of the things they obviously do (e.g., apologists don’t think average Mormons think of the prophet as being infallible; apologists claim average Mormons think about the BofM as they do – a limited geography model or even metaphorical, etc.). IMO, the average Mormon is about where this guy is in his thinking.