Today was the last day that Bill McKeever and I were working on the front lines. We had three distinct events that occurred yesterday and today. As the title suggests, one was good, one was bad, and one was just plain ugly.

The Good
A Christian who was driving by stopped to talk with Bill McKeever for a bit. He wanted to encourage us by telling us that we were appreciated. Bill thanked him for his kind words, then the man drove off. About 15 minutes later, he came by again and gave us two large bottles of water. Although we had water, our water was quite warm. That made what he did for us all the more appreciated because his water was nice and cold! We never got his name, but to whoever you are, thank you SO much!
“For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.”(Mark 9:41)

The Bad
Yesterday, three of our volunteers toured the temple and could not help but notice that there were four chairs in the little hallway blocking the way to the washing and anointing room (initiatory room). You can read more about the story here. This is the same link I provided a couple of days ago, but it has since been updated.

Personally, I think it is funny that the LDS Church is going through all this trouble to block this one little room. What makes this bad is that the LDS church public relations officials for the Sacramento temple told numerous area papers that they wanted to dispel myths about the temple and that all of the rooms would be open.

At this point the progression is that when asked about the “washing and anointing room,” they lied, they lied again, and then covered up the small sign with white tape, lied again, and then placed chairs in the way to make sure that no one gets back to see it. I would not be surprised if next week they place yellow caution tape up to inform the public that there has indeed been a crime at this place; truth has been murdered.

The Ugly
occasionally, the living scriptures employees will stand near us offering coupons for a free Mormon DVD hoping that it will bring in more business to a new Mormon bookstore five blocks away from the temple. They have their signs, we have ours, and it can get pretty confusing for those leaving the temple to figure out who is who. I have seen people give Bill a “thumbs down,” then give a “thumbs up” to the LDS workers, and then another “thumbs down” to me.

It is eye opening for the Mormon workers to see how we are treated. Often Mormons will drive by, and ignore the Mormons because they think they are “anti-Mormon.” Worse yet, sometimes the Mormon workers will get “chewed out” by their own fellow Mormons.

One such instance was when Helen, one of the Living Scriptures employees, was trying to get the attention of an LDS family. Everyone in the car ignored her and then rolled the windows up. Helen persisted and finally convinced the family that she was a Mormon. She started to give them directions to the LDS bookstore when the light turned green. They continued to talk until the light almost turned red. The Mormon family went through the light only to leave the next car stranded at the red light. A Mormon lady started flailing her arms and yelled at Helen and said, “What are you doing you Moron!”

I looked at the lady and said, “It’s Mormon, Du-uh!

Being at various outreaches gives us a wealth of experience in talking with Mormons and hearing their complaints and protests about our presence at their functions. Every now and then a Mormon will give us what they believe is a clever quip as to why we should not be there. In this post, I will list a few of the more memorable instances and our responses to them.

Yesterday I was walking along the road and a man leaned out of his truck window and said, Hey, haven’t you heard of freedom of religion?
Me- Yes, sir. That is what I am practicing right now.
Protestor- Why don’t you just leave the Mormons alone and let them do their own thing?
Me- Sir, why don’t you just keep driving and leave me alone so I can do my own thing?
Frustrated, he rolled up the window and left.

A couple of days ago, Ron, the head of security, drove down the hill in his golf cart and told Bill McKeever that they were so happy that we were there passing out papers because we were doing them a favor. Bill responded, “If you really believe that, why don’t you send your Mormon missionaries down here to help us pass out the papers?” Ron laughed and changed the subject.

A truck full of Mormons pulled up and one said, “Why don’t you let us practice our freedom of religion?”
Me- I’m not keeping you from practicing your religion. Are you trying to keep me from practicing mine? You know, freedom of religion is not just for you guys.
Protestor- Get a life.
Me- Sir, I have eternal life and that is something your church can never offer you.

Protestor- What are you guys doing out here?
Me- Passing out papers explaining the differences between Mormonism and Christianity.
Protestor- Mormonism is Christianity.
Me- Christians don’t believe they can becomes Gods, sir.

I’ll add more examples later as I remember them.

The following post is from the events of Tuesday, August 17th 2006.

Compared to yesterday, today was pretty uneventful. I did manage to get hit by a rock that was thrown from a moving car that was full of Mormon youth wearing white shirts and ties. It wasn’t a big rock and hit me on the left knee. I was standing on the corner talking with a Christian man and we both were pretty surprised that they threw the rock. All I could think to say as they drove by was, “Thank you!”

There are some Mormons who are out on the corners passing out coupons for a free DVD at a near-by Mormon bookstore. I have met two of them before, Helen in San Antonio and Chad in both San Antonio and Manti. Helen is not open to talking about spiritual matters, but Chad is very eager to talk. He is very animated and we have had some pretty good conversations. It is hard to keep him on topic as his favorite statement is, “Well, let me ask you this” and then he changes the subject. He likes to talk and we get along pretty well. We talked about the errors in the Book of Mormon and the differences between transmitting and translating.

We also talked about my experiences of being lied to in the temple yesterday and I was bothered by the fact that Chad did not have a problem with the tour-guards lying to us. I asked him if he would lie if commanded to. Without hesitation, Chad said, “Yes.”

Is anyone else seeing a pattern here?

The following post is from the events of Monday, August 14th. Since I do not have a wireless card on my computer, I am not able to access the internet at will.

Monday, August 14th, 2006
Today was the first day that Bill McKeever and I were able to visit the temple together. We got into town late Saturday evening and passed out papers for about an hour and a half. The temple is closed on Sundays so today was the first chance we had to go through the temple. Bill has already been through once and decided to go through again with me.

To give a little history, on the first day the temple opened Bill and Eric Johnson toured the temple together and had a very eye opening experience. The tour guide, hereafter referred to as tour-guards, basically lied to Eric and Bill. Eric saw the entrance to the washing and anointing room (which is never included on public tours) and asked about the room. The tour-guard said that there was nothing but more lockers there. You can read about the whole experience here. As Bill and I were on the way into the temple this morning, Eric called Bill on his cell phone and asked that we address the same issues that Bill and Eric encountered a couple of weeks ago. As we figured, we were lied to again. I don’t want to get into all of the details at this point, but the tour-guard, Dawn, admitted that she lied to us once we confronted her in the hospitality room after the tour. She said, “We are told to say what we can say.” We picked up some punch and cookies, sat at our table for about 15 minutes, then left after not talking to anyone else.

Hours later, I noticed two security guys in an SUV taking pictures of me from across the street. They drove through the light and then pulled over and walked up to talk to me. One guy stood there taking pictures of me as the other guy, Doug Diamond, informed me that I was being banned from the temple. I found out later that the tour-guard that lied to me and Bill recognized me as she drove away from the temple. She must have been convicted about being caught in the lie and then informed the temple security of who I was. What is really funny is that Bill, who confronted Dawn in the hospitality room, was standing just across the street. Since she did not see him, I was the guy who was the target of her anger.

I tried to reason with Doug that it was not truthful to tell the Sacramento community through the newspaper that, “Church representatives… are prepared to answer any questions the public has and be as transparent as possible about their practices” and then ban someone from the temple for asking questions. As Bill McKeever often says, “If the Mormon Church doesn’t want to be known as a cult, they need quit acting like one.”

Last week my Mom told me about a comment that she read in the USATODAY about the Mormon temple opening in Sacramento. I went online and found it here. I thought the timing of the comment was pretty interesting because I leave to minister at the Sacramento temple this weekend.

As you read the comments from Jeff Byrd, notice that he uses extremely flammatory language. Words like, “protesters, out-raged, anti-Mormonism, anti-Semitism, persecuted, extermination and hate” do not give the impression that Mr. Byrd is a happy camper. Indeed a great number of Mormons are not happy about our presence at temple openings. It is obvious that because Byrd misunderstands our motives, he is attempting to incite an inhospitable attitude towards our presence.

Contrary to Byrd’s opinions about our motives, the primary focus of Christians is to lovingly and peacefully distribute free Christian literature to the public that will discuss some foundational doctrines of the Mormon faith in contrast to historic Christianity. We are not targeting Mormons nor will we be persecuting anyone. Our purpose is to quietly and respectfully exercise our rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion as we distribute this information. This is not a protest of the Temple.

Our position, which compels us to this action, is that Mormonism consistently misrepresents itself to the public as a Christian denomination by withholding important doctrinal information. We hope to provide the information needed to enable people to make better-informed choices about their future involvement with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If the Mormon Church were more forthright about their teachings that men have the potential to become Gods, there would be no need for us to be there. The public has a right to know about the world view of Mormonism and since the Mormon Church will not provide that information, we will.

Undoubtedly, Mormons will not be happy about our presence outside of the Temple. We realize the sacredness of this time and place to Mormons and will work very carefully to be sensitive to the feelings of Latter-Day Saints while conducting our outreach. We are appalled at the reported actions of some protesters during General Conference. We distance ourselves from that kind “outreach.” We have every intent of conducting ourselves in a manner that is, not only within the law, but above reproach in every way. For that reason we ask that we are not referred to as “anti-Mormon” or “protesters.” We desire to be referred to simply as Christians.

If you would like to write to the USATODAY and voice your opinion about Mr. Byrd’s misunderstanding of our actions, please contact them here and share your thoughts. Also, check out Sharon Lindbloom’s blog for another angle on the story.

Personally, I pray that Jeff Byrd’s attempt to incite unfriendly attitudes towards us does not succeed. The last time I was in California for a Mormon temple opening, three young men physically “protested” my presence there. I wonder what Mr. Byrd thinks of that?