Thesis 6: Testimony Meeting
It’s the first Sunday of the month and a young teenager goes up to the podium in front of the congregation. In one sentence she says, “I’d like to bear my testimony I know this church is true….”
Next a father of 5 gets up. …”I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true.”
His pre-school aged son has come up with him and now breathes into the microphone. His father whispers in his ear and the kid says “I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet….(breathe)….and the Book of Mormon is true….”
An old lady walks up to the microphone next, launches into a 5 minute story about her kids, and then finishes with “…I know that this church is God’s only true church.”
An hour later you’ve just sat through one hour of your friends, family, and neighbors telling you how true they think this whole thing is. And you’ll sit through the same thing next month. And the month after that and the month after that.
For one Sunday every single month, Mormons sit through a testimony meeting where the word “true” is showered down from the members to the congregation. Some of the staple phrases are, “I know this church is true”, “I know Joseph Smith was a true prophet,” “I know that Thomas S Monson is a true prophet,” “I know the Book of Mormon is true,” and “I know that the true priesthood of God was restored.”
Whether it’s out of habit, insecurity, or a need of self-fulfillment, Mormon’s will spend ¼ of their meetings just telling each other that they’ve made the correct decision about which religion to associate with.
And testimony meeting is just the beginning. A large chunk of Sunday School lessons, family home evenings, and youth programming focuses on this idea that “we are the only true church.” We learn about why other churches don’t have the priesthood, why our church was the only directly restored Christian church in the latter days, why this idea of apostolic “authority” matters so much and why only men of the church have the ability to rightfully baptize or bless people, why Joseph Smith had all the keys to re-establish God’s only house on earth (temples), why Mormons are a “unique and peculiar” people, why non-Mormons are sad and suffering without the truth, why we must share the gospel with our friends so that they will have the truth in their lives. We send buses of youth to church history sites where the priesthood was restored and where Joseph Smith learned the truth about religion. And we send tens of thousands of teenage missionaries into the world to convince people that we have the true answer.
At some point in their history Mormons got such a big chip on their shoulder from being the “weird” Christian denomination and became obsessed with the idea of emphasizing that it has the only full “truth.” And it has bled into their culture and daily life.
Mormons spend so much time telling themselves that they’re right, that they miss out on opportunities to tell themselves to be good. Mormons are kind people, and as a whole they are good people. But the kindest, most serviceable, most charitable people I’ve known in my life are not Mormons. And the most judgmental, intolerant, and insecure people I know are Mormons.
I don’t believe that any religion has it right. But I believe that if one did, its members wouldn’t spend such a disproportionate amount of time patting each other on the back saying, “I know that we’re right, and I know that we have the one and only truth!”
