Latter-day Saints
When Lynn Blake was part of a team of research scientists tasked with inventing a substance that would keep the astronauts of Apollo 13 from burning up on re-entry, he applied his usual scientific rigor. The material had to withstand intense temperatures for three minutes – and that 14 inches would be all that was between the backs of the spacemen and the deadly heat. As we all know from the Ron Howard movie Apollo 13, a lot of things went wrong on that mission to the moon – but not the heat shield Blake says he helped invent for NASA as an employee of Lockheed. “That’s the only credibility I have among my grandchildren - I helped design the heat shield for the Apollo program,” he jokes. “They feel like I saved Tom Hanks’s life.” “My life has been involved with the search for truth,” he says. “And so that’s how I view what I’ve found.” What he’s found is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the news these days as a high-profile Mormon – Mitt Romney – runs to become the Republican candidate for the U.S. presidency. “It’s exactly the same thing: you ask a question,” Blake explains from an office in the foyer of the church’s Cole Harbour temple, which he is in charge of. “In Apollo, the question was: what material would withstand 22,000 F for three minutes to get them back in? So you test answers until you find one that works. I do the same thing with religion. My proof of the Book of Mormon … came from the invitation that the prophet (Joseph Smith) who wrote and compiled the book put in the last chapter, where he said if you want to know if this is true or not, you will … prayfully read and study, and then you will have a spiritual experience. “That was my hypothesis – that was my test. And as I did that, I still remember, on an air force base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, one night as I was putting that test not once but many, many times, I had the same description that he said would happen.” And like any scientist, the Utah-native says he compared his findings with others – in this case, the millions of people who have converted to Mormonism. The LDS, he says, is not protestant or Catholic, but it is Christian. He describes it as “a restoration of Christ’s original church.” It was founded in 1823 by Smith, an American prophet who Mormons believe had a divine encounter at age 14. God and Jesus – seen as two separate beings – met with Smith when he was a boy and told him there needed to be a restoration of “the total truth” of Jesus. Mormons thus view Smith in a similar light to biblical prophets like Noah and Abraham. The angel Moroni, the son of Mormon, for whom the book is named, directed Smith to a set of golden plates that had been buried in 421 AD. They contained the records of a people living on the Americas from 600 BC to 400 AD – a 1,000-year-period of an advanced civilization of a people who had left Jerusalem for the new world, including a visitation from a resurrected Jesus. This testimony became the Book of Mormon, which the church reveres equally with the Bible. Blake sites the Gospel of John, where Jesus says he has other sheep to tend to – those other sheep, according to the LDS, are the people of the Book of Mormon. DNA tests of aboriginal people in the Americas have shown no trace of any Israeli ancestry – and this is perhaps reflected in a change made recently to the Book of Mormon. It used to claim the people were the “primary ancestors” of aboriginals; now it merely says “among” the ancestors. The defining “unique characteristic of the church” is that it is based on modern revelation and modern prophets – hence the “latter-day” saints. Mormons are popularly associated with polygamy. But while some branches, like the Fundamental Church of Latter-day Saints, still practice this, it was banned in the main church in 1890 and members today would be excommunicated for polygamy, says Blake. “You can see, as these theological differences multiply, why some people say since you don’t believe what most Christians believe, then you’re not Christian. Well … the issue (isn’t) what most people believe – the issue is we believe what the truth is.” While there are a number of websites set up to help people leave the church – for example www.exmormon.org, which describe a “method of fear and control that the Mormon Church uses on its members” - Blake insists there is no pressure to stay in the church, and that the only people kicked out of the church are those who teach against it. “In some cases, when a person actively teaches against the church and is excommunicated, then they sometimes become vocal and bitter and say these things happened to me and I don’t know why and etc,” Blake says. “We have a belief that being in the church will bring happiness and joy, so there is sorrow when a person leaves — but there isn’t any pressure.” Asked what is best thing about being a Mormon, Blake says “That’s the toughest question you’ve asked all day!” He takes a moment to think, and answers: “We have a prophet. We know what the Lord would have us do today. The most important part of what he would have us do today, as far as I’m concerned, has to do with my family. We have seven children, 31 grandchildren, and we have been married … and we will be together not only in this life, but in the life after.” He reflects further, then adds: “(We have) confidence in what the future is. That gives a great deal of certainty in a very uncertain world.” On the web: www.mormon.org He is married with five children, and a grandchild is on the way. He says neither he nor his family have encountered much trouble over their religion, but he admits that not drinking alcohol, tea or coffee sometimes leads to awkward situations – especially when his children were at university. He’s got one son working as a missionary in Scotland and another in Wyoming. He says when Jehovah’s Witnesses come calling, he treats them with the same courtesy he hopes his sons find on their missionary work – which is all he asks others to do when the Mormons, or Jehovah’s Witnesses, come knocking. First published in the Sunday Daily News January 13 2008.
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