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Lawn Griffiths on Spiritual Life ~

Mormon critics storm Snowflake, Taylor in a DVD blitz designed to raise doubts in faith

December 19th, 2006, 4:40 pm · Post a Comment · posted by lawngriffiths

The east central Arizona communities of Snowflake and Taylor were invaded Oct. 1 by fast-moving folks leaving DVDs in blue plastic sacks on doorknobs, a blitz by the Mesa-based Concerned Christians, an ex-Mormon support group. Mormons and non-Mormons in the towns were indiscriminately reached with the gift from the watchdog group.Foot Soldiers Swarming Snowflake Sowing Seed is the title of an article about Project Doorknob in the December-January issue of The Cross, the bimonthly newsletter of Concerned Christians of Mesa. It reports how 100 people spent just 90 minutes in Snowflake and Taylor delivering 4,000 to 5,000 DVDs titled, The Bible vs. the Book of Mormon. It was pulled off on a Sunday morning when most Mormons would be glued to their TVs watching the fall meetings of the churchs twice annual General Conference from Salt Lake City. Jim Robertson, Concerned Christians executive director, explained that the group intentionally planned the quick work in two hours because we knew it wouldnt take long for the Mormon leadership to catch on to what we were doing and instruct their members not to look at the DVD. They actually accomplished their work a half hour early, according to Robertson. Everything went without a hitch, said Robertson, a former Mormon, who, with his wife Judy, has spent nearly three decades marshalling former members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to help them take the truth of Christianity to current Mormons and try to enable them to leave that religion. Three of the participants in the days work gave accounts of their experiences in The Cross: n Duane Strohmeyer: From the day we planned to distribute (the DVD) I could see Gods hand in it. Plans to raise $1,000 to cover just part of Snowflake grew to $5,000 and they went forward to expand the effort to three communities and the new area of Shumway. May God bring many Mormon souls into the kingdom for many years to come.n Andy Poland: As the day grew closer, God provided Snowflake with a support group of former Mormons. It was amazing to see people gather from different churches to help distribute DVDs. God even sent us wonderful cooks to prepare for us a picnic in the park. n Karrie Browning: A lot of us were overcome by emotion as we felt the excitement building in preparation and the hope for a mighty move of God in these mountains .It was touching for everybody to see how many ex-Mormons were there to assure the team that the days efforts will not be in vain. On a tennis court, bags of 100 DVDs were given to teams with instructions as to where to take them. One of the rules of engagement was that we were not there for confrontation. Browng called for prayer for the team members who live in the Snowflake and Taylor area. They will be the ones who need to be prepared for any backlash from those who are resistant to the message of the cross, and more importantly, prepared for those who may seek them out to share the truth. Volunteers said they expected to look back to find earnest church members trailing them and pulling off the sacks as quickly as they put them onto doorknobs, but they spotted no one in pursuit.Snowflake is home for the second and newest church temple in Arizona. The churchs 108th sacred temple, the Snowflake Arizona Temple, was dedicated there in 2002 to serve about 35,000 members in that part of the state. Mormon settlers arrived there in 1878. The Robertsons founded Concerned Christians a century later, in 1978.So will these truth squads have an impact? Do these tactics smack of cowardly stealth-like methods to discredit a religion in one of its strong bastions? Most likely, scissors were taken to a lot of DVDs that day. Some disks were likely taken and hidden away by one family member to be seen on the sly. No doubt, some families sat down and soberly watched their copies, confident that the presentation wouldnt shake their beliefs. Jim Robertson calls Project Doorknob an outreach. The Saints likely see it more as a rude knock at their door and yet another reminder that theirs remain a persecuted faith.

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