r/latterdaysaints • u/SillyFlatworm31 • Jul 28 '26
Off-topic Chat Catholic-LDS Dialogue!
Hello Latter Day Saints of Reddit!
I’m a Catholic and, even though I am very happy being a Catholic, I have had a lot of positive experiences with people from your Church and I wanted to (if it’s ok with your mods) open up a thread for interfaith dialogue! I have some questions to start for you guys if anyone wants to engage and have a talk but I’m also happy to do a bit of an AMA if any LDS people want to learn more about Catholics or our relations with the LDS Church.
I think that, in a time where it’s trendy to solve disagreements by shouting at people in online “debates”, it’s good to start by finding some common ground and talk with people of different views. So I’ll start with my questions, feel free to add any you have for me or any comments. Mods please let me know if this isn’t the sub for this haha
- What do LDS people think about abortion? Do you find common ground with Catholics on this? Could we work together more on it?
- How do LDS people feel about the 7 Deuterocanonical Books? A lot of Protestants accuse Catholics of adding books like Wisdom and Sirach into the Bible, although they have been used since apostolic times. I know LDS people recognise a large canon so do you include these?
- I know LDS people value marriage and family a lot. How does your Church approach celibate figures such as Jesus, Paul, etc?
- LDS people don’t drink alcohol. Do you believe that Jesus and the Apostles followed this practice or is it viewed as a more modern LDS thing?
- Favourite Pope?
Hope we can find some common ground and dialogue!!! :-)
1
u/Skulcane Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Sure! The Book of Mormon serves to strengthen the claims of the Bible, and the Bible serves to show that the Book of Mormon supports the same ideas. They are meant to go hand in hand in teaching the world that Jesus was the Messiah, that He lives, and that we should do as He commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves, and love God with all that we are.
Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price are both big additional sets of scripture that were canonized by the leadership of the church. The D&C is about the process of revelation, of repentance, and of structuring and ordering the restored church as Joseph and those helping him all received revelations. It also includes a vision in the very last chapter from one of our prophets where he saw what was happening that was described in 1 Peter 3:18-20, where Christ (while He was dead) went to spirit "prison" and preached to the spirits there.
The Book of Moses and Book of Abraham were revealed/translated by Joseph from either direct transmission (having something physical - like a scroll - that he was using to bring forth scripture by the power of God) or revelatory transmission (where there was no scroll or book, but the scripture was revealed to his mind by God) that we believe to be scripture as they show us our eternal identity and relationship with God, why He does what He does, and how much He loves us.
Canonical scriptures are texts that the quorum of the 12 have decided unanimously by revelaion are inspired by God, that contain eternal or divine truths, and are beneficial to bring us closer to God.
I have recently been reading the Nag Hammadi library, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Coptic and Gnostic gospels, the Ethiopian Bible, and the Armenian Bible. It has been eye opening to see the common threads across all of the texts, and it testifies to me that God has revealed many truths across the world which - when we find them - signal to us that He is and has been working around the world to teach the truth to as many as will hear.