[Another in the series of “Responding to Bumper Stickers,” or “Long Answers to Short Questions,” in which I try to give a Latter-day Saint response to a question or claim commonly lobbed against us on X.]
This was a stunner to me.
Someone posted on X a list of the standard reasons why MoRmOnS aReN’t ChRiStIaNs (I’m not reproducing the intact tweet here, as I only want to deal with one part of the list here — everything else either has been or will be the subject of a separate post), and included this one:
LDS “don’t pray to Jesus.”
That one stopped me short.
He’s right that Latter-day Saints address our prayers to God the Father, not Jesus Christ. Know why?
Because that’s what Jesus said to do.
It’s all through the New Testament:
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. (Matthew 6:6)
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. (Matthew 6:9)
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. (John 15:16)
Now, some of a particular theological bent might say, “That’s all pre-crucifixion — it doesn’t count after His resurrection and ascension!”
My response would be two-fold:
ONE: If the Bible’s supposed to be inerrant and complete (not my position, but the position of just about anybody who would make the objection above), why would the gospels be full of plainspoken stuff that we’re actually supposed to ignore in favor of something that just might be teased out of them if we look at them just so?
TWO: Doesn’t look like everyone else in the NT got the memo:
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 3:14)
And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. (1 Peter 1:17)
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you … giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light… (Colossians 1:9-12)
Those are only the clearest examples. (I skipped, for example, every instance when someone speaks of praying to God, without specifying that it’s the Father, even though contextually it’s pretty clear…)
So that’s what Latter-day Saints do: We address our prayers to God the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, in the pattern found in scripture. And it’s somehow evidence that we’re not Christians? That’s a pretty clear example of prioritizing one’s theological assumptions over the clear text of the New Testament.
(I’m not castigating anyone who DOES pray to Jesus — I’m sure the message doesn’t get lost – but there’s no reason to throw shade for us doing what the Bible explicitly teaches.)