I read the John Doe letter directed to Taylor Eckstrom in the Tuesday, Feb. 14 edition, and I also read Will Gardner’s response to John Doe.
While I applaud Mr. Gardner’s defense of Mr. Eckstrom’s Christian beliefs and also his openmindedness regarding the rights of any individual to defend his/her faith, I must take issue with Mr. Gardner’s statement “as a Muslim,
Mormon, Hindu, Jewish person, etc.” My issue is his putting Mormons in with the group who do not accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of the world. The official name of our church is the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints, we offer our prayers in His name, we take the Sacrament every Sunday in remembrance of His Atonement, and the subtitle of the Book of Mormon is “Another Testament of Jesus Christ.” That book, by the way, was never intended to replace the Holy Bible but only to be further testimony of His ministry. We, too, are Christians, Mr. Gardner, and while we firmly believe in the right of every individual to worship according to the dictates of his/her own conscience, please afford us the respect of being identified as followers of Jesus just as you do any other Christian religious group.
Karen Lee