What Do Those Baptist Know Anyway?

A great quote about Anti-Mormonism comes from Daniel C. Peterson's article, 'What Certain Baptist Think They Know About the Restored Gospel.'

"Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may well be surprised and perplexed that one church would devote its official resources to assaulting another. There is nothing remotely comparable among the Mormons. I teach Islamic studies at Brigham Young University, and I often lecture on Islam to Latter-day Saint groups across the country. I have written a book about Islam, directed to a Latter-day Saint audience, and have participated in other efforts of the kind. I have been involved in Mormon-Muslim dialogues at Brigham Young and Idaho State universities, and in "trialogues" between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Austria and Israel. Never have I been asked to concentrate on the "errors" and "evils" of Islam, nor have I ever felt the slightest pressure from anybody to do so. Quite the contrary. I have sought always to treat the religion of the Muslims with sympathy and respect, and my efforts to do so have been well received at every level of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"To the best of my knowledge, not a single Latter-day Saint makes his or her living as a professional critic of anybody else's faith. We don't run anti-Protestant "ministries." We don't have a Sunday School curriculum focused on the errors of the Baptists. No Mormon tabloids exist that aim at refuting Calvinism. We don't buy or sell books with titles like 'Forty Years an Evangelical Slave.' We don't produce sensationalistic videos devoted to attacking Protestant fundamentalism. I have never seen a Latter-day Saint cartoon lampooning, say, the Assemblies of God. We don't flit around the world trying to disrupt the work of other religious organizations. We don't picket them when they dedicate new buildings. We don't haunt their meetings. We don't distribute leaflets assaulting other faiths. We don't sponsor lectures or seminars in our chapels assaulting the "evils" of our neighbors' religions, and we don't have television and radio programs "exposing" the stupidity or depravity of others' beliefs.

"Latter-day Saints can, I think, be quite happy that this is so."