Stefan Mileschin

Mormanism's growth in the US has hit a sudden barrier which is being blamed on the internet.

According to one high profile comment from church boss Hans Mattsson, Mormonism is suffering because people are informed about it through the internet, which was no doubt helped by Novell technology.

According to the New York Times, Mattsson first noticed that there was a problem when people from Sweden noticed information online that contradicted the church's history and teachings.

He initially dismissed it as "anti-Mormon propaganda" and the whisperings of Lucifer, as you do. But when he asked his superiors for help in responding to the members' doubts, they seemed to only sidestep the questions.

Mattsson started his own internet searches and discovered credible evidence that the church's founder, Joseph Smith, was a polygamist and that the Book of Mormon and other scriptures were rife with historical anomalies.

He told the New York Times that the foundation on which he had built his life began to crumble.

Basically the internet provided him with answers and information that the church had denied.

For example, why did the church portray Joseph Smith translating the Book of Mormon from golden plates, when witnesses described him looking down into a hat at a "peep stone," a rock that he believed helped him find buried treasure?

Then there was the small matter of the exclusion of black people from the church.

Smith claimed that the Book of Abraham, a core scripture, was a translation of ancient writings from the Hebrew patriarch Abraham, when it wasn't.

There was also controversy about Smith taking dozens of wives, some as young as 14 and some already married to other Mormon leaders.

On the internet this was discussed in detail and with proof.

He went public with his disaffection, making him the highest ranking church official to do so.

Mattsson and others say the disillusionment is infecting the church's best and brightest. In other worlds those who have an internet connection and a bit of curiosity.

http://news.techeye.net/business/mor...f-the-internet