Mormonism Research Ministry relocating to Utah

By STU SMITH

After 25 years, El Cajon’s Mormonism Research Ministry, along with founder Bill McKeever and his wife Tammy, is leaving San Diego County and relocating to Sandy, Utah, about 20 minutes south of Salt Lake City.

While MRM will find itself in a new area with “more opportunity,” said McKeever, those who have followed the ministry for many years will find little changed in its outreach. “We have always had a two-fold ministry approach,” McKeever explained in a recent interview with Good News Etc., “and that will remain. Our first outreach is apologetic, informing and equipping others to dialogue their Mormon friends.”

This area of outreach has been a major emphasis of MRM, and included the ministry’s bi-monthly newsletter Mormonism Research and the three books McKeever has written: Questions to Ask Your Mormon Friend and Mormonism 101, written with MRM colleague Eric Johnson, and Answering Mormons’ Questions, which he authored alone.

MRM will also continue its missionary-minded outreach, training people to serve as street corner evangelists, reaching out and offering answers to those interested in knowing the truth about Mormonism.

“This is an area that’s really starting to see fruit,” McKeever said. “Many people are struggling and are genuinely interested in what information is available, and in what we have to say.”

MRM and McKeever have a lot to say, and although it is not always appreciated by members of the LDS church, it is information that hits at the heart of both Mormon claims and Mormon questions. “It is out of deep love and concern for my Christian and Mormon friends that I have spent hours in research to write this book,” McKeever notes in the Introduction of Answering Mormons’ Questions. “Too many souls have fallen prey to the misinterpreted scriptures brought forth by either the Mormon missionary or Mormon acquaintances.”

This perspective is borne of McKeever’s own experience with Mormon friends. “They were good people,” he said of his LDS friends growing up in Southern California. “They never tried to proselytize me, and it wasn’t until I became a Christian in 1973 that they challenged me on what I believed. As a result it challenged me to know what I believed and why I believed it.”

The hardest thing to maintain in a Mormon-Christian dialogue, according to McKeever, is objectivity and focus. “They always try to make objections personal rather than theological,” he explained. “They will ask why you are being hateful or prejudiced. The focus needs to remain on the theological differences.”

There also needs to be a clear understanding of what words mean, and which definition is being used. Such terms as “salvation by grace,” or “heaven,” or even the word “Christian” often mean something very different when used within the Mormon theology.

“Many Christians are swayed,” said McKeever, “because they don’t understand what’s being talked about.”

A part of MRM’s success can be attributed to the low-key approach of its founder and the people he has trained over the years. McKeever makes himself available rather than an obstacle to those who find themselves on the Mormon path. Most visible in the vicinity of the growing number of Mormon Temples, he will simply ask passersby if they are interested in learning about what Mormonism means and what its teachings are, and many take the literature he offers.

“The Temples are a big draw,” he explained, “when they open their doors to the people of the community for a few weeks after they’ve been built. You can usually tell who is a Mormon and who has come out of curiosity, and it’s the curious who are very open to know more.”

MRM conducted a major outreach during the 6-week opening of the San Diego temple off I-5. The organization will also make its presence felt in Newport Beach, where another Temple is planned, and possibly in Northern California, as well.

“I Peter 3:15 is our guideline, to treat people with respect, but be ready to answer their questions.”

For McKeever, excitement is growing for the move to Utah. With the exception of figuring out how to ship 25 years worth of research materials (“Now I have to move them!”), he is eager to make the move he and Tammy have been praying about for a long time.

And what of 25 years in San Diego County? McKeever counts the continuance of the ministry among their greatest achievements. “This is not an easy mission field for support,” he said. “But the people who have supported us, and the thank you letters we receive on a daily basis, thanking us for the time we have devoted and the efforts we have made - that certainly makes our day.”

You can stay in touch with the McKeevers and the work of Mormonism Research Ministry at the MRM web site - www.mrm.org.