Many Mormon parents understandably want their children to marry within the faith. If their children date outside of the faith, the parents may be concerned they may marry outside of the faith. Even more serious, many parents worry their children will convert to the other faith. [Added in response to Charles Sampson] According to the dictionary, two definitions of "convert are "to persuade or induce to adopt a particular religion, faith, or belief" and "to undergo a conversion". In the context of this question. It may be possible that the boyfriend's family are worried that the boyfriend will reject his Mormon faith (or denomination) and join the Southern Baptist faith (or denomination).

Southern Baptists, like many Christian denominations, are not big fans of the LDS church or its theology. Aside from the fact that they probably would just prefer he date a mormon girl who shares the family's values and cultural references, they may be afraid of the potential persecution and rejection by the Baptist family. I think in general, Mormons have a more peaceable attitude about other Christians than the reverse.

As a Southern Baptist Christian, you belong to a church and faith that is fundamentally incompatible with the views of the LDS. From a theological perspective, it's pretty black and white; one cannot belive in Christianity and Mormonism. It's one or the other. I suspect that the reason why his family is not happy with your boyfriend's decision to date you stems from the fact that the Southern Baptist church has been particularly active and vocal in its efforts to expose the incompatible and divergent religious views separating Christianity and Mormonism. The Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil were brothers. They hold the view that God lives in the heavens near a planet called Kolob and directs his church on earth by way of a church president who holds prophetic status and who receives divine revelations. The Mormons espouse the view that men can themselves become gods if they live a righteous life in the Mormon Church, a works-based notion of salvation that is antithetical to the Christian notion of salvation through grace. The Mormons also believe that Jesus will return to this world by appearing in the future at a LDS temple in Missouri. The Southern Baptist church has labeled these views heretical in designating LDS as a cult. I suspect that the incompatibility between the two faiths, and that of Christianity and Mormonism in general is the reason why your boyfriend's family is unhappy with his decision to date you.

Religious bigotry between cults is normal. Southern Baptists are not lily white either

They think that dating might lead to marriage and they want him to marry someone of his own faith.

WEll my dad is southern Baptist, and my mom Mormon.. lets just say life hasnt been all rosey for me. It really is best to marry someone of the same faith.

Well, you marry who you date. Mormons believe in getting married in one of their temples. And this can only be done if their fiance is a member as well. This could also be because there have been rather tense relations between the baptists and the mormons, at least where I grew up. People told me it was because we were converting to many of your faith, which lead to the distribution of much of the anti-mormon liturature in our area. Although in my cynicism, I doubt it was entirely one sided.

Lots of deep questions and answers here.I myself am a recovering catholic.I'm still trying to figure out how any religion can claim that their God is love and then try to keep two people apart for the simple reason of a difference in beliefs.Isn't God God?Doesn't he love us all no matter who we are or how we believe?I believe that to be true.So in a sense i guess i'm saying that if you profess a love of God,then stand in the way of someones love simply because they dont believe as you,your going against God's own teachings.Love thy neighbor as you love thy self.Yes?

If you search the internet via google, look for "baptist vs mormon beliefs". There you will find your answer. Christian and Mormon beliefs do not align with one another, they have core values and beliefs that are totally differient.

The LDS have a lot of history with this comment. “not everything you read on the Internet is true” just remove internet. See how otter is trying to immediately lead you away from searching the internet. The LD’s live within there 4 books and that is it. If you do a search, you are looking for specific item or quotes or comments to compare them with a Biblical reference. And yes 1 of the 4 books is the bible, yet they only believe it as long as it is translated correctly, so in other words they disregard the validity of the bible. They hold a higher value on the BOM and D of C and P of GP, the bible to them is completely secondary, it is more of a history text than anything else. Your ultimate source for beliefs is un important, what is important is your ultimate source for the truth. That is Jesus Christ and the Bible. There are a lot of Christians who have a vast knowledge of building houses, but do not build them, so does that mean you should not ask them questions or that there answers are incorrect? NO. What otter is trying to do is get you to ask LD’s so they can sway you into there false religion and woo you into there church, if you seek information from outside there church they can not lead you astray with there answers. You can make a very educated decision right from your own computer. There is such a vast knowledge base on the internet, information from both sides. You can read this information and you being an intelligent human being will be ale to see the sites that spew hatred and the ones that adorn with truth. I could list a lot of sites for information, but that is your job. Do your research and ask God to lead you in the correct direction.

Really, otter that is profound. Huh not everything you read on the internet is true. Wow who'd a thunk? Just wow. The reason you and your clan do not read anything else is because if you question your cult, you are told that your faith is not strong or that you are at fault not your religion. If you attempt to look outside the box, you will be inendated with other LDS telling you how you should be ashamed for the way you have made your spouse your mother your father you (fill in the blank), look bad and how you have turned your back on god (not God). You told me before that most who leave the LDS turn into athiest not Christians. That is because there is suchy a mind bending hold on LDS that if they finally break loosed from this cult, they are filled with hate-guilt-loneliness-sarrow and pain. All stemmimng from the release yet letdown when it finally dawns on them how they were so mislead., How they were lied too.

Because the family are bigots.

It might be something simple. Are you guys under 16? I know that it isn't a good thing to date young in the Mormon faith. I don't think it could be the religion issue. My sister is Mormon and was converted from southern baptist which is what the rest of my family is. It didn't bother us or them any. We attended her baptism and everything.

Well, there's always the possibility that his family are jerks. Families are sometimes like that. Aside from that, there are a few possibilities, neither of which are really a reflection upon you personally. You don't indicate how old you are, but if y'all are young, dating is discouraged below age 16. If this is the case, it's not you personally, they just don't think he is old enough to have a girlfriend but are realistic enough to know their ability to prohibit him from seeing you is limited. If you are older and you are both in a position to be looking for a marriage partner, there is a lot of emphasis within the Mormon Church (and many other churches, for that matter) on marrying within the faith and dating outside the faith is going to increase the odds of marrying outside the faith. Again, it's not about you and as long as your boyfriend is happy with the relationship that's what matters. If the relationship becomes more serious then it becomes your boyfriend's issue to manage.

i am baptist also and my boyfriend is mormon, his family is pretty ok with me dating him. it is more or less y family that is giving the problems. i want to be with him cause i love him. but my faith is important to me. i dont want to raise our children in confusion of who is right and who is wrong

The answers and comments are quite relevant but let me try and illustarte a response in a different manner. One calls themself 'christian' under whatever denomination title they wish and I think by analysing what it means to be 'christian' at base is important here. This just goes to show that religious denominations that state they 'respect' the beliefs of others really dont follow this statement. I think it is fair to say that any 'christian' believes God created mankind as equals, however some judement has been passed on you that makes you inferior or 'not match up' to someone else's expectations. But dont 'christians' believe at base that only God should judge? We also have the principle of agency or freedom of choice; here your boyfriends parents are not happy with his choice and obviously dont respect it as you are both aware they are not happy with the choice he made. Again we have another 'christian' attribute - respect. Although we are not perfect human beings it seems that your boyfriends parents need to review some of the fundaments of their 'christlike' characteristics. They might be making your life a little hard right now but just try to be patient and show them they have no reason the be unhappy. When they know what a great person you are theyb will hopefully look past their concern and become better 'christians' by accepting you.

Because his family are small-minded bigots who put their own religious dogma before the feelings of their own son. It wouldn't bother me what religion, if any, my son's girlfriend was.

"I am Southern Baptist. My boyfriend is Mormon"!!! This is why!! Blinkered people what can i say.....

I'm the same way only I'm the mormon and my boyfriend's parents are the ones who disapprove. it's really tough to be in this situation, but I think i can explain why. The kinds of people you date are the kinds of people you end up getting married to, and in our church we can't get married in our temples unless both the husband and the wife are mormon. It's important to us that we are married there because we believe that families are sealed together for eternity, even after we die so there's no 'until death do you part.' so it's obviously of concern to the parents because mormon youth are generally encouraged not to date outside our faith because we don't want to have to chose between an eternity of happiness and the person we love. You and I are both living on the line here. Best of luck

you don't worship joseph smith along side jesus.+3

Ignorance

Hell, if MY son wanted to date a Southern Baptist I would be unhappy! : D