At NewsOK, November 30, 2009:

Utah’s Spanish Fork has Krishna temple

PROVO, Utah (AP) — Ask any Spanish Fork resident and they will be able to point you in the direction of one of the most unique buildings in town and possibly in the whole state. Perched on a hill just south of downtown Spanish Fork stands the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple. Completed in 2001, the Krishna Indian Hindu Temple certainly stands out among the surrounding rural fields.

Hare Krishna is an Eastern religion that worships Krishna, a god who appeared in India about 5,000 years ago. To followers, Krishna exhibited divinity unlike anyone before, during or since his time on earth. Krishna devotees, or Vaishnavas, spend their life studying and serving Krishna. Vaishnavas study a sacred Hindu scripture called the Bhagavad Gita…

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has supported the temple since its inception. In fact, the church gave $25,000 to help build it.

Hmmm. Passionate zeal for exclusive devotion to the true God is demanded throughout the entire Old Testament history of God’s dealings with His covenant people. When He led them into the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, God ordered the complete destruction of all the marks of idolatry found in that place. The altars, the sacred pillars, the carved images were to be torn down. “You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree” (Deuteronomy 12:2). God demanded that His people be holy — set apart — and that they, like Him, not tolerate pagan religion. They were to guard the purity of their worship of the one true God lest the presence of false gods become too great a temptation and compromise that true worship.

Destroying places of false worship is not what God’s people are called to do in this current age of grace. Instead, followers of Christ are instructed to be patient while reasoning with those who are in opposition to the truth, and always be ready with an answer for the hope that is within them. Even so, in the New Testament the Apostle Paul reissues the call for God’s people to be set apart. He argues, “What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion dies a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols?” (2 Corinthians 6:15-16).

A question arose in the New Testament church regarding the eating of meat sacrificed to idols in pagan rituals. Within the context of this discussion Paul asserts that, though an idol is nothing, behind pagan ritual is the reality of Satan’s work. These sacrifices are made to demons and not to God. “I do not want you to be participants with demons,” Paul says. His mandate is that believers flee from idolatry; have nothing to do with paganism (1 Corinthians 10:14-20).

Paul has given followers of Christ a rule to live by which is easily discerned: Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. All Christian behavior should be for the glory of God and for the salvation of the lost, taking care that nothing is done which would cause anyone to stumble (1 Corinthians 10:31-33).

So I wonder: What would the Apostle Paul have to say about the LDS Church’s large donation toward the building of a temple for the worship of a false god?

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Comments within the parameters of 1 Peter 3:15 are invited.

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