At his blog, Albert Mohler refers to a debate with Orson Scott Card at Beliefnet.com on the question "Are Mormons Christian?" If "Christian" has any meaning at all, it means what most people who call themselves Christians have always meant by it, and Mormons mean something else. Mohler:
Richard John Neuhaus ... reminds us that "Christian" is a word that "is not honorific but descriptive." Christians do respect the Mormon affirmation of the family and the zeal of Mormon youth in their own missionary work. Christians must affirm religious liberty and the right of Mormons to practice and share their faith.Are Mormons Christian? - A Beliefnet.com Debate
Nevertheless, Mormonism is not Christianity by definition or description.
Who I claim as my Christian brother or sister is only important to me. If I choose to acknowledge snake-handlers but draw the line at Mormons, or Jehovah's Witnesses, well, consider the source of the opinion.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, it's orthodoxy and not Mormonism that's important. What is orthodox, (from orth- [right] and -dox [thought])and what isn't, is of the utmost importance. The fact that Mormons do not believe as I believe is of little relevance or importance. That Mormons have as core beliefs ideas that are extra-biblical is however very troubling. Both snake-handling and baptism of the dead (the latter as I understand it is a tenet of Mormonism) both have, admittedly tenuous, basis in scripture.
Every religious sect/denomination has some doctrine, or at least a generally held belief, that some other orthodox sect would question. Seveth Day Baptists have at various times been singled out for holding to the seventh-day Sabbath.
Most of my problems with Mormonism have their root in the "Book of Mormon" and in the missionary zeal of promoting it as if not an alternative then at least as an adjunct to Holy Scriptures.
I guess we need some kind of "Richter Scale" to measure the deviance from orthodoxy.
Unfortunately, some of the most moral people I've ever known are Mormons, or Buddhists, or Jehovah's Witnesses, or and or and or.
I have as much problem with those who would trivialize Scripture (ala Bishop Spong) as I do with those who would supercede it.
Thankfully it's God and not me that will have to sort all of this out in the end.
For the time being the best I can do as an humble layman is accept the judgments of learned scholars who I can label as orthodox, at least when I feel forced to label anyone as "Christian" or "Not".
I have images in my head of the Roman Coliseum, with the crowd giving thumbs-up or thumbs-down on whether a gladiator (or Christian) should die. Crowd mentality is a dangerous thing, isn't it.
The difficulty as I see it is that what Mormons believe is so far from Scripture. It's not that they add to Scripture, but that their revelation changes how they understand every aspect of how Christians view God. Christians believe in one God. They believe in one for this world, and one for every other world, too. They believe each of us is literally the progeny of this world's god, and has a potential to become the god of another world, and populate it. And so on. They have every right to believe what they wish - but what they believe isn't Christianity. Christianity isn't defined by good behavior - people of all religions and none are good people in that sense - but, as you say, by right belief.
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