Are Mormons Christian?
Richard John Neuhaus wrote this article Is Mormonism Christian? A Respected Advocate for Interreligious Cooperation Responds in 2000. He raises many interesting points about LDS theology and organization in relation to "traditional" Christianity, and generally concludes that Mormons are not Christian. Rather, the LDS religion has the same relationship with Christianity, in his view, as does Islam.
His arguments, in my opinion, are excessively doctrinal rather than cultural. Certainly, Mormon doctrine is contrary, consciously so, to much of organized Christianity's accepted tenets. The Nicene Creed, for example, is rejected almost completely in Mormon theology, as Neuhaus notes. However, the Nicene creed was a political document, commissioned by Constantine, to harmonize and systematize Christian belief. It bears at best only an indirect relationship to Christ's message and mission, focusing on matters such as the nature of the Godhead. According to my reading of the scriptures, Christ was much more concerned about people being kind to one another, forgiving, loving, and helping each other, than about legalistic considerations of the relationship between God the Father and His Son.
I consider such matters, which I recognize have loomed large over the centuries in men's minds, been the cause upon wars have been fought and millions slaughtered, to be so much mumbo-jumbo. To cavalierly reject people from the body of Christ because their mumbo-jumbo is different from your mumbo-jumbo is in my opinion wrong. Now old Joe Smith had a carnival barker's love of hokum, and a lot of it has survived in LDS doctrine and practise. And a lot of that hokum and hooey is pretty hard to swallow. But so is a lot of the traditional belief of any religion. I mean, does the earth really sit on the back of a turtle? Did Christ really turn water into wine? Did God really flood the entire earth, and are all people and animals that live today descended from Noah's ark's company? Faith should not require a suspension of disbelief! It is possible to be faithful and rational at the same time.
In addition, Mormons are, in their basic beliefs and lifestyles, culturally indistinguishable from mainline American Protestants. Conservative ones. GW Bush-supporting ones. Which is more to the point than whether they are doctrinally Christian. Are they, and other conservative Christians, actually acting in a Christian manner when they support the Bush administration?
Here's the rub for me - how can people who ostensibly adhere to a belief in the God of Love support a greedy, corrupt, war-mongering, lying, power-mad regime? The answer is sad and horrible - they want to believe that the President is good and strong and right and fair, and so they do believe it, to the exclusion of all information to the contrary. And because they have already been trained by their religion to faithfully believe in all manner of hokum and hooey, it's easier to believe whatever crap Fox News spews at them. The power of false belief is very very very strong.
And there is a strong correlation between false belief (evolution is wrong! The bible is literally true in all respects! the Angel Moroni deposited golden plates in upstate New York!) and support for GW and his corporatist agenda. And GW's wealthy backers exploit these believers, for whom they have nothing but cynical contempt, as dupes and rubes and useful idiots.
His arguments, in my opinion, are excessively doctrinal rather than cultural. Certainly, Mormon doctrine is contrary, consciously so, to much of organized Christianity's accepted tenets. The Nicene Creed, for example, is rejected almost completely in Mormon theology, as Neuhaus notes. However, the Nicene creed was a political document, commissioned by Constantine, to harmonize and systematize Christian belief. It bears at best only an indirect relationship to Christ's message and mission, focusing on matters such as the nature of the Godhead. According to my reading of the scriptures, Christ was much more concerned about people being kind to one another, forgiving, loving, and helping each other, than about legalistic considerations of the relationship between God the Father and His Son.
I consider such matters, which I recognize have loomed large over the centuries in men's minds, been the cause upon wars have been fought and millions slaughtered, to be so much mumbo-jumbo. To cavalierly reject people from the body of Christ because their mumbo-jumbo is different from your mumbo-jumbo is in my opinion wrong. Now old Joe Smith had a carnival barker's love of hokum, and a lot of it has survived in LDS doctrine and practise. And a lot of that hokum and hooey is pretty hard to swallow. But so is a lot of the traditional belief of any religion. I mean, does the earth really sit on the back of a turtle? Did Christ really turn water into wine? Did God really flood the entire earth, and are all people and animals that live today descended from Noah's ark's company? Faith should not require a suspension of disbelief! It is possible to be faithful and rational at the same time.
In addition, Mormons are, in their basic beliefs and lifestyles, culturally indistinguishable from mainline American Protestants. Conservative ones. GW Bush-supporting ones. Which is more to the point than whether they are doctrinally Christian. Are they, and other conservative Christians, actually acting in a Christian manner when they support the Bush administration?
Here's the rub for me - how can people who ostensibly adhere to a belief in the God of Love support a greedy, corrupt, war-mongering, lying, power-mad regime? The answer is sad and horrible - they want to believe that the President is good and strong and right and fair, and so they do believe it, to the exclusion of all information to the contrary. And because they have already been trained by their religion to faithfully believe in all manner of hokum and hooey, it's easier to believe whatever crap Fox News spews at them. The power of false belief is very very very strong.
And there is a strong correlation between false belief (evolution is wrong! The bible is literally true in all respects! the Angel Moroni deposited golden plates in upstate New York!) and support for GW and his corporatist agenda. And GW's wealthy backers exploit these believers, for whom they have nothing but cynical contempt, as dupes and rubes and useful idiots.
posted by divadab | 10:30
2 Comments:
hey, now, not all of us are ultra-republican conservatives. the church is very careful to not push one sort of politics over another.
and, i certainly hope not all of us are "trained by their religion to faithfully believe in all manner of hokum and hooey."
you could be a bit more considerate, i think. give us some credit at least, especially before you go slandering our beliefs and religiousity in general.
Hey, Amelia, my barbs are aimed at those self-styled Christians who think bombing the heck out of innocent Iraqi civilians is somehow a good thing. And are able to believe the outright fantasies peddled by GW Bush apologists in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
I suppose that I made the point a little strongly - I certainly didn't mean to issue a blanket condemnation of Mormon or any other Christian beliefs. But I do think that certain religious beliefs are, frankly, ridiculous. And that you can subscribe to a religion, and be a good person, without compromising your rational mind.
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