Mormons: Cultists or Christians ?

LDS Temple in Salt Lake City

The cat is out of the bag. And I’m writing about it, despite the backlash this may generate. Last Friday Dr. Jeffress of First Baptist of Dallas made a comment with regards to presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his membership of the Church of Latter Day Saints aka the Mormon Church. A mormon friend reached out to me with some questions, so I decided to publish my answers since I know there’s others struggling with this topic.

Can we consider Mormons as Christians, or is the LDS a cult ?

Here is Dr. Jeffress quote:

“Mitt Romney is [….] not a Christian. Mormonism is not Christianity. It has always been considered a cult by the mainstream of Christianity“.

Notice though that, in his defense, Dr. Jeffress provided this answer to a question by a reporter and that it was not part of his introductory address. I’ll tackle his three-part comment in reverse.

1) Is Mormonism or the LDS a cult ?

We have to start with the question: What is a cult ? Depending on one’s definition, Islam, Roman Catholicism and certain denominations in the Protestant Church could be considered a cult if the answer is a “doctrinal system provided by the leadership of the organization and which cannot be denied by its members“. Which I think is a very vague answer. May out there have made the difference between sociological and theological cults. More often when using the word “cult” we think of organizations which are way more harmful to their members and would fall in the sociological cult category. And based on that interpretation, I do not consider the LDS to be a cult. The word is too often used as a “boogey man” argument by those that want to scare people. Unfortunately this attitude towards the LDS is still out there and I try to address it when I can. Dr.Jeffress comments are not helping a constructive dialogue. Many years ago Protestants called Roman Catholicism a cult and I’ve been called a “non-Christian” when I mention I was brought up Catholic. That is growing less and less lately. Unfortunately not (yet) for the LDS. One can hope and pray it will.

2) Are Mormonism and Christianity the same ? 

Once again, it depends on what you define as Christianity and what you use as criterium. I would use the doctrines and teaching of the specific religion to gauge whether they are the same or not. Considering Dr. Jeffress used the term “mainstream of Christianity“, we should look at that doctrine. But even in that sphere there are many differences about many doctrines. So what constitutes the core of what I would like to call “Traditional or historical Christianity” ? The closest I could get to that would be the Nicene Creed. Or more historically accurate the “Constantinople-Nicean creed”. In general it is a statement, even though indeed the final version was written in 381 AD, that reflects what most traditional Christian church denominations would believe and accept. You can find a text of it here. Now, one can get into a conversation about whether or not the Nicean creed is correct, or whether it was inspired by Platonism in the usage of words like “Essence”, etc. I have had some of those debates with both Mormon and non-Mormon friends alike. In summary, if one uses the measure of the Nicean creed to indicate whether some denomination is “historical or traditional Christianity“, then with regards to the LDS the answer would be “no” since I know the LDS has some challenges with the doctrines as laid out in it and especially the doctrine of the Trinity. Most other so-called Christian denominations (Roman Catholic, Coptic, Eastern or Russian Orthodox, most Protestants, …) have no issue with it. 

In addition, the LDS requires acceptance of the revelation of Joseph Smith as part of the overall teaching and scripture of the Church. As a matter of fact, the claim from Mormon teaching is that Christianity was in “apostasy” until the corrections and teaching given to Smith. As a matter of fact, LDS will reject the rest of Christianity as false teaching, so I don’t see any argument from Mormon teaching to indicate that “historical Christianity” and “Mormonism” would be the same thing.

Based on these two arguments, I would conclude that, no, Mormonism and Christianity are not the same.

But this brings me to the last, and for me probably the most important, question.

3) Are members of the Church of Latter Day Saints Christians ?

This is the most difficult question to answer, and honestly it is not a question I dare to explore too much. I am sure there are many people in the more “traditional” Christian churches, filling pews and benches that are not “Christian”. Therefore, I am also more than willing to accept there are Christians outside of the mainstream denominations. Admittedly, in order to have a solid understanding of God, Christ, our state and our ultimate hope, it becomes more difficult depending on the denomination. Can one be considered a Christian even if they have a wrong understanding of who Christ is and what his atoning sacrifice means ? This could lead into a discussion as to what makes one a Christian. And although we could probably agree on a measure for that, I for one am not willing to judge this. Matt 7 is way to scary for me in that regard. I think it is possible for some members of LDS to be Christian, just as much as it is possible for members of mainstream denominations to be non-Christian.

Conclusion

So are there serious doctrinal differences and challenges between “mainstream Christianity” and the doctrines of the LDS Church… yes there are. We cannot ignore those and remain honest to ourselves and the faith we represent. But we have to be careful in using words that evoke images of mass suicide (Jim Jones and Jonestown), buildings on fire (David Koresh and the Branch Davidians) or waiting for spaceships (Applewhite’s Heaven’s gate). It doesn’t show Christs love and it definitely doesn’t help if we want to evangelize to those that are lost. After all, that’s the only way we will ever be able to make sure anyone, regardless of their faith, truly becomes a Christian or not

For some more balanced reading and discussions:

• Statement from Richard Mouw, the president of Fuller Seminary: “Romney not cultist”
• Albert Mohler, president of  The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: “Urgent need for evangelical thinking“

Some other blogs:

An older blog entry with a very lively discussion at that time at the Credo House blog, called “Is the Mormon Faith a true representation of Christianity?”. Very helpful post and you can find some more of my comments and thoughts in the comments there.

On LDS Talk, a blog aimed at interfaith dialogue between evangelicals and LDS members:

• Why it matters
• What Evangelicals need to know about Mormonism
• Or the reverse if you’re mormon and reading this 😉