Daily Blog - 30 July 2025 - Are Mormons Christian?

I came across this piece today:

Are Mormons Christian? The Beliefs of Mormonism vs. Christianity | Christianity.com

Some personal musings on the Mormons (of which, at least nominally, I am one).

The above piece digs into doctrinal differences between the LDS and other Christian denominations. Whatever the differences, current LDS hierarchy seems sensitive to the LDS Church not being perceived as Christian by many. Accordingly, Church leaders have recently taken actions to minimize the "Mormon Aspect" and to emphasize the "Christian Aspect" of the LDS Church in the eyes of the public. These actions include: no longer putting the Moroni statue on top of newly constructed temples; calling for the elimination of the term "Mormon" from the public lexicon; deleting the term "Mormon" from the title of the Tabernacle Choir; termination of the "Book of Mormon" pageants around the country. From now on, it's not the Mormon Church, it's The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the official name of the Church since its founding in 1830.

The term "Mormon" in the early days of the LDS Church was a nickname given to the Church by non-members. The Church accepted the nickname as a short form name for the Church and its members. The term "Mormon" has been in common use ever since. I'm not sure efforts to stamp out usage of Mormon to define the LDS church are working. It takes a long time to make a name extant for nearly two hundred years go away.

Let's role play. The world: "What religion are you? A Methodist? a Catholic? a Hindu? a Buddhist? a Jain? a Protestant?" Mwah (sic): "None of the above. I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." The term "Mormon" seems so much easier to use as an identifier, consistent with the short-form appellations of other religious denominations. Perhaps the LDS brethren felt that the longer form answer would foster an opportunity for LDS members to opine on the Christ centrality of their beliefs as opposed to head faking the public by using the term "Mormon." Use by Church members of the expression LDS (latter day saint) has risen considerably... a short form bridge between the banned term Mormon and the longer (cumbersome?) long form name for the Church. But, the acronym LDS makes no specific mention of Christ even though it doesn't mention the term "Mormon" either

Without getting into arcane doctrinal differences between the LDS and the broader Christian Church there are conspicuous differences for the casual observer to note. The LDS eschew the common Christian practice of putting crosses atop their meeting houses and churches. The LDS also have a larger body of canon than does traditional Christianity. Christianity, broadly writ, uses only the Bible as canon where, in addition to the Bible, the LDS have three other works of canon, including the "The Book of Mormon," to buttress the claim to truth of the faith. I guess it comes down to what is meant by the term, "Christian." Does Christian include Bible only based? Or does the term Christian embrace believers of Christ, irrespective of supporting canon? Mormons are "out" according to the first definition, "in" per the second.

Considering these differences, I wonder if the LDS hierarchy has ever considered a strategy of emphasizing, as opposed to minimizing, the Mormon aspect of the Church? I.E. "We're MORMON, Christianity's next evolutionary stage as revealed by modern prophets, and proud of it! Are we Christian? Well, we don't quibble over definitional fine points. Let's put it this way, as Mormons, Jesus Christ is at the very center of our belief." Personally speaking, I never had a problem of being seen to be a Mormon and, to a certain degree, was perplexed by the Church leaders' pronouncement to take that proud cultural designation, Mormon, away from me.

"Christian," or not, the appearance almost two hundred years ago and subsequent and growth of Mormonism is an amazing story.
Founder Joseph Smith's, audacity, prodigiousness, big thinking prescience, and revelatory opus, "The Book of Mormon," can't be explained by Smith's pedestrian upbringing. And there has been no credible explanation (many have tried) for an alternative provenance, other than Smith, for "The Book of Mormon." Gilded Age American humorist Mark Twain called "The Book of Mormon" "chloroform in print." Ha ha. But the substance of "The Book of Mormon" cannot be dismissed by a joke or an insult. Nearly two hundred years after "The Book of Mormon's" appearance, popular culture avatars Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone, creators of the Broadway play, The Book of Mormon, are contemporary heirs to Twain and Mormon dissing. From the Gilded Age to the present, the more things change, the more things stay the same. Mormons as the butt of jokes may fill theaters and sell books but claims by the Mormons of "The Book of Mormon's" "divine" provenance have yet to be debunked as fraudulently conceived.

And, where conventional wisdom after the martyrdom of Joseph Smith dictated that Mormon Church would die a slow death, Mormon resolve strengthened, after Joseph Smith's lieutenant, Brigham Young, took over the battered church's reins. Young, a self-confidant, tsar-like, polygamous, pioneer leader, moved the Saints, fleeing from persecution in Illinois, to the hostile US western desert. At a meeting of Brigham Young and mountain man Jim Bridger on the Little Sandy River (just NE of Kemmerer, WY) on 28 June 1847, Bridger told Young that he would give $1,000 ($36K in today's dollars) for the first bushel of corn grown in the Great Salt Lake valley, reflecting his doubt about the Great Basin region's ability to sustain agriculture due to frequent frosts and cold nights.

Now, one hundred seventy-eight years after the meeting between Young and Bridger, everybody wants to live in Utah to enjoy the fabulous location that the Mormons have created. The worm turns!
The LDS Church seems to be going from strength to strength under the current "Mormon Minimizing," "Christ Emphasizing" MO. The LDS reported record convert baptisms for 2024. The LDS Church now has more members outside of the US than inside. And.... thanks to $7MM NIL money, BYU will have the nation's #1 high school basketball recruit, AJ Dybansa playing for the Cougars this fall. Duke and Kansas, eat your heart out. "Mormon Momentum" for sure!

SDT