are Mormons considered Christians?

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) is a remarkable religious phenomenon that has been grossly misrepresented by contributors who are clearly not at ease with its teachings regarding the nature of God the Father; the teaching of salvation through Jesus Christ the Son of God; and its teaching concerning last or final, matters following death, the Judgment, and the question of the reward of eternal happiness or misery in a life to come.

‘Mormons’ and ‘Mormonism’ as discussed in Catholic Answers does not properly relate to what the LDS religion is all about, rather, it is a distortion of reality that expose the prejudices of errant individuals. **The tactic of demonising a spiritual community in the hope of debunking the basis of their religion is cheap and unworthy of participants to Catholic Answers. **

I have struggled over many years to resolve an intellectual dichotomy regarding the relative claims of the Roman Catholic Church and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both churches have a great deal in common yet there are issues that place the two communities on either side of a great gulf.

I would like to see the emergence of a thread that takes an intelligent approach to the relative thinking of both faiths in question so that I can get the answers I am seeking that will enable me to get off the fence and find peace.

My kingdom is not of this world: … Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault [at all]. (John 18: 36 38)
 
Asa Ben Judah:
Every human being knows through experience the problems sin has created for mankind and as St. John wrote no one can say they have not sinned without being a liar.
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Oh but ASA, you’ve forgotten Mary! She is without sin!
 
They consider themselves to be Christian.

However, they are not.
 
Tom of Assisi:
Does the Mormon “church” allow Mormons to get abortions?

Yes, the Mormon “church” does allow it’s members to have abortions. They believe that at times, if their god tells their “bishop” it’s ok for a Mormon woman to have an abortion than she can!!! Their President Hinckley stated, "There is seldom any excuse for abortion. The only exceptions are when: l. Pregnancy has resulted from incest or rape. 2. The life or health of the mother is in jeopardy in the opinion of competent medical authority. 3. The fetus is know by competent medical authority to have severe defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth. (General principles, 1992, 25l)

Stating they are pro-life is one of the false-fronts Mormons masquerade as. They can kill their baby if their “bishop” says they can, but they are terrible sinners if they drink a cup of coffee!!!

WHAT A HORRIBLE TRICK OF THE DEVIL!!!
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The “health of the mother” criteria for Mormon abortions also includes psychological well-being. Therefore, if a woman feels that she will undergo some mental stress or anxiety about having a baby to care for (and who doesn’t) then her bishop is likely to approve an abortion, especially if the woman is young and unmarried. When I was LDS, several women I home-taught in 4 different wards had abortions with the consent of their bishops. There was nothing unusual about their pregnancies, they just didn’t want them, and that was “mental stress” enough for the bishop to give the thumbs up to kill the baby.

I also do not understand the idea that if one or both of the parents sinned (rape or incest), then the baby should be killed. What sense does that make? Should we kill the baby if the father robs a liquor store? Someone please explain this one to me.
Paul
 
On the surface LDS looks very Christian and very pro-life.

Many of the usual religious terms are defined very differently than most christian religions.

They call a man Jesus but I don’t recognize him as the Jesus I know.
(ie the Mormon Jesus is the brother of lucifer and married to Mary Magdalene at the weddding at Cana.)

I thought they prefer being known as Mormons more than Christians.
 
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tTt:
On the surface LDS looks very Christian and very pro-life.

Many of the usual religious terms are defined very differently than most christian religions.

They call a man Jesus but I don’t recognize him as the Jesus I know.
(ie the Mormon Jesus is the brother of lucifer and married to Mary Magdalene at the weddding at Cana.)

I thought they prefer being known as Mormons more than Christians.
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That used to be the case. This LDS desire to be accepted as Christian is a very recent phenomenon (about the last 20 years as far as I can tell). When I was LDS (I left in 1986) we never wanted to be confused with Christians. Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor and other early Mormon leaders had nothing nice to say about Christians and took offense if anyone referred to them as such. Brigham Young said “The brute beast of the field knows more about the things of God than does any Christian.”
Paul
 
I find it interesting that for years the LDS church was adamant about the fact that their church was different from “mainline” Christianity, and yet now they are gradually moving more toward it. Why is that? I think the amount of information and ability to quickly access it has made it hard for LDS to continue to claim to be the only true church Christ established and yet be SO FAR different from every other Christian denomination. Guess that’s what happens too when you have a religion founded on a man’s beliefs huh? They have the ability to change those beliefs as they see fit because there’s no real solid foundation.
 
Asa Ben Judah:
How uncharitable some people can be when they want to be!

Just because someone has a different interpretation of what scripture teaches about who God is and what his terms for salvation are doesn’t take them out of Fathers love and grace. If some people had their way they would damn their own mothers!

Every human being knows through experience the problems sin has created for mankind and as St. John wrote no one can say they have not sinned without being a liar.

In my opinion if any person who is prepared to stand up and confess Jesus Christ as Lord of Salvation then they are Christians and to hell with all of the babble that deals with the principles of Biblical exegesis, babble that has only served to divide the divine church, which to all intents and purposes is numbered by God alone.

Beloved, we should love one another because God is LOVE!
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Just because we all sin…does that mean we get to make up our own facts?

The state of education these days…:whacky:
 
Tom of Assisi:
Just because we all sin…does that mean we get to make up our own facts?

The state of education these days…:whacky:
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How true, how true!! The state of education these days! Yikes!! Could this be one of the main reasons these false religious cults continue to spread and form? Like Mormonism - just because it’s made up doesn’t mean it isn’t true?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
 
I know this will probably come off as being controversial, especially coming from a Catholic, but I really feel bad that Mormons aren’t considered to be Christians because I have interacted with many Mormons in my lifetime and always found them to be the most loving, kindhearted, compassionate people. They really do strive to obey the gospel of Christ and conform their lives to his teachings. Every member of the LDS Church I met was genuinely kind and caring and very self-sacrificing, sincerely trying to develop Christlike qualities and to remember the Lord more frequently than just one day a week. I have a lot of admiration for Mormons for this reason. As a Catholic, I find that I have learned a lot from them and have incorporated these good aspects of their faith into my own.
 
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kira33:
I know this will probably come off as being controversial, especially coming from a Catholic, but I really feel bad that Mormons aren’t considered to be Christians because I have interacted with many Mormons in my lifetime and always found them to be the most loving, kindhearted, compassionate people. They really do strive to obey the gospel of Christ and conform their lives to his teachings. Every member of the LDS Church I met was genuinely kind and caring and very self-sacrificing, sincerely trying to develop Christlike qualities and to remember the Lord more frequently than just one day a week. I have a lot of admiration for Mormons for this reason. As a Catholic, I find that I have learned a lot from them and have incorporated these good aspects of their faith into my own.
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My experience is the same. I have never met a Mormon that I thought was anything but kind, compassionate and caring. They are incredible about taking care of their people. My aunt converted late in life and was able to stay (and die) in her own home because women from the church came in daily to help her with basic needs. They have a strong community spirit and devotion to those in need.

The religion itself is IMO built upon a slippery stone and I just could not devote my life to something that seems to be based on visions from a man that IMO didn’t have a lot of credibility. I think he had incredible charisma but had the sect not moved to the isolated Utah territory where they could maintain this belief system, I suspect Mormonism would have died with Smith himself.

Read “Under the Banner of Heaven” if you want some really interesting material in LDS history.

Lisa N
 
We have a Christian here in Utah that has a bookstore. He speaks to Mormons frequently. I was talking with him the other day in his store. The Mormons try and follow the ten commamandments and will often tell you that they do. I have had this experience as well. We as Catholics / Christians understand that we can not follow the commandments, and that none of us our worthy. We get to heaven by strength in Christ, not with our own. We know that we sin and we know that this is a result of the fall, that we choose to be our own Gods daily. Because we come to face our sin and because our relationship with God is creator / created we know that with Christ, being that he is God, that we can in him find peace in our dilemma.

In saying that we also come to know that our good works come from Christ through us, that we have free agency to do these works, to choose to do them, and forever trying not to take Glory for it. The more we can learn this the more we are set free from ourselves and our attempts at godhood. . We are part of the body of Christ and not separate from him. We know that by admitting that we cannot follow the commandments we admit to our fallen nature and in this he is able to pick us up and fill our shortcomings. Fill our self serving void.

By convincing Mormons that they should and can follow the commandments in order to gain status in heaven they have been given a task that they cannot completed. What my Christian friend does when a Mormon comes to him asking questions is show them that they are sinners. He has a step by step process in doing this. When they come to understand the weight that has been placed on them they open up and an honest dialogue begins. The hardest thing is that they have not been baptized with the Holy Spirit in the formula of the Trinity and because they cannot accept it they have a real hard time with these revelations that we have come to know, knowing the One true God and His only Son Jesus. So they cannot see the immensity of our Creator and understand His Grace and his mercy in the proper light. What the Fall is all about.

And in the end what was offered in the garden by Satan to us has been accepted as a good thing by them. They have been taught that the fall gave them the opportunity to grow in stature and eventually become a god as God himself once did as they were taught… But growing in knowledge is not the same as growing closer to God. God did not say that we must be mature to enter his kingdom. He told us that we must be as children, the same children that lived in His total grace in a Garden before they were offered something that appeared to be better, more important than being a child of our only Creator, our only God. Where everything and anything about us that is good comes. . I could go on but I will stop here for now.
 
There is a lot of discussion here. I have studied Mormoism for about four years. The long and short of this answere is:
  1. Mormons consider themseves the only Christian religon. All others are wrong and in total apostasy. That is their doctrine.
So, they do consider themselves Christian.
  1. Almost all other Christian belief systems consider Mormons a psuedo Christian sect. Their concepts of God and the God head separate themseves from accepted Christian doctrine.
I really do not see any basis for debate here. They think that they are, nobody else does.
 
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TOmNossor:
Oh that sounds so ominous. If you do not think Catholics have evolved to sound more Trinitarian, you should read the Ante-Nicean Fathers. Subordinationalism was pre-Nicea orthodoxy.
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No, it wasn’t, as the first Council of Nicea demonstrated rather nicely.

– Mark L. Chance.
 
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