Calling any non Roman church Protestant is distorted and unfair

[GKC]

Great info!!

I’d like more details, but don’t know what to ask for. I haven’t seen a good Henry VIII thread in a while. After I digest your info, I’ll start another thread.

Thanks.

You are very welcome.

And I see that even though I waited until this morning to write that, I still was a little tired. No extra points for spotting my (numerous) typos.

If you have a Hank question, I’ll be give it a shot. I think he is a fascinating train wreck. And I have given the very short version here.

GKC

Anglicanus Catholicus

 

[Grace_Seeker]

The reason Mormonism gets lumped in with Christianity is that Joseph Smith was a Christian at the time that he developed the Mormon religion. (The same reason Lutheranism is still considered Christian - because Luther was at least nominally Christian at the time that he developed the religion.)

But Smth was not ever a Christian. He grew up in a home that practiced “adult” baptism and was never baptized except as a Mormon. He says he had his experience in the woods where he meant the Angel Moroni at the age of 12 and never join any church, never made any confession of faith, except Mormon confessions.

From the Catholic point of view, heresy is always heresy, even though one heretic may, in fact, be more heretical than another. Luther’s heresies were obviously much less severe, compared to Joseph Smith’s - but both men were Christian heretics, and thus, both religions are considered to be Christian heresies, rather than entirely different religions, as Islam is. (Even though, as you point out, Islam may well be closer to the de fide teachings of the Church than Mormonism is, in actual point of fact.)

And, as has been pointed out, to even be considered heretical, one must be going astray from Christianity. Again my point is that Mormonism didn’t go astray from Christianity. It is an entirely new formed and non-Christian religion, having more as its basis than anything else the folklore of western upstate New York. Because it came of age in the US and thus within the context of a Christian culture it has co-opted much of its religious language from Christianity, but I hardly think that this makes it Christian or heretically Christian. If the Native American religions of the USA can be considered pagan, then surely this false religion of Mormonism which builds on the stories of Native American religion for its own base is just as apostate as they are.

As you say, heresy is always heresy. Wouldn’t it follow that non-heresy is always non-heresy also. Surely, heresy must mean something more than just that people use Christian terms the wrong way. Why do you want to classify something as heretical (as I understand it, a straying from true Christian teachings), that was never Christian to begin with?