Mormons not Christian? That's a fallacy of equivocation

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Ahimsa

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However, although they overlap, “historical Christianity” and “Christianity” are distinct concepts, just as palms, firs, flowering plums, and apple trees are both similar and different. Palm trees still share “treeness” with apple trees, and, for that matter, with trees generally. They differ merely in secondary traits.

We Latter-day Saints cheerfully acknowledge — indeed, we proclaim — that our faith isn’t part of the traditional Christian mainstream. After all, if it were mainstream there would have been no need for the Restoration or the mission of Joseph Smith.

At the same time, we also strongly affirm our Christianity, our faith in Jesus Christ as the divine Son of God and Redeemer who offers humans their only hope of salvation.

These two positions — our insistence that we’re Christians and our simultaneous denial that we’re members of the Christian mainstream — aren’t mutually contradictory, because they affirm and deny different things.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — which some call the Mormon church — declares itself a restoration of New Testament Christianity, distinct from all other types of Christianity but still very strongly asserting the deity and atoning mission of Jesus of Nazareth. While it isn’t a branch of the main trunk of creedal Christendom, its roots — like those of that main trunk — emerge undeniably from the soil of early Christianity.

Others certainly dispute the Mormon self-understanding, but there can be no dispute that believing Mormons hold it, and that they place all their hope for eternal life in the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
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**+ I posted this on another thread . . . thought it might help here . . . **
Jesus_123 said:
  • … I was raised as a child in the heart of “Mormon” country here in the United States … Though I knew many Mormons as friends in school and our neighborhood . . . their belief system is known to Catholics and Protestants alike essentially as a CULT . . . and it is an immensely large one . . . and their understandings, definitions and usage of the same religious and scriptural words are RADICALLY different . . .
Definition:
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Ahimsa:
Well of course the LDS Church is going to consistently reiterate that they’re Christian. That’s part of the allure. They are family-friendly, community-centered, and present Christ as the center of their message. That’s the package, and admittedly, it looks highly attractive.

Yet, interestingly enough, Mormons don’t like to divulge some of their more unorthodox doctrines until someone is deep into the Church. At its heart and soul, Mormonism does not seem Christian to me.

If they want to proclaim themselves as the restored gospel - they have every right to do so. But then the rest of us definitely have the right to exclude them from being considered Christians, too. After all, they implicitly do that with the rest of us by affirming that only they have the truth. And the Christian Church for centuries has had no qualms in separating itself from those who fell away from basic Christian doctrine. We shouldn’t either.

Mormons are a wonderful people. I wish I could be as virtuous as many of them. They have much to teach us “mainstreamers.” We can unite on many issues that are dear to both of us. But I don’t like their faith. And I respectfully do not consider them Christians.
 
The one thing that is left out in the very good responses above is that Mormonism is an American Religion.

What I mean by this is that the more you do the better the reward in heaven/spirit world. If you have large families that is a +, if you send your children on missions that is a +, if you go to the Temple every week and baptized the dead that is a +, etc. The way I understand it is the more you do the better off you are in the spirit world. The more works the better place you get in the here after.
 
michaelmas said:
. The more works the better place you get in the here after.
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Sounds like a parable from the New Testament:
Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.

The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

After a long time, the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. “Master,” he said, “you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.”

His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”

The man with the two talents also came. “Master,” he said, “you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.”

His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”

Then the man who had received the one talent came. “Master,” he said, “I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.”

His master replied, “You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

“Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
  • Matthew 25:14-30 (NIV)
 
A question I have on this is: If a Mormon dies but has lead a good life, supported his family, her community, and prayer life but believes in the Mormon theology where do they end up after death?

They don’t believe in the trinity. Catholics don’t believe in Mormon baptism. What happens to these good people?
 
michaelmas said:
A question I have on this is: If a Mormon dies but has lead a good life, supported his family, her community, and prayer life but believes in the Mormon theology where do they end up after death?

They don’t believe in the trinity. Catholics don’t believe in Mormon baptism. What happens to these good people?
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They are, like all of us, at the mercy of God.
 
The fact is that Catholics cannot view Mormons as Christians, since our definition of the term excludes those who don’t hold certain core beliefs. That doesn’t mean that we don’t like them as people. We’re not trying to be mean.

Mormonism is a heresy, and a significant one. Our doctrinal differences on God, Jesus, and the Trinity are huge and shouldn’t be downplayed. There is a reason why Arianism caused so much strife in the early Church.

The linked article simply begs the question, and might be more convincing to Protestants. The argument it makes depends on premises that Catholics reject.
 
Had to chuckle at this. The fallacy of equivocation is to use the same word with different meanings in order to legitimize an argument/statement. If anybody is committing this fallacy, it is the Mormons. “Christian” is a concept that entails certain beliefs - the central one being “Christ, the second person of the Trinity came down from Heaven and assumed a human nature” or something like that. One cannot say “I am a Christian” (remembering Christian as a concept necessarily has as its definition certain requirements) and then go on to say that one denies the divinity of Christ. It just makes no sense - you use the term in one way then use it in another - and the Mormons are especially guilty of this when they try legitimize their faith since they recognize that they are using the word Christian in a different sense.

Furthermore, Christianity has necessarily as a part of its concept the historical facts that go along with it. Imagine I said “I am the American president” and then said, “Yes, well, Obama would say that I am not, but that’s because he is the ‘historical president’, these are two distinct concepts”. It just makes no sense.

Again, imagine I said - “I believe in Jesus Christ” - and my concept of Jesus Christ was the Mexican living next door to me. Could I say “Yes, I am a Christian, just as much as a Catholic is”? Of course not. Nor could I say “Well, historical Christianity would reject my version, but these are distinct concepts, my own version of Christianity starts from this history which says Jesus Christ is my Mexican neighbour”. The historical Christianity is Christianity - because Jesus was a historical figure who had real facts about him (i.e. 2 natures). To deny those facts about him make your belief illegitimate because you no longer believe in that person, you believe in bits and pieces of the facts about him. You’ve recreated your own history.

I could write a lot more on the shifting of meaning and how Mormons justifying themselves in that regard do a really poor job of it but I need to get off the internet for a while.
 
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