User:Mkmcconn/Different

This article was an experiment. I wrote a very sympathetic and open view of Mormon religion as a "different Christian religion", strictly from the perspective of the Creed. The catalyst for the experiment was to invite Mormons to read it and to improve upon it. The result was a complete re-working of everything that I had said, until by the time that editing stopped the article had been changed to say something very different from what it had started out to say. What was demonstrated by the experiment is the impossibility of describing the mainstream view of Mormonism to the satisfaction of Mormons. This transformation is not illustrated by the product, but by the process; although the process may have stopped long before it was in fact complete. — Mark (Mkmcconn) **

Introduction: A Different Christian Religion

Mormonism teaches that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God. In addition, Jesus lived a perfect life, was a sacrifice for the atonement of all sin, and was resurrected. To this point, Mormonism's narrative of Jesus' birth, death, resurrection, and future coming, is drawn from the Bible, and therefore is recounted in the same words as the traditional Christian narrative.

Mormonism diverges from traditional Christianity, however, on the topic of the nature of God. Traditional Christianity teaches the Father always and only, and ever, reveals himself through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit: these three are the one and only God. Mormonism teaches that the one and only God, or Godhead, consists of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost), who are three separate individuals, each distinct from the other in substance, while one in every other way. Mormonism also teaches that other beings, conceivable but not worshipped, may be called Gods, including the father of our Father as well as eternally glorified humans.

Traditional evangelical Christianity and Mormonism differ subtly in their interpretation of salvation as well. Evangelical Christianity teaches that Christ accomplishes for the believer a salvation so complete that the one who hopes in him stands in relation to God as though he himself had fully achieved perfect obedience, and fullness of love and holiness: this is his, through Christ given for him. Out of this gift proceeds a life of gratitude rather than of servile striving for acceptance with God.

Mormonism also anticipates a life of gratitude for its followers. Salvation is a free gift provided by and through Jesus Christ alone, and everyone will obtain salvation from sin. Salvation does not, however, guarantee exaltation, which is acceptance into the Kingdom of God. God has established laws for everything in the universe, including His Kingdom. In order to be accepted into His Kingdom, one must be prepared to live the laws that God has chosen to govern it. An individual who consistently breaks God's laws, and chooses to not change, will not have the privilege given to those who do live by those laws. God cannot, and will not, interfere with an individual's agency to choose. It is significant, however, that God will not doom that individual to endless suffering, but rather a limited (or damned) opportunity for learning.

In addition, traditional Christianity teaches that the church's founding and sufficient testimony from God is the Bible. All further revelation is only the Holy Spirit's guidance of the church, opening its eyes to what has already been written, in the process of conforming the church more and more to the revelation of Jesus Christ as he has left testimony through many witnesses, in Scripture.

Mormonism teaches that God reveals His word through an individual known as a prophet, seer and revelator. Historically, this individual has been the chief member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the governing body of the church. As is taught in Mormonism, this individual is the only one permitted to speak on behalf of God for the church, and what he says is scripture, equal in authority to the Bible.

A page exists in this encyclopedia, that discusses this special conflict, at Mormonism and Christianity. While I have reservations about the appropriateness of that page for an encyclopedia, it is an interesting experiment. Is it possible to give an account of the conflict between Mormonism and Christianity in a journalistic way, when the ground upon which the two clash is perceived so differently on both sides? How do you research an article like that? How do you avoid letting it become merely a description of the points upon which they differ, to make a disciplined description of how these differences affect their relationship?

Mormonism and Christianity, as I begin this, starts better than it ends. I'm not sure that I see clearly where it begins to go wrong; so this page exists to think that through. I intend to start badly, and end better. To do that, I'll begin with what Christianity looks like from a Christian perspective, when it is confronted with Mormon doctrine. This is exactly what the article ends up doing, only from the reverse position.

From there, I'll try to work backwards toward an explanation of the nature of the conflict. Out of this, perhaps I can discover what it is that makes the Mormonism and Christianity article seem to lose its way. If I can get myself out of a morrass that I've designed for myself, maybe it will help me to see the way to emerge from the problem created in the article.

A typical difference

According to traditional Christianity, there is one God only, without beginning, who created all that has ever existed anywhere. This one God, according to the Hebrew Scriptures which Christians accept as the word of God, makes himself known by the Hebrew name, the tetragrammaton, יהוה, which literally means, "I am that I am". In most English Bibles, this word, YHWH, is translated LORD, or transliterated as Yahweh or Jehovah in some cases.

According to traditional Christians, YHWH is the triune God, the Father made known through his eternal Word by the Holy Spirit. His name, "I am that I am", itself represents for Christians that, this God is self-existant, uniquely and absolutely eternal, and that he has for his own purposes chosen to draw near to his covenant people, Israel, to save them and to give them his law. These saving purposes are brought to their ultimate fulfillment when the Father is made known through the incarnation of his Word, by the Holy Spirit, in Jesus Christ.

In contrast, Mormons explicitly associate this name with Jesus Christ alone. Mormons teach that Jesus Christ in his pre-incarnate state was given birth into a spirit-body by God the Father, and that in this state he made himself known to Israel as Jehovah. Jehovah was later given a human body by the Holy Ghost, and made himself known as Jesus Christ.

In Mormonism, Jehovah is the likeness of a higher deity, the Father, who is head of a heavenly triad of divine beings which consists also of Jehovah and the Holy Ghost. Jehovah is Jesus Christ, and God the Father is not Jehovah. All of these personages are equally eternal, in the sense that all immortal souls pre-exist. God (the Father) is distinguished by what he has become; which Jehovah (Jesus Christ) has also become. They are exalted humanity.

It is a challenge to explain or to describe the feelings -- of sorrow? revulsion? anger? -- that this Mormon account of things creates in someone like myself. It resembles Christianity the way one frog resembles another, after one of them has been put in a blender.

Watching it make a difference

Of course it makes a difference -- if it didn't, Mormonism would be the Smithian Protestant Church of America. Remember, the purpose of this is not to persuade but to explain. Sterlingbates

In rejecting this one point of Christian doctrine a distinction arises in Mormonism that makes a difference. Catholics, Orthodox, and evangelical Protestants can perceive in this one point a redefinition of Christianity that goes to the heart of what Christianity is. In light of this difference, Mormonism is perceived to be something else, from the root up: because faith in God is the foundation of everything else.

Mormons do not deny this teaching; and Christians perceive that something basic to Christianity is affected by it. So, here we have a typical example of grist for the anti-Mormon mill; a specimen of the conflicted relationship between Mormonism and Christianity. For the sake of this experiment, we can pretend that this is the one thing that sets Mormonism apart from traditional Christianity in order to simplify the issue. We are not after a full description of all the things upon which Mormons and Christians differ (which is why the current article presently is just another explanation of Mormon doctrine). Rather, what we are looking for, is a description of the conflict (its character and means), some documentable explanation of why there is a conflict, and identification of the parties to the conflict. In other words, we are not looking to publish an encyclopedia version of the page you are reading now, or the last half of Mormonism and Christianity.

In order to effectively write about this, we should be able to answer questions like the following:

Who will write a book, or publish a webpage, dedicated to attacking this difference?

Perhaps they should simply describe the difference. Sterlingbates

What motivates these writers - what do they seek to accomplish?

Who will judge the motivation, or the truth of their stated motivation? Sterlingbates

Who reads this anti-Mormon material - what are they looking to get out of it?

More importantly — do they get something out of it? Are they better people for having read it? Sterlingbates

Is there a parallel kind of activity on the Mormon side? Is there a Mormon counterpart to the evangelical "anti-cult movement" - why or why not?

Individual Mormons may undertake these activities, but they are not sponsored by the church itself. I personally think that being as actively "anti" as many traditional Christians (or anyone else) are is repugnant, hateful, non-Christlike, and void of tolerance. Sterlingbates

How is this anti-Mormon writing perceived by Mormons, and why?

I think the majority think the same way I do. Sterlingbates

Are there "good" anti-Mormons, and "bad" ones?

As a wise man once said: "You can do a wrong thing for the right reason (i.e. make a mistake), but you can never do a right thing for the wrong reason." Sterlingbates

Christians of one stripe are consumers of shallow and sensational critiques, filled with half-truths, personal attacks, naive generalizations, stereotypes and exaggerations, rumors and anectdotal scandals, and misleading claims of personal expertise. Some parties who generate this material are unwilling to correct inaccuracies or to stick to up-to-date information. This is the sort of treatment that is resented most, when Christians are on the receiving end in the context of controversy. This scandal has very much to do with the heat and resentment generated in the Christian conflict with Mormonism.

Is the conflict even necessary? If traditional Christianity's position is iron clad, Mormonism may as well talk to itself. Traditional Christianity should simply disregard Mormonism out of hand, rather than battle it to death. Sterlingbates

Some organizations, although sometimes portrayed by Mormon apologists as self-serving and perhaps also hateful, are still regarded with some respect on both sides. Among these, I think it's safe to include:

Please remember that the purpose is not to bring as much firepower to bear as possible. It's to present the facts simply as they are. Sterlingbates

Mormon Research Ministry (Bill McKeever)
Mark Cares (Lutheran, Missouri Synod)
Berean Christian Ministries (John Farkas)
Watchman Fellowship (Rob Bowman)
Institute for Religious Research
Utah Ministries Inc.
Probe Ministries

Some of these are mixed cases, in a Mormon view I'm sure. The Tanners (Utah Lighthouse Ministries) are definitely a mixed case in their view. They are highly relied upon, and are probably the most important pioneers of the modern evangelical reaction to Mormonism, but their work is not always regarded as thorough. In other words, they have on occasion brought things to the attention of scholars, which sometimes don't pan out quite as expected, so that they are occasionally seen as sensationalists. Personally, it's a meat and bones thing for me. There is no question that the Tanners are important to the picture.

And yet, not the Tanners, rather what facts they present that are perhaps superior to the facts of others. That is the true measure of one's importance here. Sterlingbates

But it is important to realize that these groups are not necessarily the leading sources of the perceptions Christians have of Mormons. It is more likely, especially in some circles, that they learn their basic view of Mormonism from the video "The God-Makers", which by comparison to the above groups is (sad to say) sensationalist, conspiracy theory-based, but widely distributed.

OK, you've just identified the flaw. It is imperative that "Mormons" and "Christians" be left at the door. Whip out the statements of the president of the Evangelical Church of America, and bring that to the table. There is simply no leading source on the perceptions of either traditional Christians or Mormons. I can bring in a complete atheist who is more apologetic to Mormons than to traditional Christians. Where will his perspective be represented? Sterlingbates

Also important to bring out, is that Anti-Mormonism, and the Mormon counter-attack (FARMS and FAIR, especially), are not all that there is to the relationship between Mormonism and Christianity. They represent skirmishes in a wider conflict.

Let's end the conflict. Rather than spend money publishing anti-this and anti-that, let's put that money to good use! :-) (Yeah, I know.) Sterlingbates

Salvation

The centerpiece of the above attack on Mormonism is the Christian issue of salvation. The opponents of Mormonism claim that the Mormon expectation of reward will be disappointed because it is a fantastic invention; and their denial of the gospel will prevent them from knowing God, or entering into his promises.

Heresy

Their Christian opponents do not deny that Mormons believe in Jesus; but they do deny that they are believers in the gospel of salvation. They are regarded as heretics, in other words: opponents of the church and its doctrine of salvation, who profess faith in Jesus but not according to the truth, and who draw converts to themselves from out of the church.

From the Mormon point of view, they do not see themselves in contrast to "a church", but rather in contrast to a chaos of "sectarians". There is no one "orthodoxy" that they dissent from; rather, they reject all the competing uncertainties and speculations of the various denominations and in their place they have a direct divine revelation. Their temple ceremonies place emphasis on this view of their situation, in regard to the sectarians.

Protestantism generally holds that despite the varieties of sects, there is an invisible unity, which is the church. This unity is manifest visibly, but imperfectly, in the public Christian profession of faith in Christ, the sacrament of baptism, and communion. But the actual boundaries of this unity are ultimately known only to God. This is in contrast to the catholic traditions, which identify "the church" with a specific historical entity, the Roman Catholic communion, or Eastern Orthodoxy, for example. This vague Protestant idea of invisible unity is prone to be extended also to all sorts of sincere believers in Jesus, probably to Evangelicals of any denomination, also to Catholics and Orthodox of an evangelical mind, and hypothetically also to Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons who despite what their religion is thought to teach, trust in Christ, rather than themselves, for rescue from everlasting alienation from God.

This is a partial explanation of why Mormonism has such a successful draw from among Protestants, and less so from among catholics. Some estimates hold that, of the more than 300,000 conversions to Mormonism worldwide each year, around 80% are from Protestant background. The sense of belonging, fostered in Mormonism, is extremely strong; and it is thought by some to appeal in a concrete way to those disatisfied with the more vague notion of Protestantism, which leaves uncertain who does and who does not have part in the Kingdom of God.

It is first of all in reaction to this erosion among Protestants, of any definite content to "belief in Jesus", that anti-Mormonism arises. It is directed initially at those susceptible to the appeal of Mormonism, to educate them about the difference between Mormonism and the gospel. Secondly, it is directed at those converts to Mormonism who naively adhere to it, unaware that there is a contrast between Mormonism and the gospel. Finally, it is directed destructively at the Mormon engine of propagation, to undermine its carefully crafted account of itself, to expose it as a fraud and a destroyer of Christian knowledge, in contrast to the gospel.

Further exploratory thoughts

A regional perception

Despite the internet, the conflict between Mormonism and Christianity is a somewhat geographical issue. Growing up in Wyoming, and living in Oregon, Mormonism is clearly the chief rival of any Christian group, second only to irreligion. The history of the western United States is also indelibly the history of Mormonism. It is not a footnote, but an entire chapter. And for those who live in Idaho and especially Utah, it is practically the whole book. A Christian living in these regions will find Mormonism hard to ignore. He will be confronted with it, its appeal as well as its offense, in many ways. He will be forced to adopt some standard of toleration of Mormonism that will not violate his conscience, as well as form a response that is true to his Christian profession.

From talk

it is alleged that the LDS is self-consciously attempting to "mainstream" itself. What does this mean?
some evangelical political organizations court Mormon collaboration.
80% of conversions to the LDS are allegedly from Protestant background.
the Roman Catholic Church, United Methodists, PCUSA, and others, do not recognize Mormon baptism but recognize one another's.

Tom's remark

... in the regions of hottest conflict, Christians are particularly desirous to shed all descriptive qualifiers and wear the simple label of "Christian"? Here's what I am thinking about this mindset:

All "isms" are bad.
There is just one holy, cahtolic church
All christians should be in communion
We are not Protestants, Catholics, Assyrian Christians (Nestorians), Baptists, Presbyterians, Unitarians, Eastern Orthodoxists; we are all Christians, all one body we. One in hope and doctrine.
What religion am I? I am a Christian. What kind of Christian? Oh, well, you know. Just a Christian. I don't go much for "isms."

Mormonism doesn't play this game. Mormonism is not in communion with the other churches (even Mormon subsects are not in communion with each other), and never has been. A Mormon feels somewhat dishonest if he fails to qualify what kind of Christian he is. He knows there are differences, and, while he knows he is a follower of Jesus Christ, he knows he is not some generic brand of "Christian", but comes shrink-wrapped with his own branding.

This evangelical attitude described by Tom is real, in the independent and non-denominational churches, colleges, and parachurch organizations. They sense a shared identity across denominational lines, and many of them freely wander across those lines without much awareness that they have "changed sides". They find it difficult to place much importance on doctrinal distinctives beyond a handful of important non-negotiables, which they sometimes fiercely defend. So, Ed Decker and other anti-Mormon workers, are not self-consciously attempting to win over converts to their particular denomination; and they work with people in a variety of churches. They do not see themselves as defending an institution, but the gospel itself, and the Christian identity (or, much more cynically, as their Mormon critics often claim, to line their own pockets).