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Faith in one God affirms Mormonism as Christianity
Published 11:04am Friday, February 10, 2012Second of a two-part commentary on presidential politics and religion. Read Part 1 in the Friday, Feb. 3 Herald.
When considering the openness to religious practice in our country, we are reminded that sociologists have identified over 300 different branches, spin-offs, or registered church denominations in the United States. This variety is just with the memberships viewed as Protestant. We declare a pluralism that is not equaled in any other country. Only in America!
There is a question, put bluntly, by some persons in various churches: “Is a Mormon, referring to Mitt Romney, a Christian?” The statistics on the multiple expressions of faith, with the Bible as a primary source, is soundly established. My ecumenical heart (can’t we be a little more in agreement with the Jesus-basics?) has been broken dozens of times by the divisions, rancor, internal squabbles, and what I regard as territorial impulse.
Mormonism is up for inspection. That in itself, is a positive. But, I encourage the inspectors to place these believers in the context of the larger sea of confessions and practice.
An evaluation of Mormonism as a Christian organization, needs, I suggest, to note that most of what are regarded as historic, traditional beliefs and practices are accepted by the Mormon Church. There have been some behaviors and teachings that were, in some of their communities, once accepted, but they have been rejected, re-interpreted, viewed as unnecessary, or placed in a category of non-essentials in honoring the historic creeds of Christendom.
A reminder: The above analysis could be applied to the larger multiple bodies, groups, synods, and denominations that embrace the traditional, unifying message of Jesus. Certainly, we agree that Jesus was fundamentally an example of healing and compassion. The rare and original teachings of Jesus have flowered into a variety of streams, all having in common particular emphasis. A key word in all of this is interpretation.
Persons interested in a deeper study of the Mormon Church may wish to study and reflect upon the writing of journalist Joanna Brooks. She was raised a Mormon and is presently a professor of English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State University.
There are those of us who continue to consult the Bible as a basis of belief, practice, ritual, and the example of compassion. The scriptures are viewed as a revelation from God. Yet within that revelation there are emphases, points of view, digressions, and debates as to “the truth” that form divergent communities. The variety of convictions already present in scripture have continued to the present hour.
Persons of sincere affiliation of churches in the so-called evangelical tradition, are more apt to raise questions of the authenticity of a “true Christian.” To the point, I, as one person, feel that within my human limitations, I cannot “play God.” I am not the one to verify or set forth a litmus test. I wish to leave some answers to the Great Judge!
The reminders to what we may regard as a basis of being Christian, can be established by many Biblical references.
Words attributed to Jesus are quoted, in part, from the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament viewed also as Christian Scriptures), Leviticus 19:18, “Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself …”
This theme related to a basic acceptance of being a Christian, is affirmed in the New Testament book of Matthew under the title, “The Greatest Commandment.” Chapter 22, verses 34 through 40, places on the lips of Jesus, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind … You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
My study and teaching classes in World Religions in several colleges, and presently at Riverland Community College, brings me to state: This Biblical statement is a sentiment and conviction of the many forms of a life that is found in God.
Among reasons for my affirming Mormons as Christians, I add this experience. My personal respect, and embracing them as Christians, in as authentic a manner as I, by the grace of God, consider myself a Christian (a follower of Jesus Christ) resulted from time lived in New Haven, Conn. While a Research Fellow at Yale University some years back, my family shared an apartment building with a Mormon couple. The complex, by the way, was labeled “The Fertile Crescent.” The times of friendship, expressions of the love of God, the study of the life of Jesus, prayer, and joint worship —- even a joint recycling project —- was a tender and lived out witness to the Christianity we claim, to the stance of some of our Founding Fathers and Mothers!
There is, admittedly, a diversity and variety of ways in which a Christian way of life is taught, embraced, and practiced while surrounded by praise, prayer, and singing
Marvin Repinski is a minister in the
United Methodist Church, now retired.
I am Mormon, and proud of it. Just like Catholics and Protestants, I believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior.
What Protestants and Catholics clearly miss out on is that God the Father was *not* always a God. God was once a regular man who later was exalted to become a God. This is very comforting because it gives me hope that I may become a God in the same way, through exaltation. This is why I seek exaltation.
Joseph Smith taught that: “First, God himself, who sits enthroned in yonder heaven, is a man like one of you. That is the great secret.”
Joseph Smith also taught that, “You have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you” in the King Follett Discourse.
I highly recommend that Protestants and Catholics study the King Follett Discourse. Before God the Father became a god, he was a mere man. Because that man was exalted to god, we too have the hope of being exalted to become Gods.
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“As man is, God once was; As God is, man may be.”
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Rev. Repinski, read this Mormon’s own words and tell me this is Christian. I thought not.
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I would like to thank the Christian Reverend again, and want to add (for Caydon and Dr_Proctor:
The idea that God was once man is basic to Christianity. (That is God capital “G”) The idea that man can be called “god” by participation was central to Christianity, and you could hardly be called Christian if you didn’t believe these two basic things- that God became man, born of Mary, and that, through Him, men can be deified. See my comment below.
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Caydon, there are many wonderful articles on FAIR lds discussing the Christian doctrine of deification.
Here are some quotes from one:
The Christian Doctrine of Deification
Edward T. Jones
From early Church Fathers … Polycarp, himself a disciple of the apostle St. John… “this (deification) they (all early Church Fathers) regard as a point beyond dispute, as one of those fundamentals which no one who calls himself a Christian dreams of denying.” ” man is a creature who has received a command to become God. Basil: “Man received order to become God.”2…Crawford Knox writes that “virtually all the early Church Fathers” taught deification.4 French Jesuit Henri Rondet wrote that “[deification] is found in all the Fathers,” was the “universal teaching of the Catholic Church and her Fathers.” …“most central theological theme of the patristic tradition … “fundamental axioms for the early Church Fathers.”Joyce “the Fathers of the Church from the earliest times with one consent take the apostle’s words [of II Peter 1.4: ‘participate in the divine nature’] in their literal sense. There is no question of any figurative interpretation. They do not hesitate to speak of the deification of men.”
(You have to wonder how Joseph Smith knew?)
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Dear Marvin,
Thank you for your article. Certainly, we in the LDS are Christians. There is no doubt about that. What concerns me is that some of our leadership are evasive on some of the truths taught by Joseph Smith that are most important to me.
To articulate my concerns, I have written an open letter to Jeff Howard who is the Bishop of the Brainerd, Minnesota Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in response to his article. Perhaps you know him?
http://brainerddispatch.com/opinion/guest-columns/2012-02-10/better-look-mormon-church
Dear Jeff,
Thank you for your insightful article. I agree with everything you’ve written.
I am proud to be a Mormon. Moreover, I am proud of Joseph Smith. He is an inspiration to me. Joseph Smith is a true prophet who received important revelations from God.
So why, if we believe that Joseph Smith is a true prophet, do some of us shy away from some of the most important things that Joseph Smith taught? Certainly, as you clearly pointed out, we Mormons are Christians, because we believe in Jesus Christ.
But we also believe, based on Joseph Smith’s revelations, that God the Father was not always a God, but was a man before he was exalted to godhood. Why is it that some of us seem embarrassed about that?
I do not see that as something to be embarrassed about, but rather, an encouragement. For if God the Father was once a man, and was exalted to become a God, so too, I may be exalted to become a God. Why do some of us try to hide this very important truth? Even some of our leaders are evasive on this truth.
Joseph Smith taught that: “First, God himself, who sits enthroned in yonder heaven, is a man like one of you. That is the great secret.” “You have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you”. Do we really believe this or not? And his teaching is indeed confirmed by Doctrine and Covenants 132:20.
Personally, for me, the hope of being exalted to a God is one of the most exciting things. This is something that I have been ridiculed for believing by unbelievers. This is to be expected. Faith is tested by persecution. But, worse yet, my Mormon peers have criticized me for openly sharing this. Why should I keep silent on the greatest hope?
Sincerely,
Caydon
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Thank you so much for this wonderful article. There is always too much of hatred in our world, and your kind Christian attitude is truly a breath of light. You are truly a disciple of Jesus Christ.
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After listening to the surface messages you can hear from many faithful LDS members, it’s hard to imagine that they are anything except true Christians. But a simple web search reveals a much more intricate and troubling history to the Mormon church.
On the one hand, the LDS describe their faith in way that is unabashedly Christian and seems to hold to a higher standard. But a closer look at LDS history reveals a persistent strain of dishonesty on the part of Mormon leaders.
Pick a single topic like polygamy and take a closer look. You’ll learn that church leaders have an entirely different view of appropriate Christian behavior compared to what most Christians would accept.
Mormon polygamy started in about 1833 when Joseph Smith entered into a relationship with a 16 year old servant girl. Smith’s first wife Emma learned of the affair when she spied them consummating their relationship through a crack in a barn door. Since Smith had not yet received any recorded revelation regarding polygamy, there is no way to distinguish his actions from simple adultery.
By 1835 rumors were growing about Smith’s relationships with other women and the church decided to take a public stand to clarify church doctrine. With the inaugural publishing the church’s Doctrine and Covenants, they included a section on marriage. One of the passages in this scripture said the following:
“All legal contracts of marriage made before a person is baptized into this Church should be held sacred and fulfilled. Inasmuch as this Church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication and polygamy, we declare that we believe that one man should have one wife, and one woman but one husband, except in the case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again.”
This strongly worded denial of polygamy was published in every edition of the Doctrine and Covenants for the next 40 years. During this time polygamy was being practiced among church leaders in secret.
Many LDS are shocked to learn that their leaders would somehow publish within the pages of their own holy scriptures such a blatant lie, but there’s no denying history. They did it for 40 years. Church scripture denied polygamy was being practiced and labeled it a crime. Church leaders were practicing it, and claiming God revealed it. During Smith’s lifetime he never publicly admitted he was practicing polygamy. He consistently denied it and lied to hide the practice.
And while you’d be hard pressed to find another Christian church that would wholesale alter their scriptures, there’s a long history of this with the LDS. In 1876 the church altered their Doctrine and Covenants scripture to remove the Marriage Section that labeled polygamy a crime. They replaced it with a revelation from Smith that declared polygamy to be a commandment from God. This revelation remains in the Doctrine and Covenants today as Section 132.
Additionally, Smith’s practice of polygamy was deeply troubling. Of his 30+ plural wives, fully a third of them were women who were already married when he approached them. Smith did not hold their marriages to be “sacred and fulfilled” as his scriptures stated. Some of Smith’s plural wives were mere teenagers. Helen Kimball was just 14 when the 37-year-old prophet took her as his wife.
The church announced it was ending polygamy in 1890, but they didn’t. Church leaders continued to secretly sanction plural marriages for nearly 15 years until additional pressure from the government caused the Mormon prophet to issue a second edict. Polygamy ultimately ended the way it started: It was practiced in secret and lied about in public.
Church members are put into a difficult position with these truths. If any of them were confronted today with the story of a married man who sought relationships with teenage girls and encouraged nearly a dozen married women to enter into a relationship with him, their reaction would be immediate — that behavior is inexcusable. But when they learn the founder and prophet of their church committed these acts, it often elicits an entirely different response. They believe God called him to do these things.
This demonstrates there is a significant difference between the LDS and other Christians. Many LDS are ultimately followers of Joseph Smith, and will set aside any moral standards put forth by Jesus in their admiration of Joseph Smith. But it has to be this way. Unlike other Christians who rely solely upon the message of Jesus Christ, the LDS faith is built entirely upon the mission and message of Joseph Smith. With almost no exception, all of the unique church scriptures, teachings, and doctrines originated with Smith. If he was not a true prophet, the entire church crumbles.
But fortunately, the Internet has changed everything. A recent article in the Salt Lake Tribune (Link: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/53408134-78/church-mormon-history-lds.html.csp) cited an increasing number of Mormons who are learning these truths about their faith, and they’re leaving the church. Other news articles characterize this as, “Mormons Besieged by The Modern Age.” http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/world/01/31/12/mormonism-besieged-modern-age
Even faithful Mormons are joining the voices encouraging the church to be more forthcoming with its difficult history. Here’s an article written by church member Joanna Brooks titled, “It’s time for Mormons to come to terms with church history:” http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/joannabrooks/5635/time_for_mormons_to_come_to_terms_with_church_history
While many of those leaving the church feel a keen sense of betrayal after learning these things, there are a number of good resources to help them. There are thousands that have already left the church who are willing to help those struggling to do likewise. Here are just a few: http://utlm.org , http://4mormon.org , http://lifeafterministry.wordpress.com
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When Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandmenthe said you shall love your god with all your heart and also you shall love your neighbor as yourself.I find many who can do the first part but many stumble on the second part
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