Are Mormon's Christians?

[Kevin]

  I was just wondering if Mormons are Christans or not because I can't seem to find much info on this topic? 

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Despite being a fake poster, I'll reply.

Depends on who you ask. They consider themselves to be. Fundies don't. Of course fundies don't consider any non-fundies and mainstream Christians to be Christians. But the RCC and most mainline Christian denominations do not recognize their baptisms, so the consensus would be no among them.

[Ebowed]

There is a lot of debate on this topic within the Christian community, and whatever position you take, the other side is likely to be offended.  Secular groups are more likely to group Mormons with Christians as the church is growing and no longer small enough to be "ignored" anymore.  For example, some school textbooks on social or global studies name The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as a Protestant sect of Christianity.  Mormons also claim that their church is part of Christianity, but I don't know whether they consider themselves Protestant or something else.  Perhaps one of the Mormons on this forum can shed light on that.

[MODU]

This is the fault of labels.  Are Mormons "Christians?"  Are Catholics?  Are Mormons more "Christian" than Catholics?  Are Muslims "Christians?" 

In general, we consider the difference between Jews and "Christians" to be the placement of Jesus in the equation.  Similarly, we consider the difference between "Christians" and Muslims to be the placement of Mohammed.  With those being examples of where the various religions differ, you can consider the difference between "Christians" and Mormons to be Joseph Smith.  Smith is comparable to Mohammed in the way that he received visions/was a prophet which added onto the existing "Christian" beliefs.

So, using that concept, one could argue that no, Mormons are not "Christians."  They're just Mormons.

[Citizen James]

Christians and Muslims are all just really Jewish (extremely reformed though).

[J. J.]

It really depends on how you define Christian. 

[Speed of Sound]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

If thats your definition, then yes.

[Brandon H]

If you define Christianity as the Religion founded by Christ which eventually split into Catholic and the many Protestant branches, then I am pretty sure the answer is no. Based on other definitions though it could be a yes.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

A better question is whether Mormons consider non-Mormons "saved".

[The Dowager Mod]

They believe Jesus is the saviour so yes.

[Gabu]

This is an ultimately unanswerable question due to the fact that "Christian" is not well-defined.  One person might answer yes, and another might answer no, and they might completely miss the fact that they actually agree on what the facts are; it's just the case that they perceive the question differently.

It's a rather divisive and ultimately unconstructive thing to ask, and as such, I don't think it's a good question to ask.  I don't think much of anything good can come from the ensuing discussion, especially if the two respondents from each side are very adamant that their stance is the correct one.

[Joe Republic]

If they describe themselves as such, and believe Jesus Christ is the son of God, then yes.

[Joe Republic]

It is also deeply offensive to anyone who recoginzes the difference between the possessive and the plural grammatical structures, Kevin.

I'm glad somebody else brought that up.  I would have said, but WalterMitty would be on my case like flies on sh**t.

[angus]

Ah, , I've been quoted.  May as well put it back up there:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[angus]

Hey I tried to type the word .  but it didn't appear.  did you notice that?

that's weird.

[??????????]

No.

[opebo]

Yes, but other cultists claim they aren't a related cult.  But they're all just crazy cultists.

[minionofmidas]

I'd say yes; but I don't care and can see the other side's argument. They certainly are not Protestants, though.

[afleitch]

Yes, I would think they are Christians but I would have to read into them more in order to understand.

[°Leprechaun]

What's a "Christan"? Is that anything like a tiecost or a henway?

[Kevin]

   I go to a non-domanational church and they say Mormon's aren't.  However other branches of my religion say they are.

[angus]

They certainly are not Protestants, though.

correct.  and they're very quick to point that out if you should ever attempt to group them with protestants, all of which suggests they probably deserve a separate, fourth, categorization outside the usual Catholic (Eastern or Roman), Protestant (Evangelical or Mainline), and Copt (qibt) groupings within Christianity.

FYI:  for the interested biblical scholars among you, Discovery Channel is doing "Ramses:  Wrath of God" just now.  It's narrated by award winning actor and Hospitality State native Morgan Freeman, and will examine the ten plagues and Moses, and Ramses, and historical and archaeological bases of parts of the Hebrew mythology.  Very interesting so far. 

Freeman:  "Ramses was awed by the god of moses"

sounds like Hebrew nationalistic hubris, no?  Well, the heiroglyphs seem actually to bear that out.  Of course, Ramses did not consider himself a child of lesser gods, but no doubt he was shocked and awed by Yahweh.

Man, it must have been interesting to live in the times before Newton, Darwin, Einstein, and Thales of Miletus.  What interesting tales did explain nature.  Science is fascinating, but rather dry compared to mythological explanations of natural phenomena I think.  Note:  there's another two-hour Egypt special following this one.

ooh, now Freeman is questioning whether Ramses was even the pharoah mentioned in the monotheists' texts.  What this? 



an off-topic followup:  (during a commercial break.  which reminds me that when I lived for a year in Germany and worked for a month in Amsterdam the commercials do not interrupt shows.  no kidding.  it sucks.  you have to hold your pee, or whatever you want to say for hours.  If you're ever in Germany or Holland, take a good long piss, and eat well, before settling in for a long television program.  Luckily I live in the land of the two-minute break every fifteen minutes.  All the countries I've visited in Latin American do commercial breaks the American way, so you're okay there.  Pop a top of cheap beer and watch the show with impunity.)

According to Rabbi Mark Winer, much of the misconception arises from an ancient mistranslation.  These things happen, I can assure you, and I have been guilty of accidental but well-intended mistranslations myself.  It turns out that the "Red Sea" in the book of Exodus should have actually referred to the "Reed Sea"  Probably this refers to the marshy area in the northeast of Egypt. In the Nile Delta.  Parting of the Red Sea?  Well, according to two Oxford and one Liverpool historians, there were probably around 600, and not thousands, of egyptians handling their thousands of Hebrew slaves.  So Egyptian chariots attempt to cross the marshy swamps and of course they are swallowed by the marshes.  (Think of trying to drive your Toyota south of IH 10 in Louisiana, while drunk.  And trying to handle 9 or 10 slaves at the same time.  Of course you're going to think of some interesting story to tell the insurance claims adjustor.  Okay, I'm adding that last metaphor.  That's not Freeman talking.)  Anyway it's not such a stretch to imagine that in the swamps, Moses' people probably killed several thousand armed slaves killed their captors.  Thus Ramses son was not killed by the "Hand of God" but rather by the "Hand of Man" according to whomever wrote Freeman's lines.  Also, skeletal remains of the guy buried in Ramses son's tomb do not seem to be related to Ramses.  Of course the data is sketchy at best.  And of course the archaelogical and historical explanation of events is rather dry compared to the mythological monotheistic one.  Some questions are best left unasked, if only for the sake of good literature.  Don't you think?

I now return you to your regularly scheduled discussion.

[minionofmidas]

Most programs here have long commercial breaks every half hour. Although the publicly owned tv stations have no commercial breaks at all after 8pm.

[angus]

Most programs here have long commercial breaks every half hour.

Interesting to know Alberta is like that.  I've never been there.

Just kidding.  Yeah, my parenthetical rant was a bit of an exaggeration.  The first thing you notice in a place like Germany is that you have to sit through a rerun of "Hogan's Heroes" in its entirety without a break.  Seems annoying.  But obviously during a two-hour movie there are breaks.  At least in the parts of Germany and Netherland I have lived in.

I can't remember how they do it in Canada.  Even though it's our second-closest neighboring country, and I have been there many times, I can't remember paying much attention to what's on TV there.  But this is a bit off topic.  I just thought it was interesting the way you interjected immediately that Mormons are not prots.  I found that on more than one occassion the hard way as well, and have been excoriated by mormons for grouping them thusly.  "Hey, man, we're not protesting anything!  Got that?"  Er, okay, I can see why you people shun caffeine.  Clearly you don't need it.

[David S]

As I recall Mormons believe in the Christian bible but they add the Book of Mormon, which alleges that Jesus came to North America after he was resurrected and spent time here. So yes they are Christians.