Mormons Are Christians, Too . . . Or Are They?

I have a brief article in the current issue of Christian Century (which, if you don't know, is a venerable magazine of Protestant thought, leaning more toward the liberal/liturgical/granola side of the Christian spectrum).  In it, I address five things I wish mainline Protestants understood about Mormons, and claim that Mormons can legitimately call themselves Christians. 

Apparently, the magazine is receiving some seriously angry mail about the piece.  Since I haven't yet seen the letters, I'm not sure what triggered the response--whether it's something specific I wrote or if people are just sputtering because their beloved Protestant vehicle gave a bully pulpit to a heretic.  (Which is a fair point.  I can't see an official Mormon periodical extending the same courtesy to, say, a Presbyterian minister or Episcopal priest.  This is one of many, many reasons why Protestants are so cool, and why Mormons have a lot to learn.)

I can't seem to link directly to the edited version that's in the magazine, so I'm just going to paste the original version (which is a little longer and, I think, funnier and more light-hearted) here for your thoughts. I am scratching my head about this -- that spot between the horns tends to get really itchy -- and hope you can speak honestly about why this is controversial.  What is offensive about this essay?  It is never my goal to offend or provoke anyone, just to educate.   I want my writing to help people think and hopefully look at issues in a new way, just like good writing does for me.   Huh.

[Unedited original version]

“Is Mitt Romney electable?” 

This is the question that some Protestant and Catholic acquaintances have been lobbing at me lately.  Their real question, however, has little to do with Romney himself and everything to do with what he represents: the LDS faith.  Like Romney, I’m a Mormon.  And like him, my Mormonism seems to be a defining, make-or-break characteristic for many people I meet. 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has made great strides in the last decade at improving its public image, an extensive and expensive PR effort.  At the end of the day, though, polls show fairly consistently that we still rank near the bottom when Americans are giving “approval ratings” to religions.  (Thank God for the Scientologists.)  Many Americans report that they would never vote for a Mormon for national office.  That’s fair enough, but I wish that America would at least judge us based on what we actually believe and do, rather than what America apparently thinks we believe and do.  With that in mind, here are five things I wish mainline Protestants understood about Mormons. 

We are not all idiots.  I say “all” because, well, some of us are idiots.  But I’d be willing to wager that the ignorance ratio among Mormons is no higher than among other religious groups in America.  In fact, I’d venture to say that it may be a little lower, since Mormons are statistically more likely to have a college degree than the general population.

I do realize that many of the things that Mormons believe sound preposterous to mainline Protestants.  I am a convert to Mormonism, and they once sounded ludicrous to me too.  But it’s not like Latter-day Saints have a monopoly on hard-to-swallow religious teachings.  Protestants and Catholics have enjoyed the mellowing benefit of the centuries. 

Some people are greatly surprised, even shocked, when intelligent individuals mention they are LDS.  A couple of years ago, I was invited to speak at a writers’ conference at a Christian college in the Midwest, and was escorted around by the kindly provost and his wife.  The provost asked me about the books I had written, and I mentioned the most recent, Mormonism for Dummies, which I had just co-authored.  “Mormonism for Dummies,” he repeated. “Well, you’d have to be a dummy, wouldn’t you?”  An uncomfortable silence ensued.  It had apparently never occurred to the provost that I could possibly be a Mormon. (I have to wonder if his embarrassed wife set him straight later.)  In his mind, any person would have to be an idiot to believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Book of Mormon an inspired work of scripture.  So, for the record, let me say that I believe those things, and I don’t think I am a dummy. (My eight-year-old sometimes disagrees.)

We are not still practicing polygamy. I bring this up because it just keeps coming up.  This spring I taught a Sunday School class about Mormonism to the youth at my husband’s amazing Episcopal congregation.  They were doing an introductory series on world religions, and invited practitioners of the various religions to speak—the best possible way to do it.  I started the lesson with a diagnostic quiz on what they already knew about Mormonism, including this question:

Mormons banned the practice of polygamy in:
a) 1890
b) 1980
c) 1999
d)    Mormons still practice polygamy—I saw it on Big Love.

My husband and the youth leader were the only takers on the correct answer, which is A.  Most of the kids thought polygamy had been abandoned very recently, and one thought it was still going on. 

Ouch.  The HBO series Big Love, while an excellent drama, is not about members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The polygamy that is practiced today in Utah is done by offshoot groups that began in the late nineteenth century when the mainstream LDS Church abandoned the practice.  Today, any LDS Church members who try to practice plural marriage are excommunicated.  I’m amazed at how many times we have to keep explaining this point to non-Mormons, who seem to imagine I have a far more extraordinary family life than I actually do.

We are not all Republicans. Statistically, most Mormons do vote Republican.  This fact is so entrenched that sometimes, Republican presidential candidates do not even visit Utah during their campaigns.  Why would they have to?  Utah, whose LDS dominance is slowly decreasing but was still 62% Mormon in 2004, has gone Republican in every presidential election since 1964.  It’s as close to a sure thing as one gets in American politics. 

But there is a vocal (and, in these polarized times, growing) minority of Mormons whose political views more closely resemble their Episcopalian and ELCA friends than their LDS compatriots.  Exhibit A is Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader who is a lifelong Mormon from Nevada.  The soft-spoken Reid, though a friend of Orrin Hatch and Mitt Romney and other more conservative Mormon politicians, has been a vocal advocate for liberal causes like immigration reform, Social Security, and aid to the poor. He has also helped to lead opposition to the war in Iraq.

We’re Christians.  We’re Christians.  We’re Christians. The stubborn persistence of Mormonism causes us all to think more carefully about what criteria we are using when we try to place country club boundaries around Christianity.  If mere belief in Jesus Christ as savior is enough, then Mormons definitely make the cut, since that’s our core.  But if the litmus test is Trinitarian theology, we don’t pass muster: Mormons do not believe in the Trinity.  But, for that matter, neither do Unitarians or Jesus-only Pentecostals, and can’t they be Christians? 

And then there’s the thorny question of Scripture.  Some people have told us that we can’t be real Christians because we uphold other books, like the Book of Mormon, as scripture in addition to the Bible.  But then, are Seventh-day Adventists not Christian?  It’s migraine-inducing to go down these roads.   

Perhaps it’s time for some new nomenclature.  Just as we have Sunni Muslims and Shi’a Muslims, so too we can have Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, and Mormon Christianity.  And perhaps we can give those various Christians the benefit of the doubt: if they believe in Christ and want to mold their lives to follow his teachings and example, they should be able to call themselves Christians.  Period.

We have something to offer.  Just as Mormons have learned—and should continue learning—from Protestant Christians (particularly about grace, true worship, and inclusivity), we have some things to bring to the table of American Christianity.  Sometimes Protestants look to the energy of Mormonism, now 13 million strong, and wonder what we have that’s so darn appealing. 

Here is one thing that’s attractive:  high expectations.  I attend a lot of Protestant services, and I graduated from a Protestant seminary, and I see my pastor friends shouldering a tremendous burden for everyone and everything.  In the LDS Church, every single individual has a job to do, from teaching a particular class or organizing lay visitation to coordinating the youth programs or running the library.  We are prayed over and set apart for these “callings,” even for the ones that seem like minor contributions.  After a couple of years, people are generally switched around to try doing something new.  It’s not a perfect system, but it’s an awfully valuable laboratory for spiritual growth.

While not fully adopting a Mormon model, which has no paid ministry, Protestant churches could and should give members more explicitly outlined responsibilities, so that the same ten percent of the congregants don’t wind up doing ninety percent of the work. Protestant churchgoers should not just be gently encouraged to donate what they feel comfortable giving, but should be taught to work up to a full tithe, even if it hurts.  Youth should be offered a distinctive Christian identity that is based on regular practices of devotion and sacrifice; they need to know that God makes daily demands on their time, money and talents.  Mainline Protestants do a better job than any other Christians I know at teaching people about God’s love and justice.  But from the Mormon perspective, knowing that God loves us is only the first step: we are disciples in the making, and much is required of us.

To answer the $64,000 question—Is Romney electable?—I would appeal to history.  By the time John F. Kennedy won the presidency in 1960, he was standing on the shoulders not only of his fellow Catholics—then as now the largest single denomination in America—but also on the trailblazing 1928 campaign of fellow Catholic Al Smith.  It was Smith, not Kennedy, who endured the worst of the nation’s anti-Catholic backlash.  By the time Kennedy put his hat in the ring, Catholics had already served in many high public offices and proved their patriotism in record numbers on battlefields in Europe and Japan. 

America was barely ready for a Catholic president in 1960.  It is not ready for a Mormon president in 2008, but it is certainly far closer now than it was in 1968, when Mitt Romney’s father George made a bid for the presidency.  Mitt Romney is going to raise a lot of money and attract a good deal of attention in this campaign, which will pave the way for someone else down the road, perhaps even Romney himself in a second run.  In any case, one thing is clear: like it or not, Mormons are here to stay, both in American religion and in our national public life.

Comments

[sylvia]

It'd be funny to think that some of the angry letters might come from fellow Mo's....

[Carolyn Miller]

Very nice indeed! (applause)

[David]

You mention that Harry Reid is a lifelong member of the church, yet I've read from several sources including Wikipedia that he is a convert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Reid#Background_and_family_life

[David]

You mention that Harry Reid is a lifelong member of the church, yet I've read from several sources including Wikipedia that he is a convert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Reid#Background_and_family_life

[Tona]

The "Dummies" story with the provost is very telling... ouch. I wonder if it is Scientologists or 7th Day Adventists writing in. I can't envision too many Mormons who curl up with XnC, unfortunately. I will be curious to see what the flapping is about, I think this is tremendously fair, reasonable and well-done. I'll put my money on the part about us being Christian, and I wonder if in so arguing letters-to-the-editor will concede the point about Unitarians and J-O Pentecostals.

[Carrie K.]

This is such a hard issue. I have known many Mormons who have a personal relationship with Jesus, and I believe they are Christians. But I do have reservations about calling all Mormons Christians - though I usually do not bring them up because I am so tired of people being hateful in the name of religion, and I never want to be perceived that way.

First question has to do with the fact that polygamy was originally a part of Mormon doctrine, but was later repealed by a Prophet. As a Christian, I believe the Bible is infallible, and anyone who tries to change doctrine is not a prophet. I guess my question is this: how do you put your trust in a religion when the core doctrines can be changed by subsequent Prophets?

My second question has to do with The Pearl of Great Price, which I understand is considered Scripture by Mormons. (This is what I was told by friends who are Mormon, whether or not this is standard theology, I don't know. Please correct me if I'm wrong.) To my understanding, the Pearl of Great Price was originally an Egyptian papyrus that Joseph Smith purchased and then claimed to have translated into the Book of Abraham, or the Pearl of Great Price. In later years, after the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, the papyrus was translated by Egyptologists and found to contain funerary texts regarding the interrment of Egyptians. Why would The Pearl then stil be considered Scripture? And what troubles me even more is why Mormons would still consider Joseph Smith a great prophet and consider his Book of Mormon to be accurate scripture when he was proven to either have been grossly mistaken or lying to his followers?

Again, please do not interpet these questions as a reason for me to doubt your Christianity. I believe you love Jesus - in fact, until I read this post I had no idea you were Mormon, and it doesn't change the way I feel about your blog or reviews or your writing. These questions have been rattling around in my head for a long time, and I've never found an opportunity to ask them of a Mormon in a non-confrontational way.

Those questions embody the main reason I have a problem considering all Mormons as Christians.

As far as the electability of Mitt Romney, I am bothered by something that may just be hear-say, and so maybe you can clear this up. I was told (and I'm not sure about the infallibility of the source) that temple Mormons swear to uphold the tenets of the Mormon faith over the Constitution of the United States. I understand placing God above a candidate's duties as president, but I have a problem with placing any one specific religion or denomination over the Constitution. I hope I expressed that accurately. Again, this is something I've been thinking about since Romney announced his candidacy.

I hope that I have asked my questions in such a way that my intentions are not to judge, but to understand.

[ChaplainCharlie]

I cannot believe that a person of your education and experience really cannot understand why Christians do not consider Mormons Christian. As was explained to me by Mormon fellow chaplains, you do believe in Jesus as "savior" but only as a person showing/enabling you to save yourselves. Further, so very remote from Christianity is the fact that Mormons believe they are the spirit children of "Our Heavenly Father" who birthed them through human parents and that as Mormons they can die, go on to heaven, etc. where they have sex with their spirit consorts and create worlds of their own and children to worship them. These are only a few of the reasons Christians in no manner consider Mormons Christian.

[Michael DeGroote]

Dear Carrie K.,

I hope that you and Jana don't mind if I give a few responses to your excellent questions. I will try to be brief.

First a preamble of sorts:
Anybody can make a definition of something that includes or excludes other people. For me, I think that we would all do much better if we used a behavioral rather than a doctrinal standard to judge whether this or that person or group is Christian. It is healthier for us if we use Christ's method for determining if we are Christian: "By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one toward another" (John 13:35) Such a standard puts the focus on the beam in our own eye rather than the mote in another's eye. After all, it doesn't make us any closer to Christ if we determine how wrong somebody else is.

Your Question #1 on polygamy, doctrine, and changing:
Your question seems to hinge on a confusion between doctrine and practice. The practice of plural marriage ceased in 1890. The Lord has very often given certain practices that he later revoked. You may recall, for example, what Peter and the early Church confronted with the fulfilling of the Law of Moses. Your argument could have been used by people back then to reject Jesus outright.

Your Question #2 on The Pearl of Great Price and translation:
The Pearl of Great Price is an amazing book--bringing testimonies of Christ together from Moses, Abraham, Matthew, and Joseph Smith. The book within the Pearl of Great Price that you refer to is "The Book of Abraham." That book was translated by revelation to Joseph Smith. There exists a puzzling notebook that has the full text of the Book of Abraham in one column and characters from one of the Egyptian Papyrus in the other. This is about all we know. Some people unfriendly to the LDS Church have stated with unfounded confidence that the notebook was what Joseph used to translate the book. It appears to me to be more of an attempt by Joseph's associates to reverse engineer the Book of Abraham to decipher the Egyptian language. Both views, however, are merely speculation--and can hardly rise to the level of proof either way. You need to understand, however, that most Mormons haven't worried too much about these sort of questions. The source of our testimony of the scriptures and of the calling of Joseph Smith as a prophet does not come from "flesh and blood" but from our Father in Heaven. The best way to determine the truth of the Scriptures is to "ask of God." (James 1:5, also Moroni 10:3-5 in the Book of Mormon) You can find more about the Book of Abraham at http://farms.byu.edu or at http://en.fairmormon.org/Book_of_Abraham_papyri:FAQ

question #3 on the Constitution and the Temple
The best way, perhaps, to answer this is to ask you "Do you love Christ more than the Constitution?" I hope you do. The fact is, the more people love God, the more likely they are to uphold the Constitution. Mormons believe that the Constitution was inspired of God (although it is certainly not scripture, its base principles come from God and belong to all people). By the way, I can't recall the constitution being mentioned in any form in the Temple.

I hope this helps you understand a little bit. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I am more concerned that people understand what we believe rather than accept what we believe. I appreciate you asking these questions and wish you all success.

Warm Personal Regards,
Michael De Groote