Why do Mormons want to be called Christian?

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_moksha
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Re: Why do Mormons want to be called Christian?

Post by _moksha »

Why do Mormons want to be called Christian?


I view myself as a Mormon and as a Progressive Christian. I do not want either identity stripped from me, especially to please someone with a dogmatic checklist and chip on their shoulder against Mormons.

My Mormon identity could not exist without my concomitant Christian identity (especially since I am not conservative enough to fill the gap).
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_sleepyhead
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Re: Why do Mormons want to be called Christian?

Post by _sleepyhead »

moksha wrote:
Why do Mormons want to be called Christian?


I view myself as a Mormon and as a Progressive Christian. I do not want either identity stripped from me, especially to please someone with a dogmatic checklist and chip on their shoulder against Mormons.

My Mormon identity could not exist without my concomitant Christian identity (especially since I am not conservative enough to fill the gap).


Hello Moksha,

Your free to view yourself as anything you want. The problem comes in conversing with others. We converse in the English language and it's important that each word has the same meaning to both the person speaking and to the one hearing. When someone claims to be a Christian to other people these people assume that Jesus is there savior. This appears to be pretty much the universal understanding of the word. When your salvation, or in the case of the LDS, exaltation, hinges on taking part in various ceremonies in the temple, and when in order to take part in these "saving ordinances" you need to gain approval from the church (or their representative) then the church is their savior.
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_The Erotic Apologist
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Re: Why do Mormons want to be called Christian?

Post by _The Erotic Apologist »

moksha wrote:I view myself as a Mormon and as a Progressive Christian. I do not want either identity stripped from me, especially to please someone with a dogmatic checklist and chip on their shoulder against Mormons.

That would make a good signature line, especially the part about the "dogmatic checklist".
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_sr1030
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Re: Why do Mormons want to be called Christian?

Post by _sr1030 »

maklelan wrote: Latter-day Saints want others to stop telling them their religious self-identity is illegitimate.



That isn't going to happen. LDS will never ever be accepted as "Christian" by mainstream Christianity. We simply do not want to be identified with Mormonism. Don't we have that right? Just as you have the right to claim to be the only True Christians? The right to claim to be the only Church in the "Church of the Lamb"? And the only Church that is not part of the "Church of the Devil"?

Please understand why the LDS Church gets little sympathy over this issue.

sr
_maklelan
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Re: Why do Mormons want to be called Christian?

Post by _maklelan »

sr1030 wrote:That isn't going to happen. LDS will never ever be accepted as "Christian" by mainstream Christianity.


Actually the majority of mainstream Christianity already accepts Latter-day Saints as Christians. It's the more sectarian and outspoken ones who don't, and they're in the minority.

sr1030 wrote:We simply do not want to be identified with Mormonism. Don't we have that right?


No one is asking you to compromise your own identity, they're just asking you not to dictate to others how they're allowed to self-identify. You don't have the corner on the name "Christian," and to insist that it's your category, and we're just trying to shove our way into it is both bigoted and ignorant.

sr1030 wrote:Just as you have the right to claim to be the only True Christians?


Never in my life have I claimed that Mormons are the "only True Christians."

sr1030 wrote:The right to claim to be the only Church in the "Church of the Lamb"?


The only "Church in the 'Church of the Lamb'"? I think you mean "claim to be the Church of the Lamb." This is just a claim to be the only Church led directly by Christ. This is not a claim to be the only Christians.

sr1030 wrote:And the only Church that is not part of the "Church of the Devil"?


You're misunderstanding the point of that scripture.

sr1030 wrote:Please understand why the LDS Church gets little sympathy over this issue.


I understand quite well. It's sectarianism. Attempts to make it more significant than that are quite fallacious and misguided. When you claim it's because you don't want to associated with a church that you find disrespectful, you're saying it has nothing to do with beliefs or our relationship with Christ, you're just saying it's because we're mean and you're going to take your ball and go home. It's childish and petty.
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_jordon3
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Re: Why do Mormons want to be called Christian?

Post by _jordon3 »

sr1030 wrote:
maklelan wrote: Latter-day Saints want others to stop telling them their religious self-identity is illegitimate.



That isn't going to happen. LDS will never ever be accepted as "Christian" by mainstream Christianity. We simply do not want to be identified with Mormonism. Don't we have that right? Just as you have the right to claim to be the only True Christians? The right to claim to be the only Church in the "Church of the Lamb"? And the only Church that is not part of the "Church of the Devil"?

Please understand why the LDS Church gets little sympathy over this issue.

sr


You are so correct as the mainstream Christian Church is becoming more aware of Mormon beliefs. In the pasts the Christian church didn't really know what Mormonism was all about and the beliefs. They had ideas but nothing like what they know now. This is rapidly changing.
_maklelan
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Re: Why do Mormons want to be called Christian?

Post by _maklelan »

Jason15 wrote:You are so correct as the mainstream Christian Church is becoming more aware of Mormon beliefs. In the pasts the Christian church didn't really know what Mormonism was all about and the beliefs. They had ideas but nothing like what they know now. This is rapidly changing.


Yes, now they are becoming widely educated on a perverse misrepresentation of Mormonism and confusing it with actual Mormonism.
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_sr1030
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Re: Why do Mormons want to be called Christian?

Post by _sr1030 »

maklelan wrote:
sr1030 wrote:That isn't going to happen. LDS will never ever be accepted as "Christian" by mainstream Christianity.


maklelan wrote:Actually the majority of mainstream Christianity already accepts Latter-day Saints as Christians. It's the more sectarian and outspoken ones who don't, and they're in the minority.


No they don't. Mainstream Christianity generally would consider the LDS Church as a cult.

http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jul/20/news/mn-24451

There are about 1.2 billion Catholics in the world.

sr1030 wrote:We simply do not want to be identified with Mormonism. Don't we have that right?


maklelan wrote:No one is asking you to compromise your own identity, they're just asking you not to dictate to others how they're allowed to self-identify. You don't have the corner on the name "Christian," and to insist that it's your category, and we're just trying to shove our way into it is both bigoted and ignorant.


Apparently you think churches should be content with the LDS claim that our creeds are an abomination.

sr1030 wrote:Just as you have the right to claim to be the only True Christians?


maklelan wrote:Never in my life have I claimed that Mormons are the "only True Christians."


LDS Prophets and leaders have. Over and over and over.

sr1030 wrote:The right to claim to be the only Church in the "Church of the Lamb"?


maklelan wrote:The only "Church in the 'Church of the Lamb'"? I think you mean "claim to be the Church of the Lamb." This is just a claim to be the only Church led directly by Christ. This is not a claim to be the only Christians
.

It is a claim to be the only Christians that are not Apostate Christians. I know the history of this.

sr1030 wrote:And the only Church that is not part of the "Church of the Devil"?


maklelan wrote:You're misunderstanding the point of that scripture.


Again, LDS Prophets and leaders are why I came to this conclusion. I am not misunderstanding something so clear.

sr1030 wrote:Please understand why the LDS Church gets little sympathy over this issue.


maklelan wrote: When you claim it's because you don't want to associated with a church that you find disrespectful, you're saying it has nothing to do with beliefs or our relationship with Christ, you're just saying it's because we're mean and you're going to take your ball and go home. It's childish and petty.


Don't tell me what I am saying. I am quite capable of that myself. The LDS Church will not be pitied with this. It is very hypocritical of the LDS Church to cry foul at this when their entire existence rests on nothing but a complete and total apostasy of the church in the early 19th century.

sr
_maklelan
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Re: Why do Mormons want to be called Christian?

Post by _maklelan »

sr1030 wrote:Don't tell me what I am saying. I am quite capable of that myself. The LDS Church will not be pitied with this. It is very hypocritical of the LDS Church to cry foul at this when their entire existence rests on nothing but a complete and total apostasy of the church in the early 19th century.

sr


So you are kicking us out of the club only because you think we're being mean to you. Bravo.
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_moksha
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Re: Why do Mormons want to be called Christian?

Post by _moksha »

sleepyhead wrote:When your salvation, or in the case of the LDS, exaltation, hinges on taking part in various ceremonies in the temple, and when in order to take part in these "saving ordinances" you need to gain approval from the church (or their representative) then the church is their savior.


Popeye had the power without spinach and so it is with our salvation and the Church. Jesus saves, but President Monson presides at General Conference. It is up to us to find our still point with these competing claims. If we let it occur then Certs can be both a candy and breath mint. God sees beyond any strange belief appendage and loves us for what we are and will become.
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