Mormonism that is, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is Christian in the very same way that vegans are carnivores.
Some Christians are unsure as to whether they will vote for Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon. Others refuse to vote for him for this reason and some do not take theology into account when voting.
Firstly, have we ever had a Christian president? Ever? No, not a president that placed upon themselves the label of “Christian” or that “went to church.”
Who was it? The Freemason George Washington? The astrologer Ronald Reagan? The Skull and Bones cultist George W. Bush? The Black Liberation Theology adherent who attends church services about once every four years Barack Obama? Who?
By demanding that our presidents be Christians we seem to have ended up with lots of people who claim to be one solely for the sake of appeal. Some noted that every time that Bill Clinton was under fire for immorality he would be seeing carrying a bigger and bigger and bigger Bible on his way to the church services—the messages of which he appears to have disregarded.
Also, there are many, many “churches” that are nothing but positive thinking social clubs which would not know how to preach the gospel if their status as a “church” counted on it. We also have presidents who attend a church for two decades and, somehow, seem to have missed the recurring themes of about which the preacher preaches.
Trinity United Church of Christ is the church pastored by Jeremiah Wright which President Barack Obama attended for two decades. Pastor Wright married Barack and Michelle Obama, baptized their children, etc.
They do provide a “What we believe” section and also a “Black Value System.” But first, note their YOGA Statement:
Within each us is the seed of Divinity. Each Soul is divine.
I bow to the divinity in us all!
The What we believe statement sounds very traditional and biblical, and it may very well be. Yet, as with any group the issue is not whether, for example, they use the words, the terms, “God,” “Jesus,” etc. but rather, how those words and terms are defined.
Below we provide links to various articles about Mormonism which delve into details. For now, let it suffice to note that either Mormonism is Christian and Christianity is not Christian or Mormonism is not Christian.
This is because according to one of some dozen or so accounts of Joseph Smith’s first vision, initial revelation, the official received version as published in Pearl of Great Price – Joseph Smith – History 2:18-20 Smith states, “My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join.” The reply was that, “I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong…all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt…He again forbade me to join with any of them…”
Now, in the original Greek “all” means “all”—sorry, a little apologetics humor (very little).
Some Mormons claim that “all” does not mean “all” of Christianity but “all” of Christianity as represented by the denominations from which Joseph Smith had to choose, those local to his area. Note that regardless of doctrinal distinctions, even if we spread as far as to refer to Protestantism, Roman Catholicism and Greek Orthodox they agree on essentials as they all agree with the Nicene Creed. This means that the overwhelming majority of Christians all over the world agree on the basics.
Thus, and in any case, the result of Mormonism’s first salvo, the very first shot which they fired against Christianity is that (against traditional biblical theology) Christianity is corrupt and Mormonism was here to restore it, or to restore the true religion by any other name.
Therefore, in short: think of any traditional biblical Christian doctrine and Mormonism rejects it, denies it, and replaces it.
Since the denominations were “all wrong,” and “their creeds were an abomination,” and “those professors were all corrupt” then the denomination’s creeds as elucidated and promulgated by their professors are corrupt, to be rejected and replaced or, restored.
It really is that simple and we can only shutter at the low, low, very, very low level of intellect and discourse that actually has people saying that since Mormons use the words/terms, “God,” “Bible,” “Jesus,” etc. they must be “Christians.”
The words/terms are nowhere near as important as the definition of the words/terms.
For example, biblically YHVH is one “God”: monotheism, specifically Trinitarian monotheism while Mormons not only believe in many gods but that they too can become gods.
If the difference between monotheism and polytheism (or, rather henotheism) and that humans are and always will remain human versus that humans can become gods is not enough to divide, distinguish, dichotomize and differentiate traditional biblical Christianity from Mormonism then perhaps nothing will.
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For more information on Mormonism, see True Freethinker’s section on Mormonism.
Also, see the following books:
The Bible vs. The Book of Mormon
Mormons Answered Verse by Verse
Mormon Chronicles of Deception
Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Mormons