This is the so-called Mormon Moment: a strange convergence of developments offering Mormons hope that the Christian nation that persecuted, banished or killed them in the 19th century will finally love them as fellow Christians.
I want to be on record about this. I’m about as genuine a Mormon as you’ll find ”” a templegoer with a Utah pedigree and an administrative position in a congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am also emphatically not a Christian.
For the curious, the dispute can be reduced to Jesus….
Much to think about there.
O would some Power the gift to give us. To see ourselves as others see us!
Not to mention, there’s also the issue of the authenticity and authority of the Book of Mormon. But then, there, it’s been mentioned.
[blockquote]Eventually, Christianity grew up and conceded that it wasn’t authentic Judaism.[/blockquote]
Well, no. The contingent of Christian Jews shrank to nothing, and the number of Christian Gentiles grew, but that’s not conceding anything.
And regarding the last paragraph in the piece, Mormons went there, done that, and bought the t-shirt in the late 1850s. I would imagine the author, being from Utah and all, knows that. In the rest of the country that bit of our past has long since been put away in the great circular filing cabinet.
Me thinks he has muddied the waters just a tad. Mormons reject an orthodox Christology and the Trinity. It is predictable that the NYT would find a Mormon who would say he is NOT a Christian. Most say they are. ” in accordance with the Nicene Creed promulgated in the fourth century — that Jesus is also the Father and the Holy Spirit,” He does not understand the Nicene Creed.
Mormons are devout, religious, and moral people. They are not Christian and I appreciate the honesty of this man in saying so. They deny the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation. For this reason, they are a religious off shoot of Christian but not Christian and even have an additional Scripture, the Book of Mormons, they believe is essential to their beliefs. In other words, Christian as reveal through Christ and the New Testament is incomplete without the Book of Mormons.
However, they are not a cult as cults are understood today. They are a religion as defined but they are not part of the Holy catholic or apostolic Church. I appreciate those Mormons who are honest about their faith.