Are Mormons Christian Mormon? — Part I
Introduction
Any fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 knows that if you ever want to generate a discussion that carries on for pages and pages, just head into an MST3K forum of some kind and start a thread on why Mike was better than Joel or Joel was better than Mike, then sit back, relax, and enjoy the nerdrage. [1] Likewise, if you should find yourself wanting to set off the horror aficionados, just find a group of people discussing John Carpenter’s 1982 The Thing and say, “So, at the end of the film, who here knew that Childs was a Thing?” The thread you create will have a better shelf life than that Skittle in your couch cushions.
The field of Mormon interfaith dialogue and debate has its own never-ending question: “Are Mormons Christians?” Regardless of how you answer it, your reply is bound to be the source of much anger, indignation, and the religious friendship equivalent of “Dear John” letters from those who dislike your take on it. It’s been asked in a variety of forms and answered by many people in many different ways. Some of those answers are thoughtful and compelling while others dismissively attack the matter with all the finesse of a snarling raccoon in your backyard trash can. Thanks to the emotionally charged nature of this question, even obvious, bungling Internet trolls have been known to generate message board threads lasting 27+ pages (and counting).
Alas, as much as I could use the cheap traffic, “Are Mormons Christians?” [AMC] is not the main subject of this blog post. Today, I want to look at a related, less prominent question, theAndrew Wilson to AMC’s Owen: AMM. Are Mormons Mormon?
Meet the Mormons. All of Them.
From a historical perspective, the Mormon tradition derived its origins from Joseph Smith’s activities in Palmyra, New York in the early part of the 19th century. While the name “Mormon” comes from the name of a pivotal figure in the Book of Mormon, which was published in 1830, this name was not selected as a nickname by the Mormons themselves. It originated with outsiders, who meant it in a pejorative way. As Parley P. Pratt summarized in 1853:
Mormon was a man, a Prophet, an author, a compiler, and a writer of a book. Mormon was a teacher of righteousness, holding certain doctrines. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are agreed with Mormon, as well as with many other ancient writers, and hold to the same principles; therefore their neighbors have seen fit to call those principles they hold, “Mormonism.” They might as well have called them, Abrahamism, Enochism, or Isaiahism; because the ancient Prophets, Patriarchs, and Apostles, held to the same truths in general terms, only differing in circumstances, in distant countries and ages of the world, and acted upon the same general principles, according to the particular circumstances that surrounded them. But the world, out of all the ancients, have selected one called Mormon, and all the principles held by all good, inspired men of all ages and countries they have seen fit to sum up, and call “Mormonism.” Well, it is as well as anything else, for aught I know; the name does not affect the principles.
Here Pratt speaks of Mormonism and applies the term to his own religious group, which had recently claimed Brigham Young as the successor to Joseph Smith and followed him out to the Salt Lake basin. However, even in 1853, Pratt’s group was not the only organizational body to have followed Joseph Smith and believed in the Book of Mormon. Since Joseph Smith established his church in 1830, there have been over 100 groups to trace their religious lineage through him. Most of these groups have claimed that they alone are the true heirs of Joseph Smith’s prophetic legacy.
Maybe a few dozen of these groups still exist today, the largest being The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with its claims to 14.1 million people on the rolls. The second largest is the Community of Christ, formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, with some 250,000 members. Numbers for Mormon groups that currently practice polygamy are hard to be certain of, but the two largest appear to be Warren Jeffs’ Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the Apostolic United Brethren, each of which may have as many as 10,000 members. After that, the numbers get smaller and smaller. Some have several thousand members; others have around a dozen. I knew one splinter group which could only claim eight members and thus likened themselves to Noah’s ark in a corrupt world.
There is little doubt that all of these groups would point to Joseph Smith at some point in their religious pedigrees. The question is: are all of them “Mormon”? Can all of them self-identify as “Mormon” if they so choose?
My answer is “yes.” Others would say “no.”
To Be Continued.
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ChristianMormon? — Part I — 11 Comments