ClobberBlog | Mormonism, Evangelical Christianity

Note: This is part 1 of a multi-part post. See the end of the post for links to the other parts.

Interfaith marriage can be a tricky subject to discuss because each marriage is as different as the faiths of the persons involved. A Jewish-Muslim interfaith marriage is very different from a Catholic-Protestant interfaith marriage, and both of those are a whole different ballpark from what I have: a Mormon-Evangelical interfaith marriage.

Our union is an odd one for a couple of reasons. For starters, evangelicals aren’t exactly known for getting along with Mormons. There are dozens of evangelical “countercult” ministries out there that aim to teach the world that Mormonism is a dangerous cult whose followers are going to hell—and if you consider one lone guy in his basement with a computer and a web site a “ministry,” then I suppose hundreds of these ministries exist. Evangelicals are known for films like The God Makers and for doing things like protesting outside Mormon general conferences or the openings of new Mormon buildings. In short, Mormons: we don’t like ‘em.

Mormon enmity towards traditional Christian faiths is typically quieter and more subdued, but it exists. One of the most famous examples is the official version of Joseph Smith’s “First Vision,” wherein Jesus Christ is said to tell Joseph Smith not to join any of the [Protestant] churches he was investigating, because they were “all wrong” and their creeds were “an abomination in [God's] sight.” Current church manuals geared at children use pictures of other Christian ministers and church buildings to demonstrate that other Christians don’t have the “true gospel” or belong to the “true Church of Jesus Christ,” and the 2009 Gospel Principlesmanual teaches that other Christians are merely “those called Christians” (emphasis mine) and that we believe in a “pagan . . . false Christianity,” that we don’t understand God’s love for us or the purpose of life.

Bottom line: this divide is being enforced from both sides, and each of us has some way of very specifically teaching that the other is wrong. Most evangelicals do not accept the Mormon teachings on Christ as a valid path to salvation. Mormons believe in different degrees of salvation, and while a Mormon may accept that an evangelical will obtain one of the lesser salvations/kingdoms of heaven depending on who you talk to, they definitely don’t accept evangelical teaching as being sufficient to help a person obtain the highest salvation—exaltation. One way or another, each camp tends to teach that the other isn’t saved.

The other reason our union was an odd one: the teachings on marriage for our respective religions. Evangelicals draw their beliefs from the Bible, and the Bible is pretty solidly againstmarriages to “unbelievers” (1 Corinthians 6:14-15). Latter-day Saints take it a step further by teaching that marriage to a worthy church member in an LDS temple is necessary for obtaining godhood. So, a Mormon who marries a non-member is pretty crazily, obviously disobeying his or her church’s teachings. It is conceivable that a Latter-day Saint could get sealed & married to a fellow church member, have the marriage broken (either by death or divorce) but retain the seal, then enter into an earthly marriage with a non-member, but even that would be frowned on.

So, knowing all of these things, I as a practicing and active evangelical Christian who had never before been married still entered into a marriage with a practicing and active Latter-day Saint who himself had never been married. The rest of our story—why we got married in spite of our beliefs and how we make our marriage work—will follow.