GIFTS: "Are Mormons Christians?"

Hi everyone:

Because of the Presidential election with two Latter-day Saint candidates in Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, attention has been drawn to the issue of whether "Mormons are Christians".

If the issue is approached honestly it will be clearly seen that the issue is a theological one, as perfectly illustrated by Elder Holland in the attached video clip.

Now, to even use the word "theological" is risky, even with you, my dear friends and family. Your eyes will likely glaze over a bit and you will think---with a couple of exceptions---that the water is too deep to swim in.

This is borne out in an article I read today in Meridian magazine on the issue under discussion here. I'll deliberately withhold the author's name out of respect to him and the magazine, because what I have to say is contrary and even a bit critical.

The author boldly and correctly asserts that he is a Mormon and a Christian, using the euphemism "Mormon" instead of Latter-day Saint for reasons, no doubt, of clarity and ease of understanding in the context of the current argument. No problem there.

He makes the following points that I simply do not see at the local level of the Church:--

He questions whether the pastor who said Mormons are cultists "had ever attended one of our meetings and listened to the sermons about Christ?"

I don't hear many "sermons about Christ" in our meetings at the local level. Few, if any, DIRECT sermons about Christ, only what I might term circumstantial references to Him, as when a sacrament speaker said recently in a seniors branch that a talk on food storage or on family history filing is indeed a talk on Christ, presumably because it is given in a building with His holy name displayed on the front. But that is as silly as what Hugh Nibley observed as cited in last week's Sabbathought that, just because "all things are made of electrons, protons, neutrons, etc., whenever anyone opens his mouth to speak he [hardly] gives a lecture on physics." Well said, Brother Nibley, and right to our point here.

Nearly all "sermons" in our meetings are on the ethics of love, service, experiences in family, on small personal miracles that are understood by speaker and congregation to be traceable to the Savior, but are rarely attributed as such. In this sense, AT BEST Jesus Christ is taken for granted in His own sacrament meeting. Not knowing Him and His scriptures, and therefore His gospel plan, we marginalize Him. How could it be otherwise?

Next, "Had [the pastor] ever listened to Latter-day Saints' conversations with each other? Invariably, they default to their love of the Savior and His goodness in their lives."

I have few extended conversations with fellow Latter-day Saints these days. But in the ones I do have, such references to the Savior and His goodness in our lives are "invariably" only initiated by myself. This is so even in the official and intimate context of home teaching. It is as with the sacrament talks --- such feelings may be taken for granted, but they are rarely expressed openly.

The author cites 2 Nephi 25:26 as proof of our devotion to Christ, but --- as mentioned above --- I witness very little evidence that we do indeed "talk of . . . rejoice in . . . preach of . . . prophesy of Christ" in an overt, direct way at all. He and His gospel plan are the best kept secret in His Church, and this is the reason non-member Christians think of us as non-Christian.

Three weeks ago, in the testimony meeting of one of the finest, most focused wards in the Church, around fifteen testimonies were borne. Three of them, at most, even mentioned the Savior, His gospel, or even His goodness! --- except in closing in His name.

When we wrote of this habit last year, one of our friends wrote back and said such "thin testimonies" were still worth bearing, if that is all we have, and that they grow stronger in the bearing of them. That has vague shards of truth. But thin scripture study equals thin testimony, as Harold B. Lee taught. That same reader then, to her credit, examined her own life and admitted that on a recent visit to a struggling friend she had been reluctant to speak of her faith in Christ as a help to her friend, and then was made ashamed by her Christian friend's confession of Christ. Why are we LDS so reluctant in this area? asked our reader / friend, in confirmation of what we had written.

Many of you know Bob Millet of the BYU religion department, and from his books. As a teen growing up in the South---the "Bible Belt"---, Bob once asked his Dad about salvation by Christ's grace that he heard from his Southern Baptist friends. Bob's Dad, a stake president at the time, said we don't believe in it: We believe we earn salvation by our works and keeping the commandments. With such gross misunderstanding, how can we be surprised at the world's view of us?

When my son-in-law Jared died five years ago this month, his widow, my beloved daughter Andree, asked me to be the main speaker at his funeral. I was honored. After the service, Jared's sister came up to me and thanked me for speaking about the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She explained that she now lives in California and has found happiness in a Christian denomination down there. She said that growing up she never once heard a lesson or a talk in Young Women's on Christ. She added: "I'm grateful for my years in Young Women's where I learned good values. But I had to leave the Church to learn about Christ."

Elder M. Russell Ballard had dinner after a stake conference in England with the stake president, my brother, and his family. Over dinner Elder Ballard firmly stated, "If I am the only one doing it, I intend to use all my influence to ensure that Jesus Christ is at the center of sacrament meetings." Why did Elder Ballard need to say that if it was not a serious issue!

Back to the Meridian article: the author's expressions are wishful thinking, in that he is writing of things as he may hope they are, and hope or wish they may be, and that is commendable. But his expressions are hardly an objective description of how they actually are presently at the local level of the Church.

His observations address the social climate in the Church at best. As we said earlier, the issue is a theological one, a matter of doctrine---the doctrine of Christ, which we largely avoid, and which we certainly neglect. For it is rare indeed to find many Saints at the local level of the Church who follow the admonition of Apostles and prophets to study the scriptures. Most of us are content with the Ensign messages which admonish us to study the scriptures . . . ! Think how stupid and short-of-the-mark that is! Please now view Elder Holland's marvelous talk with all this in mind.

God bless.

Steve