Are Mormons Christians? Presbyterians, Mormons, and the Question of Religious Definitions

Abstract

What is a Christian? What are the theological or historical characteristics that define a person, a faith-system, or a religious perspective as Christian? Is there an accepted definition of what constitutes Christian beliefs and practices? Can one define oneself as Christian? Or must the designation be conferred by someone else? If so, by whom? Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and Seventh-day Adventists are frequently listed among those who while considering themselves Christians are really something else, based on specific beliefs or historical circumstances that others find to be outside their definition of Christianity. They, in turn, have their own reasons, and their own definitions, for including themselves. But who has the authority to create the definitions and make the judgments regarding who are Christians and who are not?1 Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly called Mormons) are generally surprised when they hear the claim that they are not Christians. They think of themselves as Christians, and since they believe in Jesus Christ, they have always assumed that Christianity includes them. But there are many from other denominations who hold a different view. With over eleven million members and growing fast, the Latter-day Saint Church is a religious movement that by virtue of its rapid expansion and missionary zeal attracts a great deal of attention. Part of that attention comes in the form of negative reactions from others who consider themselves Christian but who see Mormonism as outside the perimeter of the Christian faith. When Latter-day Saints are confronted by the assertion that they are not Christian, they frequently quote the first of what they call their “Articles of Faith,” which reads as follows: “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.”2 Most Latterday Saints feel that this statement of their beliefs proves beyond question that they are Christians. But far from establishing in the mind of the orthodox Christian listener that Mormonism is a Christian religion, the