Mormonism and Christianity - Christian Views About Mormons

Christian Views About Mormons

In the past, most mainstream Christian denominations rejected Mormonism outright, frequently calling it a cult and characterizing it as "non-Christian." Although mainstream Christian denominations still reject Mormons as being non-Christian, the image of Mormonism has metamorphosed during the 20th century in large part due to an evolution of Mormon theology and partly due to a deliberate effort on the part of the leadership of the LDS church. According to Jan Shipps, during the 1950s the attitude of mainstream Christians towards Mormonism changed from "vilification" to "veneration," with emphasis on positive Mormon traits such as "family orientation, clean-cut optimism, honesty and pleasant aggressiveness."

Richard Abanes attributes an "increasing lack of delineation between (Mormonism and mainstream Christianity)" to three primary causes:

1. the willingness of some Mormon leaders to be less than candid about more controversial aspects of LDS history and theology,
2. a trend among some Mormon scholars to make LDS belief sound more mainstream, and
3. an evolution of Mormon thought toward doctrinal positions nearer those of evangelicals.

Richard Bushman asserts that, for many people, Mormonism "conjures up an assortment of contradictory images". One set of images suggests that Mormons are "happy, uncomplicated, kindly and innocent - if perhaps naive". In contrast to this set of images, Bushman describes a set of associations that focuses on "a powerful religious hierarchy controlling the church from the top". This perspective views Mormons as "secretive, clannish and perhaps dangerous", often labeling the movement as a "cult rather than a church".

Stephen Robinson has argued that Mormons are labeled heretics "for opinions and practices that are freely tolerated in other mainstream denominations."

Mormonism has a particularly rocky relationship with American Evangelical Christianity. However the view of Mormonism being non-Christian or a cult is not a uniformly held belief among Evangelicals, especially with those that have personal experience with Mormons in their community. Richard J. Mouw, President of Fuller Theological Seminary, an evangelical school in Pasadena, California stated in a recent opinion piece for CNN, "hose of us who have made the effort to engage Mormons in friendly and sustained give-and-take conversations have come to see them as good citizens whose life of faith often exhibits qualities that are worthy of the Christian label, even as we continue to engage in friendly arguments with them about crucial theological issues." William Saletan has been more blunt about this, stating, "hy don’t we challenge anti-Mormonism? Because it’s the prejudice of our age." Joe Scarborough has drawn analogies between the Pharisees in the New Testament and prominent evangelical religious leader Robert Jeffress calling Mormonism a cult.