Wrong-Headed Blogging
Crosswalk is a pretty successful blog about “The Intersection of Faith and Life” and recently it reports on a divorce decree in which the father admitted that Mormonism was not Protestant. The blogger then analyzes:
Given the fact that it is not Roman Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox, or Protestant, one can naturally extrapolate that Mormonism is not Christian. And that is something most apparent when one looks at the various doctrines advanced by Mormonism, which at almost every turn, conflict with the basic, foundational teachings of Christianity. This is a landmark decision that will have implications.
This is an ugly case of wishful thinking. Correct me if I am wrong, but I don’t think Mormons want to be thought of as Protestant – after all, we Protestants have creeds too. Not to mention that there already are categories of “Christian” outside of Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant. The Moravian church, for example, predates the Protestant Reformation by about 100 years. The Coptics of the Middle East, while resembling Orthodoxy, are a thing apart. It could even be argued that Evangelicalism is both movement affecting those three more traditional groups and independent fourth group, particularly as the number of non-affiliated, free standing Evangelical congregations continues to grow in this nation and western Europe.
The guy heads his post with “Mormonism LEGALLY Declared Not Christian.” No such thing is the case here and the judge who made the ruling would be aghast as such an interpretation. When you read the piece it is a very narrow decision on a VERY narrow question regarding the education and church attendance of the children of the marriage.
It is precisely this kind of sloppy thinking that allowed people to practice bias and bigotry towards Mitt Romney in the campaign.
Lowell adds: Mormons are not Protestants. We make no bones about that. In fact, we’ve pointed that out on this blog many times. We have taken to calling our faith “restored Christianity.” That, of course, invites a religious debate about what “restored” means, whether anything needed to be restored, and so forth. But John’s point remains clear and indisputable: “not Protestant” does not mean “not Christian.”
Posted in Religious Bigotry, Understanding Religion | 1 Comment » | 
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Rusty on 13 Oct 2008 at 1:39 pm #
You are correct John, Mormons don’t consider themselves as a Protestant denomination. Because of this, many people have made the same mistake as the Crosswalk blogger in equating Protestant and Christian.
Mormons tend to view Christianity in three groups: 1) Founded (for lack of a better word at the moment), 2) Reformed and 3) Restored. The first group, Founded, includes the Coptics, Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox as well as any other Christian group to claim as their origin a direct tie-in to the founding of the Christian movement. The second group, Reformed, is generally what we refer to as the Protestant churches of today; these are churches whose origins tie into the Reformation. The third group, Restored, includes churches who claim their origin through some divine intervention. This includes the LDS (Mormon), Community of Christ (formerly Reformed LDS), and Fundamentalist LDS (in the news recently for their views on polygamy). I would also argue, given what I have learned, that the Jehovah’s Witnesses would also fit into this group, though their divine intervention origins are not emphasized within their teaching as much as the founding story of the LDS church is in their respective teachings.
Those who belong to the first group, generally see no need for the second two. Those who belong to the second group understand the first group, but see no need for the third group. Those in the third group understand where they fit in the spectrum, and typically bear the brunt of the exclusionary claims coming from the first two groups. Sadly, I don’t think this will change any time soon.