Unpacking Controversy: Are LDS Christian?

Are Mormons Christian? a Cult? or something else entirely?

I realize that I’m wading into treacherous waters with this article. With both LDS and non-LDS readers, I’m certain to offend someone. This topic has always been very sensitive to LDS people, so I’m going to try to do it respectfully and provide rationale from all of the different answers, followed by my opinion on what I think the answer is. Note that I spent a lot of my life as an LDS “Mormon,” and I naturally still have some strong feelings about this.

Why am I tackling this topic? Any time my LDS background comes up, I either get asked this question, or someone insinuates that Mormons aren’t Christians. As a “Post-Mormon” person, I figured that perhaps someone might be interested in my opinion on the matter. Or maybe not! We’ll find out!

That said, I will be tackling this topic taxonomically, with a more academic religious-studies mindset and not a colloquial one. For that reason, this article refers specifically to the LDS church, even when I use the term Mormon/Mormonism. Technically, the terms Mormon and Mormonism refer to the broader movement started by Joseph Smith, which includes not only the LDS church (which is by far the largest) but also many other groups. Some of these groups have rejected many or all of the theological innovations of the Nauvoo period and may not fit within this analysis or my conclusions.

What is a Christian?

To some degree, the answer to this question depends on how you define a Christian. There is a huge range of possible answers, from the very broad and inclusive “anyone who professes a belief in Christ” to the very narrow and exclusive “only those people who believe exactly what I believe.”

Most LDS fall into the broad definition, while some protestants fall into the latter. I remember seeing some evangelical Baptist literature that argued that Catholics aren’t Christians. I was still LDS at that time, and my reaction was that it was the most patently absurd thing one could ever say! Most mainstream Christianity is somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.

Is professing a belief in Christ enough to make you a Christian?

If you hold to the broad definition, of course. Personally, I prefer this definition because we cannot say where God is not, and neither can we judge who will or will not be saved. This is also how the dictionary defines the word Christian¹. I think that the LDS, in their adoption of this perspective, are much more likely to be accepting and compassionate towards other churches and faiths than most. So, if it were up to me, I’d take the broad definition.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this approach stands up to scrutiny. This line of reasoning essentially posits that if you believe in a (or the) significant founding personality of a religion, you qualify as belonging to that religion. Let’s look at an example.

We all believe in God the Father, right? We all accept the Old Testament as scripture, correct? Does that mean we all actually practice Judaism? Should we be classified as Jews? Nope and nope. Likewise, if we followed this line of reasoning, the Gnostics, Arians, Manicheans, and arguably even the Muslims and Bahá'í could be classified as Christian. Unfortunately, it's so broad a definition that it essentially becomes meaningless.

So, if just believing in the founding personality of a religion doesn’t make you part of that religion, what does?