I'm a mormon so I'll clear up some common myths about us
Myth: Mormons aren't Christian.
Fact: We definitely consider ourselves Christian, and most other faiths do as well. Our faith revolves entirely around the belief that Christ visited people in other lands after he came back to life, and that he still speaks today through prophets.
Myth: Mormons have the Book of Mormon instead of the Bible.
Fact: We actually have the Book of Mormon in addition to the Bible. We believe that Christ came to America shortly after coming back to life and taught his gospel to people there. They wrote his gospel just like his Apostles in and around Jerusalem and passed it down from generation to generation.
Myth: Mormons worship Joseph Smith.
Fact: We worship Jesus Christ. We think of Joseph Smith like Moses or Noah. We believe he was called by Jesus Christ to be a Prophet and to translate the Book of Mormon so we would have another Testament to Christ's divinity.
Myth: Mormons have multiple wives.
Fact: We don't. We did in the early days of our church, most likely because the women drastically outnumbered the men. But not any time recently, and in fact our very own Book of Mormon prohibits it in Jacob 2:24-30 except in special circumstances.
Edit: Fundamentalist Mormons still practice polygamy, but the rest of us do not.
Myth: Mormons are paid to knock on doors and spread their church.
Fact: I wish! That would be awesome! No, actually, it's quite the opposite. We pay our own money to go on our missions. It's about $10,000 to go on a 2 year mission. Some of that is definitely subsidized depending on where you go, but no, we are not payed to go on missions.
Myth: Mormons do creepy cult things in their temples.
Fact: We certainly don't. Like many religions we have rituals that we practice. These have sacred significance to us and are meant to be understood in terms of symbolism. We do not however do anything "creepy." We don't do any kind of blood sacrifice. We don't force anyone to do anything. We simply make promises to God through ancient rituals.
There are certainly more Myths about us, and if you have any potential myths, or questions, feel free to reply, and I'll do my best to answer! (I'll probably also add it to this post!)
I learned something new today on steemit. Like every day. It's never to late. Have a good day.
Whether Mormons are Christian or not depends on your definition. Some (other) Christians don't consider Mormon's to be Christians because of their views on the nature of Christ, the Holy Trinity and the Nicene Creed among other things. It isn't so much a myth as a particular point of view. Obviously there is disagreement.
I try to use the dictionary definition for most things (not just this). Wikipedia does a pretty good job in this case I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian
Sure, but the debate is whether or not Mormonism "adheres to Christianity". Obviously Mormon's consider themselves Christian but not all other Christian groups do. This is a doctrinal thing and isn't something you can dismiss with a Wikipedia definition. The only point I was making was that this isn't a "myth" so much as a different point of view. From the wikipedia link you just posted: " Denominations and sects disagree on a common definition of "Christianity""
I suppose that makes sense. In that case, I'll say that we consider ourselves Christians, and most other religions (but not all) consider us Christian as well.
(Also, we're listed on that Wikipedia page under "Other Christian traditions" )
Many Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant groups do not consider Mormons to be Christians. This wikipedia entry has more of the details on why and what the differences are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism_and_Christianity
I also updated my original post to reflect our debate.
:)
Oh certainly! We definitely disagree on many points from most other Christian churches. And those disagreements have caused many to dismiss us as "Not-Christians"
But the fact of the matter remains that we do believe in the Biblical Christ, we do consider ourselves Christians, and that while many do not consider us Christians, most do because they recognize that any religious group can define themselves however they like.
It's somewhat of a semantic argument in how you define "Christian" but what it boils down to is that most Christian groups accept the baptism of other Christian groups and do not re-baptize upon conversion (for example if I were Methodist and wanted to become Catholic, i would not be re-baptized) but this is not the case for a couple of groups, including Mormons. Most other Christian churches do not accept Mormon baptisms as valid because of specific belief differences regarding the nature of Christ and the Trinity (among other things). I believe that Mormons also do not accept the baptism of other Christian churches though I am not sure specifically why or if there are exceptions.
If I said I believed the teachings of Christ but interpreted those teaching to be the opposite of what all other Christians do would I still be a Christian? I'm not accusing Mormon's of this but just giving an example. I think most Christian groups don't consider Mormons to be Christian (or at least don't accept their baptisms) because interpretation of key scripture and what you are promising to believe and uphold is sufficiently different as to make the baptism mean something different whereas this is not the case if you are going between most of the various Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant groups.
Another example. Muslims believe in Jesus and that he was a prophet and therefore presumably accept his teachings but they don't recognize his divinity. Much like Mormonism, it recognizes the teachings of different prophets (particularly Mohammad in the case of Islam). Islam is a distinct religion from Christianity. Mormons recognize the divinity of Jesus but in a different way than most other Christian groups (this goes back to the Trinity again). Is this difference big enough for Mormonism to be considered a different religion like Judaism or Islam? Why wouldn't Muslims be considered Christians if they believe in Jesus and follow what they believe are his teachings in addition to those of Mohammad? Is simply choosing to call yourself Christian sufficient to make you one? While the specific issues involved may seem esoteric to non-Christians or at least to non-religious people, they are quite important to many Christians, including Mormons.
I think the takeaway here is that whether or not you call Mormons Christians, their beliefs are more significantly different from other Christian denominations than other Christian denominations generally are, not just in what it adds via its own prophets but in how it interprets parts of the Bible that is shared between them.
Well put. It gives some good food for thought.
FYI, you're right. We don't accept other's baptisms, and they don't (as far as I know) accept ours. Mostly coming down to differences in belief for how it's performed and by whom.
I find a few things about your post to be slightly misleading, so I've got a couple questions for you to clarify, if you'll indulge me.
Thanks for your time.
Some pretty heavy questions pretty fast there!
But I'll do my best to answer.
As to your first question, many other Christian denominations recognize us as a Christian religion. Not just us. It's definitely a split issue among other religions, but at the end of the day, we follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and recognize him as our Lord and Master. We may not agree with how others interpret that, but that's not really our problem. If we were to stop recognizing everybody else as Christians does that make them not Christian? Certainly not. Most countries that recognize us as a religion, also recognize us officially as a Christian religion and in fact, our official name is actually "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" which is quite a mouthful and that is why we're frequently abbreviated LDS or we're nicknamed Mormons. We believe in the biblical Jesus Christ, and as part of our faith, we take his name upon us, so it baffles me sometimes why this comes up so often.
For your second question, you are right that we also have The Doctrine and Covenents, and The Pearl of Great Price. These weren't part of the myth per se, the myth being that we somehow replaced the Bible with some other book. The Journal of Discourses is not considered "scripture" by us, but contains talks given by early church leaders which may or may not be inspired.
Related to this, in our church, we have the concept of doctrine, policy, and culture. Doctrine includes a very limited set of things that form the core of our faith and the things we actually believe, and derives from The Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. These include the things we believe are direct commandments from the Lord, and things we believe He has revealed throughout the ages (ancient and modern) directly or through his prophets. These are the things we believe are unchangeable and perfectly right. Policy covers the things that aren't covered in doctrine. They cover specifics for certain circumstances, and are changeable, but are not allowed to contradict doctrine. They relate to things that our church leaders choose for the church as a whole, but these can be mistakes, as our leaders are mortal men. We trust that if policy ever strays too much, that God will issue doctrine to correct it.
Regarding your third point, it is made very clear in Doctrine and Covenants 132, and even earlier in Jacob 2 that plural marriage is a circumstantial thing only. Specifically only in cases where we believe the Lord wants to raise up seed (or have a lot of children born in a short period of time). We do believe this was commanded in the early days of the church, but was discontinued because any continuation of it would no longer meet the desired outcome. (e.g. if it were continued, and our people were imprisoned, we very well couldn't "raise up more seed", right?) Therefore we believe the Lord put an end to it.
It is important to note that "plural marriage" and "the new and everlasting covenant" are NOT the same thing, and that thinking they are the same thing could easily lead to this mistake while reading it. The new and everlasting covenant refers specifically to our belief in a covenant where marriage can extend beyond this life into the eternities, and not end at death. There's more to it than that, but this is the basis of it. Plural marriage was the conditional practice I explained above.
Hopefully that clarifies a few things! Feel free to ask more. I've had many of these same kinds of questions myself, so I've put some effort into researching their answers.