Most of the time when the clergy make the charge that Mormons are not Christians, they are not thinking of Webster's definitions at all. The clergy defines the term for themselves, thereby thinking they control it. In this manner, the Latter-day Saints Could define the term CHRISTIAN to require a belief in the divine mission of Joseph Smith. This is foolishness. For Mormons to define CHRISTIANS as "people who believe what Mormons believe" and then reason that non-Mormons fail the Christian test would be nothing more than to say that non-Mormons aren't Mormons. Note that this would be without any consideration for what they may or may not believe about Jesus Christ.

So, those who reject the LDS do it in a narrow sectarian sense which actually rejects all those who doctrines differ from their own.

Those who reject the LDS on the surface make the strong charge that Latter Day Saints do not believe in Jesus Christ or do not attempt to follow His teachings.

So, the game is rigged. If you define a Christian as one who believes in the fundamentals of conservative Protestantism, as an example, then only they are real Christians. Playing this kind of word game is like defining a duck as an aquatic bird with webbed feet and a flat bill only to reject the male duck for having different plummage.

Mormons are Christians when they believe Jesus Christ to be God and live by His teachings as identified in the Bible.

An intermission in the process of evaluating the question "Are Mormons Christians"?

Just earlier today, a four-star General provided an enlightening news conference. This is the gentleman overseeing the war situation in Iraq. He described the coalition government in Iraq, the partnership so painfully assembled, as a "zero sum" situation. Zero-sum describes a situation where combatant gains or losses are exactly balanced by the losses or gains of other combatants. This is what is happening within a supposed Iraqi government. It is so named because when the total gains of the participants are added up, and the total losses are subtracted, they will sum to zero. Thus, there is no progress, no promise, nothing better expected.

American orthodox Christianity is a finer example of the zero-sum game: it is impossible for one American orthodox Christian church to win without another closing it's doors. So entrenched are they in their differences that it is now shrinking in America.

Let's call it the "subzero-sum Christianity".

Hi to the few who might read me. This is my first attempt at blogging. But do not think of me any shade of green.


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The term "Christian" can be discovered only 3 times in the New Testament (Acts 11:26; 26:28; Pet 4:16), without any help at a definition. So, those who stoop to exclude Mormons by definition are left to themselves. Perhaps Webster provides an objective description? Webster has no need to mislead. . "One who believes or professes or is assumed to believe in Jesus Christ and the truth as taught by him: an adherent of Christianity; one who has accepted the Christian religious and moral principles of life: one who has faith in and has pledged allegiance to God thought of as revealed in Christ: one whose life is conformed to the doctrines of Christ." And, "a member of a church or group professing Christian doctrine or belief."

Webster in both of these most common definitions affirms Latter-day Saints as Christians. Most Christians are correct in likewise agreeing. Aloha to you.