Monday, December 12, 2011

Are Mormons Christians? Is Mormonism Christian?

Are Mormons Christian? The answer to that questions is in most cases, yes, they are.

But is Mormonism Christian? That is an entirely different matter.

When is a secret agent a secret agent?

This might not seem connected, but it is.

Not many years ago a case came to court that seemed like the worst kind of fictional plot for a pot-boiler of a novel.

A man approached a group of college friends and he wheedled his way into their confidences.

Eventually he was able to produce evidence that he was an officer in MI6 and that he was spying on a fellow student who was Irish and, he told them, a member of the Provisional IRA and in charge of a local IRA cell. He pointed out to some perceived inconsistencies in the Irish student's behaviour and he was able to convince them that what he told them was the truth.

The man even became the lover of one of the group and, I seem to recall, fathered a child by her.

He recruited them into MI6 as agents and had them undertake missions.

Eventually he told them that they had somehow had their covers blown and he made them flee for their lives.

They spent several years fleeing from place to place, taking up whatever lowly paid job they could, always fearful for their lives. He made them get money from their families whenever they could.

This carried on until, one day, the police arrested the MI6 agent. Who, of course, turned out not to have been an MI6 agent at all.

So although the people who he recruited had been convinced that they were MI6 agents, who even had documents prepared by the alleged MI6 agent to prove that they were MI6 agents, they were, in reality, not MI6 agents at all. They were, instead, victims of a wicked, calculated fraud by a man who was an amoral fantasist.

There is a very strong parallel with Mormonism, here.

Mormons have written, documentary evidence that they are Christians. They are members of record of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their Elders have their written Lines of Authority.

But they are like the poor souls who were deluded into thinking that they were MI6 agents. All of the documentary evidence that shows they are members of the Christian Church are false papers based on a long-term fraud invented and perpetrated by a group of men, including Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.

2 comments:

AlexisAR said...

This story reads like a screenplay, Matt. I'd love to hear more specifics.

Regarding the Mormons vs. Christinas issue, for the most part, as you stated , it's both an indivudual issue as well as a matter of semantics. Anyone who follows Christ in any way is, in my opinion, a Christian. Anyone who SAYS he or she floows Christ is not necesarily a Christian, regardless of his profession of faith. At the same time, where the individual is concerned, I'm comfortable allowing Jesus to be the adjucator of whom he chooses to claim, as, I am fairly certain, you are as well.

Regarding the Church itself, it's certainly not THE Christian Church. Its history is too corrupt and its practices are too dubious. On the other hand, I subscribe to a "puzzle piece" theory of religion as it relates to churches. I think maybe the COJCOLDS has one tiny piece of the puzzle. I'm not sure the Church brass themselvs even understand their puzzle piece's true nature, but there's something beyond just words that sound good to the whole idea that the Glory of God is intelligence and that God works miracles and everything else through his knowledge of the universe and of math and science. Does that mean the man who wrote those words was necessarily even inspired? Not necessarily; even a blind squirrel comes across an acorn once in awhile.

Still, I believe they have a truth there, however they came across it, into which most of Christendom is not really in possession. Because I'm not God, and don't even occasionally have the privilege of running across him on occasion in the temple late at night, I suspect their own shred of truth amidst a whole lot more hogwash gives their church a Christian status. My suspicion is that God and Jesus have to fight their gag reflexes in considering a great deal of that which is said by many "Christian" churches, yet claim them anyway because of some tiny technicality in what they espoiuse that is good or right or helpful or true.

I don't believe, if anyone came into contact with God or Jesus and either of them was kind enough to give the lucky chance meeter a list of the top one hundred or so denominations with which the Divine Duo, or Trio if we wish to consider that the Holy Ghost was probably lurking nearby as well, that the LDS Church would make it onto that list of recommended associations, even with it being as large as 100 possible choices. Still, my suspicion is that when push came to shove, God or Jesus would claim the church with a huge asterisk beside the names of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and several others.

My brother read this and said it's gibberish, but it made some sense to me, so I hope that a person reading it can find a fragment of meaning in what I've attempted to write, even if the person doesn't necessarily agree in the least with the content of the message.

Nickleus said...

brilliant comparison, thanks matt =) i suggest you link to a news article about this trial in england.