User:74s181/Sandbox/Mormonism and Christianity (later history)

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Contents 1 Mormonism after the martyrdom of Joseph Smith 1844 to the present 2 Modern Mormonism, Christian ecumenism, and interfaith activities 2.1 Ecumenical and interfaith efforts by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 2.2 Ecumenical and interfaith efforts by the Community of Christ 2.3 Official positions on Mormonism by traditional Christian denominations 3 Anti-Mormonism and efforts to counter or convert Latter-day Saints 3.1 Evangelical efforts directed toward Mormons 3.2 Efforts to counter the activities of Mormon missionaries

[edit] Mormonism after the martyrdom of Joseph Smith 1844 to the present

(everything here is specific to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, not relevant to Mormonism in general, this should be moved elsewhere and replaced with a paragraph on each of the various groups that split off after the death of the Prophet)

The next 150 years of Mormon history can be seen to a great degree as the playing out on a larger scale of the ideas embodied in these early conflicts. The early Utah years saw the attempt to raise the ante by creating an independent and isolated Mormon kingdom where everything from the economy to the legal system to family life was built around and centered on sometimes idiosyncratic LDS ideals and beliefs.

The 19th Century LDS Church preached and practiced this doctrine, but did not pursue it in a large-scale or systematic way--church members typically would perform vicarious ordinances only for recently deceased members of their own immediate families.

As the 20th Century progressed, vicarious ordinance work has become an increasingly important focus of the LDS Church and during the latter half the 20th Century came to be considered one third of the threefold mission of the Church (to Perfect the Saints, Proclaim the Gospel, Redeem the Dead). To assist in redeeming the dead through the vicarious completion of needed ordinances requires a long process. After genealogical research to identify individuals and family relationships, baptisms and other ordinances, such as marriage, are performed for these deceased persons by proxy in LDS Temples. The completion of these ordinances does not assure one's entrance into exaltation. By LDS doctrine, during the afterlife the person will then have the choice whether or not to accept these essential ordinances performed on their behalf.

The increasing importance of this vicarious ordinance work was further emphasized beginning in the last quarter of the 20th Century by a greatly accelerated program of building LDS Temples throughout the world. The temple-building program has been accompanied by an increasing emphasis on the duty of LDS Church members to visit the temple often so as to perform ordinance work for the dead there.

Furthermore it is little surprise that doctrines that emphasize the separation between Mormonism and other Christian religions, such as vicarious ordinance work and the Word of Wisdom, came to the fore just as the physical isolation of the Utah Mormons and the distinctive and controversial practice of plural marriage came to an end. The LDS Church seems to seek a certain degree of separation from other Christian traditions, wishing to remain in doctrine--but just as important, in practice--at just the right distance, neither too close nor too far away from the mainstream.

Towards the turn of the 20th Century, increasing clashes with ever westward-moving American civilization--particularly over the practice of plural marriage--threatened to destroy the LDS Church. The result was that many of the distinctive economic, political, and social practices that had created so much friction were eliminated or minimized. Plural marriage was reluctantly abandoned and Utah was granted statehood, with all the political and economic changes that entailed. In a few short years, Mormonism's Kingdom of God went from literal to figurative and, outwardly at least, Mormonism moved from the model of independent, all-encompassing theocracy to the rather limited sphere of an ordinary American religious denomination.

A new set of practices and policies gradually received emphasis, practices that allowed LDS church members to live peacefully within the mainstream culture while still maintaining the necessary separation from that culture as a separate and distinct religious tradition. At the same time, these very accommodations made it possible for proseltyzing efforts of the LDS missionary program to continue to reap an exponentially growing number of converts throughout the 20th Century.

In the latter half of the 20th century, the greater American culture began to become more sensitive to racial inequities that had persisted from the American slavery era. But in the LDS church, priesthood blessings continued to be denied to people of African descent. The Book of Mormon discussed relations between dark-skinned and light-skinned people. This together with passages in the Book of Abraham, another new scripture published by Smith in the late 1830s, helped form many Mormon traditions regarding the social and spiritual status of Black people and Black skin. Most significantly they formed the source for the idea that Black people were originally the result of a curse upon Cain and Caanan. This idea had eventually resulted in priesthood blessings being denied to people of African descent starting in 1849. It wasn't until 1978 that this ban was lifted. By then, race within Mormonism had become a source of friction with greater society as the LDS church grew.

The very increase in the numbers of the LDS membership (280,000 in 1900 to over 11 million in 2000) led to a degree of acceptance within the larger American culture, epitomized by lauditory articles in such publications as Reader's Digest. At the same time, the Church's size and growth threatened Christian denominations on another level, leading to campaigns to inform and innoculate mainstream Christians against the LDS Church's message and, to a lesser degree, to confront or re-convert LDS Church members.

Mormons are fond of saying that they are "a peculiar people" and "in the world but not of the world". The LDS subculture has been (half-jokingly) described as "Mormo-American" 1. In fact LDS culture does share more than a little in common with ethnic subcultures in America--African-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Latino-Americans, and so on. These subcultures partly mix with the mainstream, but partly take pride cultivating distinctive traits and traditions from their own history, traits and traditions that help maintain their boundaries as separate and distinct social groups.

[edit] Modern Mormonism, Christian ecumenism, and interfaith activities

Presently, Latter Day Saints typically believe that most traditional Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant adherents have much truth, and strong faith in Christ, which is essential for their salvation. They also believe that most of these people will have the opportunity to accept the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ prior to the "final judgment," and that all that truly have faith in Christ will be "saved" or possibly even exalted.

Mormons--as contrasted with mainstream Christians--believe that differences between the doctrine of the Trinity and some Latter Day Saint conceptions of the Godhead are relatively minor and can be supported by biblical scripture, ante-Nicean tradition, similar beliefs in some protestant churches and modern revelation.

However it remains true that none of the LDS churches accept the baptisms of mainstream Christian denominations as valid, though most Christian denominations do accept each other's baptisms. And Mormon missionaries include mainstream Christians indiscriminately in their proselytization efforts, seeking to convince them that some of their core beliefs are false and persuade them that acceptance of Mormon beliefs is necessary.

[edit] Ecumenical and interfaith efforts by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Brigham Young, the leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the majority of Mormons after Smith's death, also sounded a conciliatory tone, saying,

"Some who call themselves Christians are very tenacious with regard to the Universalians, yet the latter possess many excellent ideas and good truths. Have the Catholics? Yes, a great many very excellent truths. Have the Protestants? Yes, from first to last. Has the infidel? Yes, he has a good deal of truth; and truth is all over the earth." (Discourses of Brigham Young, pg 10).

In effect this showed that Brigham Young considered that other religions possessed some knowledge of truth. He obviously considered truths found within the main Christian churches to be comparable to the truths found with 'the infidel' (presumably other, non-Christian religions) in this regard. The overriding principal that Young sought to teach is that truth is found everywhere and the LDS recognized this fact.

In the last several decades, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been making a sustained effort to demonstrate the prominence of Jesus Christ in the church. These efforts have included adding the subtitle "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" to The Book of Mormon and recently re-branding of the church's official logo to place more emphasis on the phrase "The Church of Jesus Christ."

[edit] Ecumenical and interfaith efforts by the Community of Christ

More so than The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Community of Christ has made dramatic efforts to reconcile its doctrines with mainstream Christianity, and to appear more orthodox to other Christians.

[edit] Official positions on Mormonism by traditional Christian denominations

While the Community of Christ has been generally well-received by mainstream Christians, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has thus far received relatively tepid ecumenical acceptance by most mainstream Christian denominations. The Presbyterian Church USA, for example, publishes a brochure describing the church as follows:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, like the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), declares allegiance to Jesus. Latter-day Saints and Presbyterians share use of the Bible as scripture, and members of both churches use common theological terms. Nevertheless, Mormonism is a new and emerging religious tradition distinct from the historic apostolic tradition of the Christian Church, of which Presbyterians are a part.[1]

And adds:

It is the practice of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to receive on profession of faith those coming directly from a Mormon background and to administer baptism. (ibid.)

Nevertheless, the brochure acknowledges that "Presbyterian relationships with Latter-day Saints have changed throughout the twentieth century. By God's grace they may change further." (id.)

In its 2000 General Conference, the United Methodist Church decided not to recognize Latter-day Saint baptisms, stating:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by self-definition, does not fit within the bounds of the historic, apostolic tradition of Christian faith. This conclusion is supported by the fact that the LDS Church itself, while calling itself Christian, explicitly professes a distinction and separateness from the ecumenical community and is intentional about clarifying significant differences in doctrine. As United Methodists we agree with their assessment that the LDS Church is not a part of the historic, apostolic tradition of the Christian faith." [2]

Likewise, in 2001, in the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith refused to accept Latter-day Saint baptisms. The Catholic Church generally recognizes baptisms from other Christian faiths in the name of the Trinity, provided the baptizer's intent corresponds to that of a Catholic priest. However, because of differences in Mormon and Catholic beliefs concerning the Trinity (Mormons disagree fundamentally with the Christian doctrine of the Trinity), the Catholic Church stated that Mormon baptism was "not the baptism that Christ instituted".

[edit] Anti-Mormonism and efforts to counter or convert Latter-day Saints

Main article: anti-Mormonism

[edit] Evangelical efforts directed toward Mormons

For fundamentalist and evangelical Christians, who are primarily responsible for most literature that disputes Mormon theology, Mormonism differs from Traditional Christianity principally in what it teaches about the nature of Jesus, and also about how a person is qualified to spend eternity with God. Traditional evangelical Christianity teaches that Christ accomplishes for the believer a salvation so complete that the one who hopes in him stands in relation to God as though he himself had fully achieved perfect obedience. Solely out of gratitude for this gift proceeds a spontaneous life of discipleship in this world. Though this view of gratitude and salvation is compatible with Mormonism, evangelicalism places emphasis, in some cases almost exclusively, on the Kingdom of God being a gift from God that cannot in any way be earned. Because Mormonism is more a "faith without works is dead" religion, these concepts of grace are perceived as less prominent than concepts of good works. Evangelicals thus perceive Mormonism as conflicting with their understanding of the Gospel of grace and encouraging in its adherents servile striving for God's acceptance.

[edit] Efforts to counter the activities of Mormon missionaries

Given that Mormon missionaries are indiscriminate in their proselytizing efforts, some Christian organizations have published tracts or brochures designed to counter or defend against Mormon missionaries. Conciliar Press, a department of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, has published a brochure designed to protect Orthodox Christians from the proselytizing efforts of what it describes as "cultists" (Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses). The following excerpt is exemplary of the strong partisan feelings involved:

Although there are important differences between ancient Gnosticism and Mormonism, the similarities are striking. They both replace biblical Christianity with a very elaborate set of legends and esoteric teachings found, for Mormons, in the fanciful tales of The Book of Mormon and the teachings of Joseph Smith.... Firstly, one might ask why God would have allowed His people to dwell in darkness for almost two thousand years after Christ, until the coming of Smith...to lead them to the truth. One might also ask why any intelligent person would become a part of a religious movement founded by [a man] whose dishonesty is so apparent. Finally, what good reason could there be for believing self-proclaimed prophets whose teachings contradict the clear doctrines of the Holy Scriptures, instead of holding to the truth proclaimed by the Church founded by Christ and led by His Apostles and their successors? (Cultist at my Door: An Orthodox Examination of the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses, published by Conciliar Press)

The text of this excerpt, in its style, tone, and quality, and the title and source of the document it comes from, are demonstrative of the official efforts many denominations of traditional Christianity now are pursuing, as well as their position on Mormonism.