Are Latter-day Saints Christians?

New York Times, Pentagon Cuts 180 Religious Identities From Military Personnel Records:

The new policy, which the Pentagon framed as a largely administrative action, leaves just 31 religious categories to choose from, 22 of which are Christian.

New York Times, Pentagon Again Revises Religious Categories for Troops:

In response to a request from Republican lawmakers, the Pentagon has again revised its list of religious categories that military service members can identify with in their personnel records.

A Pentagon policy memo signed on May 20 and reported last week had excluded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose adherents are often referred to as Mormons, from being categorized as Christian. The move surfaced fears that the Defense Department was adopting a view held by some Protestant groups [Why Evangelicals Don’t Like Mormons] that members of the faith are heretical and should not be considered Christian [The Theological Differences Behind Evangelical Unease With Romney].

But on Monday, the Defense Department posted a revised list of religious categories on social media that eliminated a “Christian” prefix that had been applied to 21 other religious traditions — but not to Latter-day Saints — after lawmakers in Congress objected.

Dispatch Faith: Are Latter-day Saints Christians?, by Justin Collings (Academic Vice President & Professor of Law, BYU) & Hal Boyd (Chief of Staff to the President, BYU):

There is a verse in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Book of Mormon that reads simply: “And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.”

Given the centrality of Jesus Christ to our beliefs, worship, and the very name of our faith, it’s little wonder that Latter-day Saints like us (so-called “Mormons”) find it puzzling when otherwise good-hearted Christians insist on defining us out of Christ’s fold. This is especially confusing because Christ in the New Testament was so insistent on drawing others in. …

Some might suggest that Latter-day Saints shouldn’t sweat it if others don’t call us Christians, and in an important sense, we don’t. We will go right on worshiping Christ and trying to follow His teachings whether others consider us Christians or not. But in the very process of worshiping Him, we vow each week while partaking of the holy sacramental emblems that we are “willing to take upon” us the name of Jesus Christ and “always remember Him.”

To not self-identify as Christian would be to deny that very sacred pledge. So whether others choose to call us Christians or not, we will continue to self-identify as His. And if we are rejected for that choice, perhaps we can take heart from Christ’s own teachings: “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven.”

But even as we all await heaven, perhaps here on earth we can act a bit more Christian in the way we go about policing who is included in the definition.

Dispatch Faith: Why Most Christians Don’t Consider the LDS Church Christian, by Daniel Darling (Southwestern Seminary):

The LDS church considers Jesus Christ to originally have been like man in “premortality” before progressing to godhood, and to have been the firstborn child of a Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother, while for historic Christians, Jesus is the eternal son of God, existing before time began, born of a virgin, who took on human flesh in the incarnation. And while the LDS church similarly talks about the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, it departs from historic Christianity’s view of the Trinity being God as one in three persons. LDS considers each a fully distinct being. Lastly, LDS and Christians share a different anthropology. While Christians believe humans are God’s unique and prized creation, created to worship God, LDS members believe that humans can eventually reach God-like status and can potentially “develop His divine qualities.”

Historic Christians also differ when it comes to authoritative sacred texts. While Protestants and Catholics differ from one another in the interplay between Scripture and tradition, the LDS church invests significant authority in its leadership, the General Authorities, especially the living prophet, whose revelations can be interpreted as the words of Jesus himself. That was the case with the revelations produced by Joseph Smith, the religion’s founder. Historic Christians claim to be upholding the witness given to the apostles and contained in Scripture.

For historic Christians, these doctrines—hammered out by church councils and articulated in the historic texts such as the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed—matter for faith and practice. Smith called the creeds an “abomination.”

Does all this mean that the Defense Department got it right in its new classification? It depends on the purpose of the classification system. The military has its own unique needs and must consider how it defines its religious subcategories, but there is value in keeping these distinctions sharp, both for the purposes of serving military personnel through the military chaplaincy, for example, and as we talk about religion in American society. It is not bigotry to state there are obvious differences between certain traditions.

Faithful Christians believe two things at the same time: The LDS Church is not a part of the historic Christian church, and our LDS neighbors are good people with whom we share much in common. R. Albert Mohler Jr., a theologian and the longtime president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, delivered an address in 2014 at Brigham Young University in which he said, “We do not enjoy such friendship and constructive conversation in spite of our theological differences, but in light of them.” …

Christians and Latter-day Saints can acknowledge our theological differences—which for evangelicals like myself requires making certain distinctions—yet work together for a flourishing American society.

Mark Movsesian (Frederick A. Whitney Professor of Contract Law & Director, Mattone Center for Law and Religion, St. John’s), Religion in the Military:

The Pentagon recently caused a controversy by revising its list of religious affiliation codes for service members and failing to designate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as Christian. The Pentagon found a clever way out. ….

The controversy began when the Pentagon reduced its list of religious affiliation codes from more than 200 entries to 31. … The first version of the revised list identified many groups as “Christian”: Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and others. But the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was listed separately, without the label.

Latter-day Saints objected. The LDS Church understands itself as Christian. And speaking sociologically and culturally, it is surely correct to describe Latter-day Saints as Christian.

At the same time, there is a real theological issue. Latter-day Saints do not accept the doctrine of the Trinity as Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and most Protestants understand it. For that reason, among others, many traditional Christian communions would hesitate to describe Latter-day Saints as Christian in the doctrinal sense. The Catholic Church, for example, does not recognize LDS baptism as valid Christian baptism.

The point can be turned around. Latter-day Saints do not understand themselves simply as another denomination. They understand their church as the restoration of the original Church of Jesus Christ. That claim implies that other Christian bodies, however sincere, do not possess the fullness of restored truth and authority.

So the government had stumbled into a real religious dispute. The Pentagon responded to the controversy by removing the word “Christian” from the list altogether. That clever response manages the problem but doesn’t eliminate it. In fact, the problem never can be eliminated completely. Government must classify religion all the time: for tax purposes, for religious accommodation claims, for chaplaincy, for prisons, hospitals, and the military. Yet every classification creates potential problems. Classify too broadly, and you flatten important differences. Classify too narrowly, and administration becomes impossible. Use theological labels, and the state risks taking sides. Avoid them, and some groups may feel their self-understanding has been denied.