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From: ssimmons@unix.cie.rpi.edu (Stephen Simmons)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re:  The Mormon Religion
Message-ID: <Aug.8.03.16.38.1990.12605@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 8 Aug 90 07:16:40 GMT
Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu
Organization: CIE, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
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Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu

In article <Aug.5.19.07.00.1990.17538@athos.rutgers.edu> cms@dragon.uucp writes:
>
> The Mormon religion has never been accepted by any Christian council of
>churches including:  National Association of Evangelicals, National Council of
>Christian Churches, Word Council of Churches, American & International Council
>of Churches, among others.

First, let me start by saying that I only know one Mormon family, and
that they are the exception to the rule, rather than the rule.
However, this family believes in Jesus Christ as the only way to
salvation, and because of this, I classify them at least, as
Christian.  They say (I think) that Mormons in general believe this.
Mormon netters, what do you say?

As a result of this, a classify their religion as Christian, but that
doesn't mean I agree with them; neither do I agree that the Book of
Mormon is a revelation from God.

Other than their putting forward of the Book of Mormon, which tends to
offend other Christians, for what reason are they not accepted as a
valid Christian religion?

>The
>Smithsonian Institution has indicated that no contacts with Egyptian, Hebrew,
>or other peoples of Western Asia or the Near East occurred among American
>Indian cultures.  

A book a read as a child, about Thor Heyerdahl's explorations indicated
that this was quite likely.  Thor Heyerdahl was considering the
possibility that the Egyptians could have crossed over to the
Americas, so he and some friends built a papyrus reed boat and did so
by themselves; well almost, they were rescued about 40 miles from a
Caribbean Island because a hurricane was brewing there...  This
adventure was executed in the 60s or 70s, I don't remember when.  The
book also mentioned some possible identification of Egyptian culture
in Western South America.  

--Stephen Simmons

[Cindy Smith has given a pretty good answer to this question in the 4
postings from last time.  How many of the charges that she summarized
are actually true remains to be seen though.  At least some appear not
to be.  Perhaps the ensuing discussion will clarify others.  If we try
to disregard anti-LDS propaganda, the most serious problems seem to
be:

  - The LDS church considers that the Christian Church died,
	and they are the only Church that has
	a mandate from Christ, and true sacraments.  I'm being
	careful about how I word this, because I do believe they
	acknowledge individual Christians as followers of Christ.

  - They have some ideas about God that seem unacceptable to most
	Christians.  In particular, they do not see an intrinsic
	difference between God and humans, such that humans can
	eventually develop (after death and glorification)
	into equals of God.  This seems to have implications for
	our situation before God and how we are saved, but I'm
	not a sufficient expert on LDS beliefs to be willing to
	comment on this.

These seem to me to be the most basic problems.  I agree that having
unusual beliefs about American history is not in itself theologically
serious.

--clh]