I am fascinated by all the hoopla surrounding the upcoming presidential election and find myself ever mystified by what people choose to focus on instead of the real issues that affect our lives on a daily basis. Mitt Romney can't sneeze without someone telling him he's not a Christian, but nobody seems the slightest bit interested in the personal lives of the other possible candidates...
In the midst of all this political smoke screening and discussion of whether "Mormons" are Christians, I found the following blog entry to be freshly on target:
http://josephantley.com/2011/10/16/why-mormons-care-if-people-think-were-christians/
Spending my life striving my utmost to walk in my Savior's footsteps, I DO care! You go, Joseph Trevor Antley!
Here is the text, for those of you who can't access it:
QUOTE:
Why Mormons Care if People Think They’re Christians -- My last blog post received responses from a number of Evangelical Christians asking the question, “Why do Mormons care if they’re considered Christians?” This may be a fair question for those who know little about Mormonism, since Mormonism does disagree with Protestantism and especially Evangelical Protestantism on a number of doctrinal matters (and it seems that in the mind of your average Evangelical leader, Evangelicalism IS Christianity). The reason that Mormons are sensitive about people calling our religion non-Christian is not because Mormons want to be more mainstream or because Mormons are trying to develop some sort of camaraderie with Protestant churches. It isn’t because Mormons are trying to deceive people into thinking that we hold Protestant or all mainstream Christian beliefs. Mormons have been accused of all of these by some Evangelical critics. None of them are accurate. The actual reason that Mormons take issue with anyone publicly declaring that Mormonism is non-Christian or that Mormons are non-Christians is that such a declaration implies that Mormons do not believe in Christ. Mormons unabashedly declare that we believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God, and that he died for our sins, as the Bible teaches. If an Evangelical pastor declares in a public forum and on national television that Mormons are not Christians, of course we Mormons are going to take issue. Not because we desperately want to “fit in” with mainstream religion, but because when someone hears that pastor’s comments accusing our religion of being non-Christian, without any sort of clarification regarding our beliefs, they will suppose that we do not believe in Jesus (because the average person considers belief in Jesus as the actual definition of “Christian”). Mormons do not like it when people imply that we do not believe in Jesus. Anyone who declares that Mormonism isn’t a Christian religion is a simply a spin-doctor who is attempting to poison people’s opinions regarding Mormonism. They are not interested in honesty with the public or with their parishioners. If they were, can you imagine how their comments would actually sound? “Mormons aren’t Christians, but they do believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died for their sins.” …WHAT? Can you imagine how their congregations would respond to that oxymoronic statement?
Faith in Christ is overwhelmingly the most important part of our religion. Referring to Mormons as “non-Christians” is simply deceptive. Mormons want people to know that we believe in Jesus Christ, and that is why Mormons care that certain people are saying otherwise.
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