Are Mormons Christian? I've heard that question often, especially during Mitt Romney's campaign and now that people are wondering if conservative Mormons will support Mike Huckabee. I always wonder where the idea came from that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn't Christian. If you believe Mormons aren't Christians, maybe you can help me understand why.
However, Let me explain to you, first, why the idea that LDS (Mormon) people aren't Christian confuses me. Every Sunday, Mormons across the world gather together at their local meetinghouses for "sacrament meeting"; many LDS leaders have called this meeting the most sacred meeting in the Mormon religion. As you probably realized, the meeting is named after the "sacrament". The sacrament in LDS jargon is what other religions call the communion or the holy supper. Every Sunday, Mormons gather together to spend about twenty minutes in complete and perfect silence--except for babies' cries here and there--partaking of bread and water blessed in the name of Jesus Christ. They do this in remembrance of His broken body and spilled blood for the sins of everyone in this world.
In this sacred ritual, open to anyone willing to wake up before 9 on a Sunday morning, Mormons and visitors "witness before [...] God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing take upon themselves the name of thy Son, and always remember Him and keep His commandments". That sounds very Christian to me.
Actually, what seems more Christian to me, is that most of them mean it. When they take one of the small pieces of bread--from the trays being passed around to the congregation by their youth--most Mormons are thinking of Christ's sacrifice for them. When they drink the water from the impeccable, tiny paper cups, most are thinking of their Savior's "bitter cup" that He partook of when paying for the sins of the world. With this sacredness mind, they "covenant" to remember His selfless love and to emulate that path in the year of our Lord 2008.
For Mormons, being Christian is not just about having a tag attached to the name of their church; it is about recognizing how they strive to live their daily lives; it means a lot to them personally. People can't say "Mormons aren't Christian" and expect them not to take it personally and to say "oh, it is just a theological discussion"; it is not, for them.
Some might say that this "sacrament deal" is just the a way the Mormon church is trying to assimilate itself into mainstream American Christianity. In reality , it is not like that at all. This exact same tradition, together with the ritual of necessary baptism, was instituted at the first-ever meeting of the LDS church in April 6, 1830, and it has been practiced every week since--even through the turbulent times of early Mormon history. This practice is also mentioned in the first editions of both The Book of Mormon and The Doctrine and Covenants, which constitute the church's scriptural cannon together with the Bible.
Also, every time the LDS church decides to mobilize huge amounts of food, resources, and money away from their "welfare program"--mainly dedicated to the needs of Mormons worldwide--in record times into their "humanitarian program"--dedicated to people of any faith suffering unexpected humanitarian crisis such as hurricanes and tsunamis--I think it wouldn't be fair to say they are not being Christian, if that is what they want to be called.
Despite all this and many other signs of Christian living, millions of people belonging to diverse Christian groups chose to deny Mormons the privilege of being called Christian. "Mormons believe in a different Christ" some say; well...then they are "different" Christians...a kind that tries to do what He taught.
It says in the Bible "the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch". "Disciple" means someone who follows a discipline as a way of life. If the Antiochians' definition of Christian is still valid today, I don't know if there is a group that deserves to be called Christian more than Mormons do.
