I think Cheshire Human’s point is that there are denominations that are part of the larger unitarian movement which are Christian, such as the Quakers. But (a) Quakers aren’t specifically Christian (some of them may believe in the divinity of Jesus; many don’t), and per his cite, “the Unitarian movement has never accepted the Godhood of Jesus,” which is a bit of a dealbreaker just on commonsense terms: if the outer boundary of Christianity is extensive enough to include any monotheist who believes Jesus was a wise man, then a lot of people are Christians who wouldn’t consider themselves to be so.
I assume you mean “Reorganized CoJCoLDS,” now called Community of Christ or something like that. They don’t have Brigham Young’s baggage, and historically they have denied much of Joseph Smith’s baggage. I consider them, as well as the FLDS (who embrace Brigham’s baggage) to be Christians, despite their opinions of the Creeds.
I guess I’m too much a product of the 60s and 70s because I see both of these as offshoots of Mormonism, and for my family and friends in that generation, we didn’t self-identify as Christians. We were Mormons (most are still).
I have never once heard anyone in my direct or extended family ever say “as Christians.” Yes, we had a picture of Christ in the living room, but wanted nothing to do with the rest of Christianity. Them were evil people.
Perhaps it is a generation gap. I’d say a good percentage of my friends are Mormons and they absolutely post things on Facebook very often on the order of “Ugh, I hate it when people say I’m not Christian.” The rhetoric they use is also very clear that the Book of Mormon (etc) is an extension of the New Testament, and that they’ve just expanded on other Christian faiths, not supplanted the old beliefs completely.
Boo Hoo. Give them my sympathy that 20 years of PR has not made up for 160 years of slander. It’s willful amnesia.
Yup, not only is it generational, it’s the fact that I left in the 80s, before church changed its mind on exactly how evil other churches are. It starts with the very beginning, here’s the big man describing how he first met with the Gods.
(emphasis by TB)
(emphasis by TB)
(emphasis by TB) I do want to catagorically deny that the last scripture is not the source of the joke, “there were four nuns who were waiting to be let into heaven. . .”
There are a zillion quotes which have tied both Catholicism and Protestantism to being that whore of the world (band name).
Prior to 1990, Mormons learned the following about ministers. Note that “Adam” represented mankind.
Anyone younger than 41 would never have heard the above. Anyone older would have had two decades of the revised version to erase memories of their prior life.
Every Book of Mormon I used to study was printed prior to 1981 when they tacked on “Another Testament to Christ.”
It seems that all of these changes were made to make Mormonism seem less strange to the outside world.
Back to the generational thing, I grew up in the 60s and 70s. My mother was born in the mid 1930, and her mother in 1905. She would have been taught by her parents who would have grown up while the Saints were expecting the apocalypse at any moment, back around 1900. We grew up fully believing that the end of the world was going to be around the year 2000.
We didn’t give a shit about the rest of the world, except for those who would join Mormons. They were evil and would be swatted away.
Sometime after I left, the Church really softened its message. Too bad, I really liked the comic book version better.
The could also check out their own website, hidden in something disingenuously called Gospel Principles to see the official word.
Seriously folks, we have the Mormon church either calling all other churches outright evil or not of Christ. Why is it again that they want to hang around with that crowd?
That would probably be Billy’s son, Franklin Graham.
After a bad experience with having endorsed Nixon, Billy Graham decided to take his ministry apolitical, and pretty much held to that ever since.
Until recently. Lately, a number of rather controversial statements have come out in Billy Graham’s name. Graham is 93, and in the advanced stages of Parkinson’s. And nobody has had the chance to speak with Billy Graham about these things other than Franklin Graham, who, when asked if anyone else would get to speak to Billy, said, “That ain’t gonna happen. I can promise you that.”
