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I saw Chris Matthews on tv Friday berating Rick Santorum as to whether Mormonism “was Christian”. Unfortunately such a forum does not allow for any precise thinking.

If you define it in the broadest terms, as one who sincerely tries to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, then I guess Mormons would qualify, which was more or less what Santirum said, though it was in the form of deference to the LDS as to whether they were Christians.

Had I been in Santorum’s shoes, I would have asked Matthews if belief in a triune God was necessary to Christianity; if not then they could certainly be called Christians, otherwise no.

>> The problem is, not even we Christians can agree on what is “Christian”. I am sure some of my protestant brethren on FR would not consider me “Christian” since I am a convert to Catholicism and do not adhere to sola fide or sola scriptura. <<

Apples and oranges. The small minority of protestants who claim Catholics are "not Christian" (and note I said there is a very small group... the vast majority of Protestants would agree Catholics are Chrisitans) are simply basing arguments on personal prejudice. Their argument falls apart when you look at history because if it's true that Catholics "aren't Christian", then Christainity didn't exist until 1600 years after Christ when their brand of protestantism was developed. Indeed, instead of 2 billion Christians in the world, their interpretation of "Christianity" would mean there's probably less than 50 million "Christians" on the whole planet, and great centers of Christianity that were developed by the first apostles and have stood for 2000 years, like Greece and Rome, are "not Christian" in their eyes. Basically we're all going to hell if we don't accept the teachings of their denomination.

Mormonism is different. It didn't exist until the 1800s and developed entirely in America. Its doctrines are vastly different from historic Christianity shared by Catholic/Protestant/Orthodox denominations that otherwise have very little in common. Thus, all the major Christian churches in the world do not accept Mormonism as a Christian denomination. It is a radical departure from accepted Christianity during the 1800 years Christianity existed. One could argue that it's simply a very different "new denomination" of Christianity, but that's like how Christianity was seen as a radically different, "new denomination" of Judiasm for the first 70 years of Christianity. It wasn't a new denomination, it was a new religion based on ideas from the previous religion, but went in an entirely new direction and broke ties with the old religion. The same is true with Mormonism. This shouldn't imply that Mormons are bad people are all going to hell because they're "not Christian", in fact, alot of Mormons are much devout and lead "Christ-like" lives than many praticing Christians. But the religion itself is not Christian, and vastly different Christian communities like Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists agree on that point.

>> If you define it in the broadest terms, as one who sincerely tries to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, then I guess Mormons would qualify <<

The problem is that if you define "Christian" in those terms, then many other faiths could be counted as "Christian" including many Muslims, Hindus, Ba'hai, deist, etc., followers, because many of those adherents will tell you they sincerely try to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ (even if they don't believe Christ was divine and their interpretation of Jesus is quite different from what Chrisitan churches believe)

>> I saw Chris Matthews on tv Friday berating Rick Santorum as to whether Mormonism “was Christian”. Had I been in Santorum’s shoes, I would have asked Matthews if belief in a triune God was necessary to Christianity; if not then they could certainly be called Christians, otherwise no. which was more or less what Santirum said, though it was in the form of deference to the LDS as to whether they were Christians. <<

It was pretty much a lose-lose scenario and Matthews knows that, asking whether Santorum thinks Mormons are Christian is like asking him if he stopped beating his wife. If Santorum points out they don't share the beliefs of most Christians, the media would take the clip out of the context to make it look like Santorum is bashing Mormons. Heck, even some freepers joined the media in claiming Huckabee was an "anti-Mormon bigot!!!" when he (correctly) asked whether Mormons believe Jesus and Satan were "brothers" (Mormon doctrine teachings that both were children of God the Father but that Satan was the black sheep of the family and disowned or whatever)

Basically if I had been in Santorum's shoes I would have probably given an indirect answer as well, and just pointed out that many Mormons uphold Christian virtues and that I get along with them well.

As I noted on another thread today, the simplest way around this one is for politicians to simply acknowledge what I do... that my personal belief about the person's faith is irrelevant because I don't judge a person's qualifications for office on whether or not they're a praticing Christian. I would much rather vote for a solidly conservative Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jew, etc. than I would a socialist who professes to be a devout "Christian"

The problem is, not even we Christians can agree on what is “Christian”. I am sure some of my protestant brethren on FR would not consider me “Christian” since I am a convert to Catholicism and do not adhere to sola fide or sola scriptura. If you define it in the broadest terms, as one who sincerely tries to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, then I guess Mormons would qualify, which was more or less what Santirum said, though it was in the form of deference to the LDS as to whether they were Christians.

...no wonder people slide down a religious Bahai-like pathway where they run everything together about God and begin to conclude a fundamentalist Mormon-is-a-Mormon-is-a-Christian-is-a-Jonestownite-is-a-Branch-Davidian-is-a-Heavens-Gate-ian-is-a-Urantia believer-is a Church Universal & Triumphant-is-a-Wicca-Witch-is-Voodoo practioner-is-a-New-Ager-is-a-whirling dervish-is-a-Hindu-is-a-Sikh-is-a-Muslim!

I guess you consider them all the same, then, huh?

But how can that be?

The "Jesus" of the Marharishi of Transcental Meditation is a Jesus who never suffered.
The "Jesus" of Guru Maharaj Ji supposedly merged with Krishna, Ram and Buddha.
The only difference between the Moonie "jesus" and the rest of us, says, Sun Myung Moon, is that Jesus had no original sin nature.
The "Jesus" of Christian Science think of themselves as "Christian," yet they don't believe Jesus is God.
The "Jesus" of the Jehovah's Witnesses is not Almighty and is "a god," but not "THE" God; nor did He bodily resurrect.
The "Jesus" of many gnostics would in no way incarnate a human body -- because that to them would be too "corrupt" of a thing to do.
The "Jesus" of Brigham Young is one redeemer-savior among who knows how many? "He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. On every earth. How many earths are there?...Consequently every earth has its redeemer..." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 14, p. 71, 1870)
The "Jesus" of Mormonism is a pre-existent spirit-creature; a son of a God-man whose next-in-line brother is "Lucifer/Satan" -- a "Jesus" who had to work out his own salvation; and whose blood didn't cover all of our personal sins (thereby rendering him as an incomplete, inadequate "savior").

Perhaps you could tell, us, then how can all these "Jesuses" be the same One? How can we have...
...a Jesus who suffers & a TM "Jesus" who doesn't?
...a Jesus who resurrects bodily & a JW "Jesus" who doesn't?
...a Jesus who transcends us in every way & a Moonie "Jesus" who only transcends us sin-wise?
...a Jesus who is united with the Father & the Spirit vs. a Hindu offshoot/New Age "Jesus" who merges as part of a divine flame or divine ocean?
...THE fully-God, fully-man incarnant son of God vs. a less-than-human embodied gnostic "Jesus"?
...a Jesus who is THE Savior vs. a Mormon "Jesus" who competes with ALL kinds of "saviors" on other planets (per Brigham) & ALL kinds of "saviors" on THIS planet (per Lds "prophet" John Taylor's description of Baptism of the dead "saviors")??
...a Jesus who is THE Creator vs. a Mormon "Jesus," a mere spirit-creature?
...a Jesus who is THE Savior vs. a Mormon "Jesus" who is touted by Lds leaders as a "saved being?"
...a Jesus who created Lucifer (Col. 1:16-17) vs. a Mormon "Jesus" who "lucked out" on being ahead of Lucifer spirit-birth assembly line, only because of spirit-birth order???
...a Jesus who died BOTH for our sin nature AND ALL of our personal sins vs. a Mormon "Jesus" who didn't?