MORMONISM AND MAINSTREAM CHRISTIANITY

Mormonism and Mainstream Christianity

Mormonism and Mainstream Christianity

Thesis Statement

Although Mormonism and Mainstream Christianity share the bible as a sacred text, their beliefs and practices vastly differ.

Introduction

Mormonism, the religious movement primarily associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has, for years, drawn a striking array of assessments from a variety of commentators studying the tradition. Evangelicals have chided Mormons for not really being Christian and not truly believing the Bible (Hoekema, 1968). Barlow (1988), after a study of biblical usage, concluded that "Mormons are Bible-believing Christian, but with a difference" (p. 740). Others (Brinkerhoff, Jacob & Mackie, 1987; Shupe & Heinerman, 1985) have shown a similarity between the moral values of Mormons and fundamentalist/Baptist Protestants. Smith (1980), downplaying Mormon peculiarities, argued that Mormonism is part of the North American religious mainstream. Shipps (1985) argued that Mormonism is a radically different stream that has matured from an obscure cult into an authentically new religious tradition, just as Christianity and Islam did. For sociologists, Mormonism has been of special interest because it seems to offer a case for observation of the early phases and development of religion. Stark (1984) projected a possible LDS membership of between 63 and 265 million by the year 2000. He argued that Mormonism "will soon achieve a worldwide following comparable to that of Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and other dominant world faiths" (p. 18).

Overview

Certainly Stark is correct in implying the LDS have aspirations and are growing. Today there are approximately 4.2 million Mormons in the United States and 8 million worldwide. The LDS is a tradition that survived an early phase of religious persecution and eventually established itself in Utah (see Shipps, 1985, for an excellent history and bibliography of the Mormon experience in America). The most obvious concentration of Mormons is in Utah where 77% of the population (1,305,000) is Mormon; however, observers should not overlook the fact that over 84% of LDS church membership lives outside of Utah (Deseret News Almanac, 1990).

Attempts to place Mormons into Roman Catholic-Protestant classification schemes have been problematic. In a review of classification schemes, Smith (1990) showed Mormons are most often categorized as conservative or fundamentalist Protestants. However, he describes this classification as "ill fitting" (p. 242). Pronouncements of LDS leaders likewise declare that Mormons are neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant (McConkie, 1966; Talmage, 1913). All in all, it remains a riddle as to how to understand the relationship between Mormon belief patterns and those of other major North American religious groups. Because almost all past research trying to address such issues has based conclusions on interpretations of official pronouncements, large questions remain unanswered. A considerable gap may exist between what church leaders teach and what lay members actually believe. Further, official rhetoric may exaggerate or underemphasize similarities between denominations. The Mormon membership may not have fully accepted church leaders' teachings that are out of step with broader social-cultural views. On the other hand, non-Mormons may believe in views Mormons consider unique to themselves ...