This started out as a comment of Ravegerofworlds2's diary, Media Assuming Mormon Claims as Part of Christianity , but it has morphed into this, whatever this is. This diary can be summed up like this:
I don't care that Romney is a Mormon (even though he is an embarassment to Mormons), I don't care if people claim Mormons are or aren't Christians, (I argue here that they indeed are), What I do care about is that Romney is a bad candidate for President, and moreover we should be concentrating here on electing Democrats and not beating up on churches, we should be working on reelecting the only viable Democratic candidate for President that we have, Obama (whom I support, strongly, and yes he is quite flawed). So lets get past the BS and elect democrats. You can pass on the rest of this article if you want or you can dive in.
Mormons claim to be the Restored Church of Jesus Christ. That Christ himself reestablished his church with his authority on earth. That by the time the Nicene Creed came around, the church and its theology had already become apostate. So to most of your claims, the answer is yes, but so what? They claim Christ to be the entire center of their theology. While no, the church does not claim lineage friom Nicea, or from Catholic or Reformist Traditions, They claim a strong belief in Christ and claim that their interpretation fo his true nature is correct. Their disagreement with the Nicean creed does in no way disqualify them from being followers of Christ. While the LDS Church disagrees with Protestant and Catholic interpretations of Bible Theology, they respect other traditions:
These are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 13 Articles of Faith:
1.We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
2.We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.
3.We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
4.We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
5.We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
6.We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.
7.We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.
8.We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
9.We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
10.We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.
11.We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
12.We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
13.We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.
To have a conservative self serving putz like Jefress make that comment and then have someone back him up on KOS is quite offputting.
The Church isssued the following statement:
We really don’t want to comment on a statement made at a political event, but those who want to understand the centrality of Christ to our faith can learn more about us and what we believe by going to mormon.org .
The point of the religious aspect of this is that yes, the LDS church is very happy to claim theological distinction from Protestantism and Catholicism. Does that make them not Christians? Not at all. The name of the organization is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Meaning that the Church believes that it literally IS the church of Jesus Christ, and the Latterday Saint part differentiates this dispensation from the time of Christ, that it is the restored Gospel, rather than the reformed gospel. Yes, a significant area of disagreement. Are there not differences in Islam, Buddism, Judiaism, Hinduism? Yes. Do people waste time saying our faith is entirely legitimate and yours is not? Yes. Does that claim of illigitimacy in fact strip any faith from its foundation? No, probably never.
There are Buddists, Atheists, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus on this site along with many other stripes of faith and belief on Daily Kos. We all come together to elect Democrats. So lets.
The Mormon Church Certainly has its detractors here, and In my opinion, there is justification for such viewpoints. But almost every faith represented by members of Daily Kos has faults in it and has its detractors amongst ourselves.
But all this is entirely besides the point.
The point is that This site is dedicated to electing Democrats, and not only is Mitt Romney not a Democrat, but he is a putz of a bad Republican, to boot. Whether or not his being Mormon makes him a more acceptable or less acceptable Republican is an argument more frivolous than splitting hairs on a baby's butt. He would be a disaster as a President. So lets stick to the point. I could express criticism of the Catholic church, (my wife is Catholic), or of any other belief system, but I won't, at least not on these pages.
I almost think he would be the opponent of choice because being a Mormon makes him less electable, but I am concentrating on getting Obama reelected, and not on pumping up the meme of the worserest of two choices.
Disclaimer:
I am a Mormon, try to be as liberal, progressive as a Mormon can be, never vote for Rethuglicans, am pro choice and pro LGBT rights, a member of KOS for several years. Am I the only person here on KOS that has disagreements with their church or faith? I doubt it.
In conclusion, forget everything I just said, go occupy your town center and lets put Democrats in control of all three brances of Government, fix the economy and the jobs situation, and lets get the hell out of the wars we are in.