Mormonism and Christianity - Last Post

This is my last post for a while discussing the debate about the whether or not Mormons and Christians are the same. 

I find the debate interesting because Mormons seemed more convinced than ever that they are Christians and I can't think of a single prominent Christian denomination that would affirm such an idea.

Here is an article discussing just this very issue: http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2012-01/are-mormons-christian-its-complicated

Some interesting quotes:
  • "Whatever it is, Mormonism is not Christianity," Land said. "They do not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, they do not believe in God the Father as he is recognized in the orthodox Christian faith, and they believe that 'As man now is, God was once.' The only thing right about that sentence from the orthodox Christian perspective is the punctuation." 

  • But even Catholics and more liberal Protestants, such as the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Methodist Church, do not consider Mormon baptisms valid. 

  • "The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by self-definition, does not fit within the bounds of the historic, apostolic tradition of Christian faith," the Methodists wrote in 2000. 

  • For example, arguing that Mormons are not Christians because they do not recite the Nicene Creed would leave Jesus and his disciples outside the Christian fold as well, argues Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a member of the LDS Church's Quorum of Twelve Apostles. And, Holland says, the idea of a flesh-and-blood God should not sound strange to Christians, who, after all, believe in the bodily birth and resurrection of Jesus.

    Christians who insist on a single, closed canon forget that Catholics and Protestants use different versions of the Bible, argues Stephen Robinson, a professor of religion at Mormon-run Brigham Young University in Utah. And didn't differing interpretations of the Trinity contribute to the Great Schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches in 1054? 
What do you think? Should we even be determining who is in and out? Do you find the argument that Mormon's don't accept Christian baptisms and vice versa compelling?

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