Comments on: Court says Mormonism is not Protestant

By: Janna

Janna — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:56:26 +0000

After seeing Kevin’s snippet of this on Facebook, I knew I’d have to get over here. I called my family in Bentonvile about it as well to see if the local gossip or news had any more information.
The judge is right in upholding the settlement. The husband and wife agreed in court that mormonism was not protestantism. If he didn’t want to agree to that then he should have fought harder. The wife said in an interview that it was stated in their agreement because of ties to friends who were part of mormonism. The husband was vocally FOR the wording and agreement at the time of the divorce. (perhaps he was trying to cover up an affair –that is what the gossip is saying)

Seems a shame for a divorcing couple to have to set up rules about religion as well.

By: Lee

Lee — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:21:42 +0000

Being “Protestant” has different definitions. Historically, Protestant Christianity is that group of churches which broke from the Catholic church during the reformation in “protest” of the teachings of the church regarding the authority of the Pope. Traditionally, the main branches of Protestant Christianity include the church reformers along the Lutheran, Calvinist and Anabaptist lines that were theologically based, and the political reformers of the Church of England, which did not differ as much in theology from the Catholic church. Technically, by definition, Baptists and Methodists would not actually be “Protestants” since their origins were based on Biblical critique of Anglican doctrine and practice, and did not involve separation from the Catholic church.

Mormons were followers of the teachings of Joseph Smith, outlined pretty much as he went along, from his distortions of Biblical truth laid out in the Book of Mormon, to his claim of being a restored “prophet” of the church and the doctrine that came from his claimed “revelations” laid out in Doctrine and Covenants. People who joined the Mormon church were proselytes from other churches. Since Mormon doctrine is not rooted in the teachings of Christ, and the Mormon church’s history is not related to Christian reformation, Mormons are not Christian, and thus, can also not be Protestant.

Lee’s last blog post..The News is Not Good

By: rob

rob — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:25:24 +0000

I wish we could get our military to acknowledge this so that we don’t have Mormon chaplains preaching in the Protestant worship services.

rob’s last blog post..the final countdown

By: AskAnAtheist.org

AskAnAtheist.org — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:53:48 +0000

I agree with the ruling as well.

The fact that Mormonism grew out of Protestantism is not reason enough to consider them Protestants today, though I do think they were considered Protestants initially, and correctly so. It’s similar to the early Jesus movement in that the proto-Christians were still considered Jews by others, and they considered themselves Jews, until the movement matured and gradually alienated itself both socially and doctrinally from the other Jewish communities to became a religion in their own right. In the same way that modern Christianity is still an Abrahamic religion, Mormonism is still a Christian religion, but Mormonism has branched far enough away from their parent faith to be considered a separate faith.

By: bill (cycleguy)

bill (cycleguy) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:34:10 +0000

You are right. Neil is right, especially on his “Unti fairly recently” comment. They are trying so hard to be recognized in the religious community as anything but a cult that they are actually denying a basic of tenet of the fantastical dreamer/liar himself. They tried to so hard to set themselves up as “the only true church” and now…well you can see where they are heading. Hey K! Have you checked out your Google Ads?
bill (cycleguy)’s last blog post..Today

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:56:42 +0000

You are correct, Kevin. They use the same vocabulary but a vastly different dictionary.

The ironic thing is that from their inception until just fairly recently the Mormons would have been the first to agree with you. That was the whole reason for their existence!