Comments on: Who decides who’s a Mormon?

By: The Manner In Which I’m Mormon: My Articles of Faith | Times & Seasons

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:01:14 +0000

[...] has shifted dramatically. I’m Mormon now in a very different way than I was then. With the various discussions attempting to define what it means to be Mormon, I thought I’d share what it means to me [...]

By: Thaddeus

Thaddeus — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 18:42:15 +0000

There are several “unbaptized members” on my ward directory. I spoke with one of them who was surprised (and a bit dismayed) to learn that he’s a Mormon.

He was blessed as a child at the behest of his grandparents (we think); his parents were never active. Thus activateth the membership record.

He’d only been contacted by the Church once before me by his then-bishop. He’s 19 now. Still, I think I’d consider him a Mormon.

By: MCQ

MCQ — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:50:29 +0000

I agree with that, annegb, and I think the creeps are doing stuff that we just don’t know about yet. But that’s their problem, not mine.

But I guess the question is: is there anyone that claims to be Mormon that you would say should not be allowed that privilege?

If someone asked me if fundamentalist polygamists were Mormon, I would simply explain the difference between the mainstream church and the polygamous churches. I would do the same if asked about the Community of Christ or other groups that accept the BoM and may claim to be Mormon. I’m not sure if any of those groups use the term “Mormon” without modifiers, but if they did, I wouldn’t deny them that right, I would just explain the difference to those who asked me about it.

By: annegb

annegb — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 14:18:50 +0000

If I had an acquaintance who was baptized Mormon, but watched porn (how would anybody know, don’t they do it secretly?) and cheated on their spouse and someone said, “are they Mormon?” I would reply “yes. They don’t follow the teachings, but they’re Mormons.”

I’m not kicking anybody out just because I don’t approve of their choices. If I could do that, I’d be kicking out a lot of jerks who don’t watch porn (that I know of), don’t cheat, but are just creeps in general.

By: Stephen M (Ethesis)

Stephen M (Ethesis) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:16:19 +0000

Brad — interesting point, since in Israel there are two definitions, one that has to do with whether or not the worship is really Jewish and the other about ethnic identity.

Causes similar irritation.

Though it does remind me of the old conflict between the difference between “catholic” and “Roman Catholic.”

By: Bret

Bret — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:32:31 +0000

If we would all just heed the inspired lyrics of this Janine Brady song, all would be well in the world.

By: Glenn Thigpen

Glenn Thigpen — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 22:27:49 +0000

The same people that decide who is a Christian.

Glenn

By: Brad

Brad — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:56:41 +0000

His Majesty decides. You’re either in the Lamb’s Book of Life or you’re not, regardless of how active you are. On a more practical level, LDS are a lot like Jews. Jews may or may not eat Kosher, go to Temple, etc and they are still Jews.

By: MCQ

MCQ — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 06:45:59 +0000

But would you feel the same way if you were African?

The test is when your group is the one being misidentified because of the labeling issues caused by those who self-identify as a member of your group.

That’s why mainstream Christians don’t like Mormons to identify themselves as Christians, and it’s why the Church doesn’t like polygamist sects to identify themselves as Mormon. It makes it harder to police the boundaries of who you are in the minds of others.

But really, that’s just part of life in my opinion. And it’s totally understandable that different people are going to have different definitions of words like Christian and Mormon. No one owns those words.

By: Clark

Clark — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 03:45:10 +0000

MCQ (7), I’m distinguishing between self-identification and communication and noting they are two different functions. The problem is people want it to be both simultaneously and it just can’t be.

Ideally we communicate beyond a simple slogan. However many people don’t like to do that. (Often because they want to mislead through sophistry) So people who don’t like Mormons don’t simply want to communicate that they disagree with some of our theology. They want to portray us as non-Christians so as to devalue us. It is a power play. Likewise Mormons don’t want polygamist fundamentalists to use the term because it devalues us in the eyes of others. I don’t think most Mormons would mind if a FLDS person said, “I consider myself a Mormon but I’m not associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They consider us apostate and we consider them apostate. We practice polygamy but they excommunicate anyone who teaches it.”

The problem is that the fight really isn’t over self-identification or labels. It’s over misleading communication. The people who wish to miscommunicate though don’t want to change.

But honestly, I don’t care who self-identifies how. If some 10th generation northern Swedish person self-identifies as a black African because of where his ancestors came from millennia earlier I really don’t care.