They allow this:

Two readers have sent us confirmation that Edward Davies, Mitt Romney’s militantly atheist father-in-law, was indeed posthumously converted to Mormonism by his family, despite the fact that when he was alive he regarded all religions as ‘hogwash.’

When it’s hard to ignore this:

Ezekiel 18:20 – The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

As far as Christians go, I’m generally on the inclusive side of things. I try to find similarities instead of differences, generally putting a strong emphasis on the whole judge not concept. But one of the key ideas of Christianity is that it’s belief that saves a person, not some ex post facto mysticism. I’m not judging here (though I admit I find the whole thing creepy), but let’s just drop the pretense is all I’m saying. Just because there’s a Jesus in your religion doesn’t make you a Christian.

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  1. Metavirus says:

    even more fundamentally to the entire notion of “being christian”, mormons don’t really believe in one ultimate god. the god of the humans on earth is named elohim -- and jesus was simply one of elohim’s children. BUT, there are a bunch of other planets out there, which each have their own god — who may just be a prior earth mormon who was a really good mormon and had a really good mormon wife and lots of mormon children. here’s the world’s most successful huckster (besides L. Ron Hubbard) joseph smith:

    If Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a Father, you may suppose that He had a Father also. Where was there ever a son without a father? And where was there ever a father without first being a son? Whenever did a tree or anything spring into existence without a progenitor? And everything comes in this way. Paul says that which is earthly is in the likeness of that which is heavenly, Hence if Jesus had a Father, can we not believe that He had a Father also? I despise the idea of being scared to death at such a doctrine, for the Bible is full of it

    theologically speaking, mormons aren’t even really monotheists!! much less christians. sure, they say that jesus died for our sins and all that. BUT, jesus only died for the sins of earth humans -- NOT the sins of the people living on other planets, who presumably have their own jesus-like figure (named perhaps Mitt Christ), who died for THEIR sins.

    … my brain hurts …

  2. Gherald says:

    Mormons are Christians in the sense and to the extent Christians are Jews

    • Metavirus says:

      pretty much. on the shoulders of the jews, the christians came along with the new testament. then the mormons came along on the shoulders of the christians and gave us Battlefield Earth the new new testament the book of mormon.

  3. Lev says:

    Also, worth noting that Islam, Bah’ai, etc., also have Jesus as a big figure in their religions, but don’t identify as Christians. Which is all fair enough, I think. But if you bill yourself as the fulfillment of another religion, it’s supremely illogical to say that you’re a part of that evidently insufficient (but much more popular) religion. Perhaps the weasel influence in old Mitt lies deeper than we think.

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