Mormonism and Christianity/Did early LDS leaders denounce Christianity

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Criticism

• Latter-day Saints have "admitted" that they are not Christian, since LDS leaders spent decades denouncing mainstream Christianity. It is only recently that LDS leaders have attempted to identify themselves as Christian.
• The "ongoing condemnation of Christianity" is "built into the very core of Mormonism as a central tenet."

Source(s) of the criticism

• Richard Abanes, Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism (Harvest House Publishers: 2005). 255, 434 n. 15; 257. ( Index of claims )

Response

Sources

Among the references critics use to support these assertions are the following:

• Joseph Smith, History of the Church 5:218.
• Orson Pratt, "Baptism for the Remission of Sins," The Seer, p. 255.
• Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, 2:196.
• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 5:73.
• Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 5:89-90.
• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 5:229.
• John Taylor, Journal of Discourses 2:25.
• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 8:171.
• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 8:199.
• John Taylor, Journal of Discourses 13:225.
• Andrew Jenson, Collected Discourses 2:150.
• B.H. Roberts, The Mormon Doctrine of Diety, p. 116.
• Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp. 132, 246, 269, 314-315.

Brigham Young

The Christian world, I discovered, was like the captain and crew of a vessel on the ocean without a compass, and tossed to and fro whithersoever the wind listed to blow them. When the light came to me, I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness. (Journal of Discourses 5:73)

Notice that Brigham didn't say that there were no Christians, but instead stated that they had lost their direction.

There is a reason that Brigham had a low opinion of those who those who called themselves "Christian" during the early days of the Church. "Christians" were among those who persecuted the Latter-day Saints:

We lived in Illinois from 1839 to 1845, by which time they again succeeded in kindling the spirit of persecution against Joseph and the Latter-day Saints. Treason! treason! treason! they cried, calling us murderers, thieves, liars, adulterers, and the worst people on the earth. And this was done by the priests, those pious dispensers of the Christian religion whose charity was supposed to be extended to all men, Christian and heathen; they were joined by drunkards, gamblers, thieves, liars, in crying against the Latter-day Saints. (Journal of Discourses 19:61)

Brigham's point was that those who persecuted the Saints were not extending the charity that typically characterized Christianity. This was not a condemnation of Christianity in general, but rather a condemnation of those who professed to be Christian but did not practice Christian principles.

Conclusion

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Endnotes

None

Further reading

FAIR web site

• FAIR Topical Guide: