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FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, click here
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The myth that 'It is only recently that LDS leaders have attempted to identify themselves as Christian' has been thoroughly debunked in an article produced by FAIR. It is obvious, too, that other non-LDS observers frequently referred to the Saints as "Christians."
Those who rely on such a claim demonstrate either their unfamiliarity with the historical facts, or a complete disregard for the truth in their efforts to malign the faith of the Saints.
It is also clear that early LDS leaders did not object to Christianity per se—since they clearly considered themselves Christians, this would have been nonsensical. What early Church leaders did object to was the hypocrisy of some Christians, who discarded Christian scripture and principles and lied, misrepresented, persecuted, and visited violence on a Christian group with whom they disagreed: members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Saints are not unique in this regard; history is full of violent or bigoted men who claimed the sanction of Christ for their mistreatment of others, as victims of crusades, pogroms, shunnings, and inquisitions can bear witness.
It is ironic, but perhaps not surprising, that many present-day authors who attack and misrepresent the Church are likewise Christians. Latter-day Saints understand, however, that such critics are not representative of all Christians. Happily, they are generally a small, if shrill, minority. We reject their tactics without rejecting the Christianity in which they claim to drape it. It is difficult to believe that the Prince of Peace would sanction such tactics.
{{SeeAlso|One_Nation_Under_Gods/Use of sources/Other Christians on each other|l1=Other Christians on each other]] for a discussion of the critics' double standard on this issue—they ignore the expressed attitude of other non-LDS Christians to other denominations.
An argument often used by critics who are attempting to exclude Latter-day Saints from being counted among Christian religions is that the early leaders of the Church "condemned" Christianity. The argument then follows that Latter-day Saints voluntarily separated themselves from being classified as Christian, and should therefore not desire to be included among the family of Christian religions. Among the references critics use to support these assertions are the following:
Consider these quotes from Brigham Young:
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:
One of the major issues that early LDS leaders had with those that professed to be "Christian" was the fact that they were sometimes foremost among the persecutors of the Saints.
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. Brigham was denouncing hypocrites. Likewise, Joseph F. Smith also denounced such hypocrisy:
The denunciation of hypocrisy among those who professed to be Christians is not a denunciation of Christianity itself. Latter-day Saints certainly identified themselves as Christians during this period of time.
George A. Smith's comments indicate that there was not a general condemnation of Christianity:
Latter-day Saints have claimed to be Christians from the very beginning of the restoration. There are many statements by early Church leaders which demonstrate this. It is ridiculous for critics to make this claim. For a list of quotes from early LDS leaders, see the main article.
== Notes ==
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