{"id":189,"date":"2011-10-17T21:05:22","date_gmt":"2011-10-18T01:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/?p=189"},"modified":"2019-03-24T07:17:27","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T11:17:27","slug":"haters-gonna-hate-claiming-_____-are-not-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/haters-gonna-hate-claiming-_____-are-not-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Haters Gonna Hate? Claiming _____ are not Christians."},"content":{"rendered":"

Predictably, comments made by Rev. Robert Jeffress concerning Mitt Romney–specifically that Romney is a Mormon and therefore not a Christian–have inspired charges of that most severe and nebulous crime of the 21st century:\u00a0 hate.\u00a0 After all, Mormons have (recently) begun marketing themselves as just another Christian denomination.\u00a0 Who is Rev. Jeffress or anyone else to tell them otherwise?\u00a0 It’s clearly “discrimination” seeing as how it quite explicitly recognizes a difference between two things: Mormonism & Christianity.\u00a0 Is not discrimination the core of “hate”?\u00a0 Is it not then hateful to define Christianity in a way that excludes someone who claims the label?<\/p>\n

In light of the accusations of hate being flung about like so much monkey dung, perhaps the better question for all of the professional hate-haters is this:\u00a0 does saying it is hateful to define Christianity in an exclusive way actually define Christianity in an exclusive way?<\/p>\n

Here is the thing:\u00a0 Christians rightly deny that the followers of Jospeh Smith are Christians because they explicitly deny the core teachings of Christ.\u00a0 They are, for example, polytheistic, claiming that God is one among what will ultimately be many, and that in time each Mormon patriarch will become a god as well.\u00a0 Indeed, the Christ they follow is not the real God-man whom Christians worship.\u00a0 He was not an eternal person of the Triune God, but was simply one of God’s multiple created sons who became a god himself.\u00a0 Furthermore, Christianity is concerned with Christ receiving, in our stead, the punishment that each of us deserves for the evil we do and are (a free gift which we receive through faith).\u00a0 Mormons, on the other hand, are primarily concerned with a progressive deification of each man which they achieve through right living.\u00a0 Both a Mormon’s God and his relationship to that God are entirely different than a Christian’s.<\/p>\n

As a Christian, I therefore perceive that these teachings are entirely contrary to my religion.\u00a0 If I publicly recognize this by stating that Mormons are not Christians, what then are you saying if you respond by accusing me of hate?\u00a0 You are saying that things like Trinitarian monotheism and a substitutionary atonement are most definitely not<\/strong> essential to Christianity.\u00a0 They are, however, quite obviously essential to my religion, and you have no grounds to tell me otherwise.\u00a0 You have therefore just defined Christianity exclusively.\u00a0 By accusing me of hate, you have told me that I am not really a Christian.\u00a0 As soon as your accusation left your lips, you just hoisted yourself on your own hateful petard.\u00a0 You have, in fact, done the very thing which you have claimed is hateful– you were just being either ignorant or blatantly duplicitous when you did so.<\/p>\n

Of course, the accuser might be both.\u00a0 Consider, for example, this stunningly “hateful” piece on CNN<\/a>.\u00a0 He admits right out that he doesn’t know much about Mormon teaching and does nothing else to indicate that this statement was mere modesty, so ignorance is a given.\u00a0 Nevertheless, it doesn’t take him very long to move on from quoting Jeffress’s “hate-filled language” to putting scare quotes around “Christian” when referring to those who actually believe what Christ taught about salvation being through Him alone.\u00a0 Indeed, the entire remainder of the piece is about how Mormons are more Christian than Christians are.\u00a0 The author seems quite comfortable sorting out the real Christians from the fake ones despite his ignorance.\u00a0 Why then should he condemn others for doing the same thing–particularly when they might be more informed than he is?<\/p>\n

In the end we all seem to agree that it’s both good and necessary to draw lines around Christianity.\u00a0 So let’s dispense with the meaningless charges of hatred.\u00a0 Instead, let’s actually look at Christ–who He is, what He did, what He taught us–and try to draw the lines well instead of poorly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Predictably, comments made by Rev. Robert Jeffress concerning Mitt Romney–specifically that Romney is a Mormon and therefore not a Christian–have inspired charges of that most severe and nebulous crime of the 21st century:\u00a0 hate.\u00a0 After all, Mormons have (recently) begun … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,28],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHaters Gonna Hate? 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