Why are Catholics and Mormons not considered Christians?

Question

I have noticed that the media is making a distinction now. Have Fundamentalist stolen the term as thier own?

Answer 1

Last I checked, they were. It's just the fundamentalists and the evangelicals who say they aren't. These two groups ( fundamentalists and evangelicals) are actually minorities, they are just very loud minorities. I find it interesting how they can't try to make their faith stronger by loving their fellow Christian, they instead feel a compelling urge to damn them.

Answer 2

As a fundamentalist, can I share what I've learned over the years on this.

Yes, there are some Christians who mistakenly believe with all their hearts that a person who is part of the Mormon church and the Roman Catholic Church cannot be Christians. I think that some of these people who believe this theory just might be suprised at who will be in heaven some day. And may be suprised at who won't be there.

There are some big differences in their doctrine, but the term "Christian" can mean very different things and that is why the media and the Fundamentalists may use this term very differently.

To a Fundamentalist, being a Christian means who will be in heaven when they die. In their terms, it means who has sincerely prayed the sinners prayer. They also believe in once saved always saved.

After reading the bible through, I can't agree with that, especially after reading how Jesus says a person enters into heaven (why would he tell the rich man to sell all his possessions to the poor). What the most of my fellow fundies fail to realize is that its about the heart relationship, not whether you have said the magic words.

For the media, they may use the term interchangeably. Because a Christian can mean anyone who affiliates themselves as believing in God of the Bible, or who attends any of the 1000s of Christian churches, including Roman Catholic or Latter Day Saints.

Answer 3

While the media has started using the term Christians to describe fundamentalist evangelicals, the real separations have come from the religions themselves.
There have been disagreements and fragmentation between all of the sects as far back as the churches go. Many fundamentalists do not consider Mormons true Christians because they do not believe that Jesus is God, they believe they are two seperate beings. Other people assert that because Mormons believe in Jesus as a deity, they are Christians.

Answer 4

I haven't seen a distinction made in the media in regards to who is called a Christian and who isn't. What media is it?

I doubt that the Fundamentalists have "stolen" the term, as if anyone could steal the term "Christian" and make it solely their own.

I consider Catholics to be Christians, and I consider Mormons to be Christians. Both use the bible...Catholics use the full bible (Protestants took out several books they didn't believe to be truly divine and whose alleged sources couldn't be pinned down), and the Mormons simply added some books to it. But if I'm not mistaken, both believe that Christ came and died for our sins.

The only way I can see that people might mistake both groups to be non-Christian is that Catholics hold Mary in high esteem (not to underscore Christ in any way, though), and Mormons have a founding father who believed that he was divinely inspired and given sacred texts.

Answer 5

*Is Catholic* A Christian is all of us who has had a Trinitarian Baptism. Mormons as they have not got self belief interior the Trinity, do no longer baptise in a Trinitarian way, and are for this reason, via definition no longer Christian. that's Catholic doctrine. i'd say that i do no longer worship an identical God as Mormons and that i'd say that any strategies-set of "worshiping an identical God" can basically be taken as far as one would say that Christians worship an identical God as Muslims. in actuality, i'd locate that Mormons and Muslims be afflicted by an identical problem of disbelieving history. it is an identical argument..."all of us else is misguided yet I (respective "prophet") have the genuine actuality that became hidden from you all!"

Answer 6

Depends on your definition of Christian. Most non-Catholic Christian denominations accept Catholics as Christians. A very few do not.

A dictionary would say that a Christian is someone professing belief in Jesus as Christ or following the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus.

Catholics would fit this definition.

In the Nicene creed, from 325 A.D., Catholics profess:

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father.

Through Him all things were made.

For us and our salvation He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered, died, and was buried.

On the third day He rose again in fulfillment of the scriptures: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We are baptized as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:19, "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

We truly are spiritually "born again," we just don't usually use those words.

With love in Christ.

Answer 7

Why would you have any regard for the "media" on matters of faith? There will always be groups that exlude others from their definition of Christian. I don't think Chist will.

Paul wrote:

3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

Answer 8

If the media turned to fundamentalist groups for defining terms in their stylebooks, it would be a first.

I do not think the media's use of "Catholic", "Mormon", and "Christian" as separate terms has anything to do with who is and isn't considered Christian. Rather, it's a shorthand way to distinguish those who are affiliated with the largest well-known groups as opposed to the 30,000+ Protestant denominations, sects, congregations, fellowships, etc., which the media tend to lump as "Christian" -- with or without an adjective such as fundamentalist or evangelical or born-again. The finer distinctions matter less to them than to us.

Answer 9

I've watched Fundamentalists manipulate the facts and redefine terminology to suit their needs my entire life. Born-again fundamentalists decided they needed a term to describe their movement and they hijacked the term "Christian." Never mind that the word had been used for centuries to describe all who worshiped Jesus Christ and his legacy. What else would you expect from a group of willfully ignorant believers, dedicated to confusing the distinction between objective reality and subjective imagination? As far as I'm concerned, Catholics and Mormons are Christians, as are Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Episcopalians, and everybody else who worships Jesus Christ. Fundies are just that, Fundamentalists.

Answer 10

That is a bad assumption by many worldwide, especially in USA presently.
Actuall, the Catholics and Mormons may be closer to the scriptural truth, than many Americans presently think. They both accept the '2 or more witnesses' principle (Matt.18:16, 2 Cor. 13:1); its applying 2 Tim. 3:16-17 where they make mistakes; P.S. So does the Protestant church I was raised in).