

The American Continent Was Originally Settled by Ancient Near Easterners. Nugent calls each of these beliefs “questionable.” A quick read suggest they also are far from mainstream.ġ. Tony Nugent, retired professor of religious studies, has compiled a list of twelve teachings that Mormons tend to downplay.

And on December 10, 2013, the Mormon church renounced and denounced a part of its racist past.īut do Mormons and Evangelicals worship the same god? How mainstream are their beliefs?ĭr. In an effort to reassure Evangelical voters, presidential candidate Mitt Romney inserted the phrase “the same god” into his domestic policy debate against Barack Obama, and Billy Graham’s website showed solidarity by removing Mormonism from a list of “cults.” Since then, Mormon missionaries have been quoted as saying, “Even Billy Graham says we are Christians.” Over the course of 2012, the LDS Church promoted “I’m a Mormon,” a multi-million dollar marketing campaign seeking to portray Mormonism as mainstream. And after expressing big disapproval over Big Love, Church leaders shifted strategies and met the hit musical, the “The Book of Mormon,” with bemused acceptance, praising it “for really nailing the Mormon sweetness, niceness, and sense of do-gooderness,” and filling theater programs with their own advertisements. Shifting sexual mores have made Mormon polygamy and sacred undergarments a matter more of slightly kinky fascination rather Puritan disgust. Even some LDS quirks seem to be turning into positives. This decade has been called, “The Mormon Moment,” the time that America’s largest home-grown religion finally comes into its own as a part of the Christian tapestry.
