I've been thinking about this topic since the 2008 election, when I heard a well-meaning, seemingly very nice lady on television lamenting the fact that if Mitt Romney were to be elected President she would miss the Easter egg roll on the White House lawn and other Christian observances, because, in her mind, Mormons are not Christians. Many people in television, even news anchors and ordained ministers, seem to accept this notion that Mormons are not Christians -- which is absolutely not true. Only the church's detractors would make such a statement.
So I wondered, Where did that idea come from? I've been a Mormon and a Christian all of my life. When I was eight, I was baptized like Jesus and took upon myself the name of Christ. I've renewed my commitment to Christ each week since then by partaking of the Sacrament in remembrance of the crucifixion. I've concluded every prayer I've ever said in Jesus's name. Almost all of the songs and hymns of the Church are about Christ. Our very name since the Church was formed includes the name of Jesus Christ (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). How could anyone mistake us as non-Christians?
I think the misconception stems from a couple of facts:
1) Mormons do not use the traditional Christian cross, preferring to focus on Jesus' life and resurrection than upon his death. The symbol generally used to represent Mormonism is of an angel with a trumpet, representing the Second Coming of Christ when trumpets will sound. In the early days of the Church, the cross was widely used. It is simply a matter of what Mormons choose to focus on. No members of the LDS faith deny the cross or what happened on Golgotha.
2) Early detractors of the Church called members of the faith "Mormons" because they professed belief in additional scripture, the Book of Mormon. This led many to believe that members of the Church followed a god called Mormon, which was not true. Mormon was a prophet in the Book of Mormon (and a relatively minor one at that), just as Joseph Smith was a prophet in the early 1800s and Thomas Monson is a prophet today. Mormons believe in prophets, like prophets of old, but prophets are men, not members of the Godhead, like Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. Mormons believe Jesus Christ is the creator of heaven and earth and the savior of the world, the only means of salvation for mankind. He is our ultimate example in all things.
3) Some ministers of other faiths and opponents of the Church perpetuate these misconceptions. I believe this happens, in some cases, because Mormon church leaders are not paid clergy, which threatens the livelihoods of other members of the clergy. In other cases, the clergymen's concerns are well-meaning but misguided. They do not know how to figure out who is a Christian and who is not, but the Savior himself described the test in the Bible (which Mormons believe to be the word of God, by the way) in the following passage from the King James version:
Matthew 7: 16-20
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
In this passage of scripture and in others, Jesus himself gave us the standard by which to know whether or not someone is a Christian.
