The Pentagon’s revision to its list of Christian religions this week has reignited a nearly 200-year-old debate: Is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a Christian denomination?
Most Latter-day Saints do see themselves as Christians. But there are many prominent Christian clergy and scholars who disagree, citing core differences in how they view God and the Trinity and revere a scripture that is not part of the two-testament Christian Bible.
Utah's U.S. Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis, both Republicans and Latter-day Saints, challenged the Pentagon’s exclusion of their faith from its list of Christian religions. It was part of the Department of Defense’s recent effort to significantly pare down a list of more than 200 religious affiliations that troops could choose from, deleting categories such as atheists, Unitarian Universalists, pagans and Wiccans.
“Latter-day Saints are among the most patriotic, service-oriented individuals in our country,” Curtis posted on X in defense of his faith. “They are also unequivocally Christian — just look at who is in the name of the Church.”
He also said in his post that it is “unacceptable” for the government to characterize a faith in a way that contradicts how the religion identifies itself — a sentiment echoed widely in the social media blowback.
The Pentagon responded on Monday by removing the Christian label from 20 other traditions, including Catholic, Lutheran and Pentecostal, and stayed away from labeling Latter-day Saints as Christian. The department also issued a statement saying that the new rubric is not intended to “make any claims on the legitimacy of any faith or religion’s belief,” but to help chaplains do their jobs and structure resources quickly and efficiently.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church, has nearly 18 million members worldwide with the highest concentration in Utah. The church has a long history of military service; it emphasizes patriotism and chaplaincy support.
In a social media post, Lee said: “My church membership is inextricably intertwined with my Christianity, as it is for 17 million other Latter-day Saints. Regardless of what the Pentagon thinks.”
The church’s website states that it is a “Christian Church, but is neither Catholic nor Protestant.”
“Rather, it is a restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ as originally established by the Savior in the New Testament of the Bible,” the site further explains. “Jesus Christ is central to the lives of Church members. They seek to follow his example by being baptized, praying in His holy name, partaking of the sacrament, doing good to others and bearing witness of Him through both word and deed. The only way to salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ.”
Yet the debate about whether Latter-day Saints are Christians goes back nearly 200 years to the days of the church’s founding.
Matthew Bowman, chair of Mormon studies at Claremont Graduate University in Southern California, said the primary difference between major Christian denominations and Latter-day Saints lies in how the nature of God is defined, and their view of the Trinity, the spiritual relationship between God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Most Christian faiths believe God is spirit, while founders of the Latter-day Saints believed that God was a human being who achieved Godhood, he said.
Latter-day Saints also reject the Nicene Creed, which emphasizes the doctrine of the Trinity as one divine being.
“They believe that while the three have a relationship, they are distinct beings,” Bowman said.
The Catholic Church has long held that Latter-day Saints are not Christian. Most recently in 2012, the Vatican stated that even if the Latter-day Saint baptismal rite refers to the Trinity, the church’s beliefs about the identities of the three are so different from Catholic and mainline Christian beliefs that the rite cannot be regarded as a Christian baptism.
This debate has raged on in U.S. politics over the decades, resulting in tensions between evangelical Christians and Latter-day Saints who have long considered themselves members of the religious right. Like evangelicals, most Latter-day Saints hold conservative views on topics such as abortion and LGBTQ+ issues.
Bowman said the question of Latter-day Saints' Christian identity exploded during Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.
“At the time — and often after that — there continues to be a sense of surprise among Latter-day Saints that the evangelicals didn’t consider them Christian and among evangelicals when they learn that the Latter-day Saints in fact consider themselves Christian,” he said.
The rise of Donald Trump has created a feeling among Latter-day Saints that their old alliance with evangelical Christians is shakier than ever, especially with younger Latter-day Saints viewing evangelicals as a hostile group, Bowman said.
“In the past five years or so, there is a growing push among evangelicals to create a muscular, masculine Christianity, more vocal on doctrine, with some calling (Mormons) heretics,” he said.
Philip McLemore, who served as a Latter-day Saint chaplain in the Air Force from 1984 to 2005, said he and others felt discriminated against then, and he was passed up for promotions because of his faith.
“That mostly came from other Christian chaplains and supervisors who believed Mormon chaplains were not Christian,” he said. “They also felt the same way about Christian Scientists.”
McLemore said some of the other Christian chaplains told him they feared that Latter-day Saint chaplains were using the military to proselytize and convert. But he said he could see why other Christians were suspicious of Latter-day Saints.
“Mormonism doesn’t fit comfortably into most classic Christianity mostly because of the founders’ claims of exclusive truth and authority that can be offensive to some,” he said. “Joseph Smith’s first vision — a foundational event for the church — was one of Jesus telling him that all the other churches are false and their creeds are abominations.”
Overall, McLemore does not believe denomination matters much in the military.
“In my experience, service members would not know what your denomination was, and they didn’t care,” he said. “They didn’t consult chaplains on matters of religion. They needed chaplains for personal problems and issues with work, mental health and marriage.”
___
AP reporters Konstantin Toropin and Tiffany Stanley contributed to this report.
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
