Sacred Tribes Journal
Volume 7 Number 1 (2012): 70-79 ISSN: 1941-8167
MORMON-EVANGELICAL DIALOGUE – SETTING THE GROUND RULES: A WAY FORWARD1 James Holt Senior Lecturer, The University of Chester This article examines briefly the various polemic and polite exchanges between Evangelicals and Latter-day Saints. It suggests that these exchanges are asking the wrong questions, and beginning from an incorrect basis. Within Latter-day Saint circles the questions has tended to be: “How do other faiths relate to us?” By contrast, understanding how they view other faiths will enable Latter-day Saints to frame their questions and responses better. The article concludes with a suggestion for ground rules to enable the burgeoning dialogue to move forward at a pace.2 Efforts in Mormon-Evangelical dialogue have ranged from the polemic to the polite. Part of the problem for Latter-day Saints encountering Evangelicals has been the tendency to see Evangelicalism as one homogenous group in a similar way to which Mormonism understands itself.3 Thus, the experience of Latter-day Saints with evangelicals can be seen to be confusing. There is one particularly problematic aspect of evangelicalism Evangelicalism which uses emotive rhetoric in describing Mormonism as a cult, and devil-inspired. Shipps suggests that rather than being labeled Evangelical, these groups of people should be termed “neoevangelical” because “To the dismay of the mainstream Protestant denominations like mine who have always regarded themselves as evangelical, the neo-evangelicals have practically succeeded in taking possession of the evangelical designation.”4 She suggests that these neo-evangelicals are fundamentalists who “attempt to dechristianize those who do not agree with their position.”5 There are then other aspects of Evangelicalism that are more polite in their description of, and relationships with Mormonism. This tension is reflected in the description of an event involving, both Latter-day Saints and Evangelicals:
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