Salt Lake City – From the president on down, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints used the faith’s fall conference to highlight their unique beliefs and defend the religion as a Christian church.
“Even as we invite one and all to examine closely the marvel of it, there is one thing we would not like anyone to wonder about it – that is whether or not we are Christians,” said Jeffrey R. Holland, a member of the church’s governing board, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Holland said a cross current of times and events – including the church’s growth to more than 13 million members, the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City and the candidacy of Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination – brings increased public attention on a faith that’s not well understood.
“Now is the time to reach out and show people who we are,” said M. Russell Ballard, a member of Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Mormons gather at the church’s Salt Lake City headquarters twice yearly to hear words of spiritual direction and encouragement from leaders. The two-day event draws thousands to the city and is simultaneously broadcast worldwide via Internet, satellite and radio in more than 90 languages.
Church president Gordon B. Hinckley said that the faith is “unique” and followers should celebrate that.
“It is fundamentally different from every other body of religious doctrine of which I know,” Hinckley said. Mormon theology disavows the Christian tradition of the Trinity – the belief that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one body – instead believing the three were individuals united in a divine purpose. Mormons also believe in the principle of continuing revelation, leaving their scriptural canon open.
Traditional Christians also break with Mormons over the faith’s central text, The Book of Mormon, which is said to be a testimony of Christ’s work in the ancient Americas. Mormons believe the text was translated by Joseph Smith from a set a gold plates found buried near Palmyra, N.Y., where the church was founded in 1830.
