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Anybody who has played the “Are Mormon’s Christian?” game knows that it is a trap. The only possible answer is that it depends on who gets to define the terms. Under some definitions, Mormons are Christian. Under others, we are not. Since Christianity does not have anything like the royal language academies of France and Spain, the only logically coherent way to ask the question is, “are Mormons whatever it is that I think that Christians are?”

The answer also depends on why you are asking the question. After substantial research and discussion, The Roman Catholic Church decided in 2001 that Mormon and Catholic doctrine were so far apart that it would not accept Mormon baptisms as valid. This is entirely appropriate. Mormons believe exactly the same thing about Catholic baptisms. Mormons who want to become Catholics, like Catholics who want to become Mormons, must be baptized again.

But the question gets asked for other reasons too. One of these reasons is that people want to stir up hatred and resentment against Mormons (and lots of other people) by casting them as inherently immoral, mentally inferior, or culturally suspect. No matter how one tries to spin it, the word “cult” carries these connotations in contemporary usage.

The same thing goes for “Satanic.” From the Christian perspective, labeling someone a tool of the Prince of Darkness is pretty much always going to be an insult. When good historical Christians have thrown the “S-word” around to describe other categories of people, it has rarely ended well for the other people. Equating a group of people with Satan is how things like crusades and genocide start.

Saying that Mormons are not Christians is not an inherently bigoted action. But saying that Mormonism is “a heresy from the pit of hell” is. So Mitt Romney’s recent statement criticizing the choice of Pastor Robert Jeffress to say the opening prayer at the dedication of the new American Embassy in Jerusalem merits serious consideration:

Now, of course, this is politically motivated. Jeffress is a political gift to Romney’s Senate candidacy. In a single tweet, he can appeal to the #NeverTrump crowd by attacking the President’s decision without paying even the slightest political cost with Utah’s many Trump supporters, for whom anti-Mormonism is perhaps the only wedge issue imaginable.

And what of Jeffress’ response:

This is disingenuous. Jeffress defends himself here as though he were being accused of doing comparative theology and not using his pulpit to dehumanize millions of other human beings. His basic argument, “Most people that most people consider Christians don’t consider Mormons Christians” works well for “. . . and this is why we do not accept Mormon baptisms at my Church.” It does not work for “. . . and this is why Mormons are deluded cultists rising from the pit of hell to feast on the blood of your children.”

And the overall form of Jeffress’ argument works just as well for bigotry as it does for Christianity. Most people that most people think are not bigots think that calling other people infernal cultists is bigoted. There is nothing controversial or newsworthy about that. If Mormons should just accept that they are not Christian because that is what Christians think, then people like Robert Jeffress should agree that he is not tolerant because that is what most tolerant people think.

And yes, it does go both ways. There are and always have been plenty of Mormons who are as hostile towards other faiths as Jeffress is to Mormonism. They are bigots too. It is hard to consistently display the love and compassion that Christ calls us all to. We all do a bad job sometimes of acknowledging different religious opinions without treating each other as something other than children of God. This why the best answer to the question “are Mormons Christian?” is, in my opinion, “sometimes.”

Really, though, anti-Mormon bigotry is a bit player in this ugly scene. The real question is, “why was somebody who preaches that Jews are going to hell and that and Islam is an ‘evil, evil religion‘ invited to give the opening prayer at the opening of an American embassy at the epicenter of a conflict between Jews and Muslims?” Why, in other words, was a clear religious bigot invited to perform a diplomatic function guaranteed to offend the very people we are trying to be diplomatic with?

Religious bigotry is not a crime, but it is a strange sort of characteristic to look for in people performing diplomatic functions in areas experiencing serious religious conflict. Our Constitution protects people’s right to be as religiously bigoted as they want to be, it does not suggest that they be allowed to perform important religious functions at major government events. Indeed, the problems inherent in such activities is the reason that the Constitution strongly suggests that there not be important religious functions at major government events.