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Comment by SoftwareMaven | Hacker News Reader

So do Mormons get to check two boxes? Mormons are Christian.

They probably should have offered mutually exclusive categories such as Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Mormon, and "Other Christian" so that the inevitable argument over "is ____ really Christian?" could have been avoided. Sigh.

Mormons do call themselves Christian. http://www.mormon.org/faq/mormon-christian

Many mainstream Christian religions disagree, citing various conflicts with Christian doctrine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism_and_Christianity#Chr...

In any case we could get bogged down in definitions and semantics, but if you come down on the side that Mormons are Christian, they are still probably the most interesting subset to break out into their own subcategory.

Christianity and Judaism are considered separate religions. So, I don't think Mormons are technically Christians or Jewish despite using both of there religious texts.

Or if they are then I think Muslims might also qualify as they also believe in Judaism + Christ + one more prophet. Though depending on who you ask they might require Jesus to be part of the holy trinity and not just another prophet.

PS: Granted, I think the general stance with most people is simply let religions self identify as plenty of religious debates end up with one side killing the other.

Muslims believe in Jesus as a prophet, but not that he is the son of God. Mormons do believe that Jesus is the son of God, which is the defining characteristic of being Christian

I think it would be more accurate to say the defining characteristic of being Christian is that Jesus was not only the Son of God, but God himself. My understanding of Mormon theology is that Jesus is not considered God. There is a distinct difference in the understandings of the Trinity.

Mormons are Christian in the same way that Muslims are Christians and Christians are Jews, though.

That's really not true. The official title of the Mormon church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Christ is central to the religion, and is certainly not viewed merely as a prophet.

One of the key differences between Christianity and Mormonism is their classification of Jesus. Where a Morman would say that Jesus is the son of God, a Christian believes that Jesus is God incarnate.

Mormons do believe that Jesus is God incarnate. Mormon doctrine holds that Jehovah (the name of the God of Israel used in the Old Testament) and Jesus are the same person. See: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/jehovah

While on the other hand, Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus and Michael the Archangel are different names for the same entity, which isn't the same as God. See: http://www.jw.org/en/publications/books/bible-teach/who-is-m... .

Since JW is usually categorized as Christian, I think valine's test should be considered approximate rather than exact.

I believe the way Mormonism differentiates itself from other forms of Christianity is the additional text (Book of Mormon) and the addition of Joeseph Smith as a prophet.

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