RNS by Adelle Banks
In the picture to the left, George O. Wood, general superintendent of the Assemblies of God, greets
students after speaking during a lecture series on faith, family and
society in the Varsity Theatre of Brigham Young University’s Wilkinson
Student Center on Sept. 16, 2013. Photo by Mark A. Philbrick/courtesy
Brigham Young University
(RNS) Last month, after being sure to get his caffeine fix at
Starbucks, Southern Baptist leader Richard Land went where few
evangelicals had dared to go before: the campus of Brigham Young
University, the intellectual heart of Mormonism.
After lecturing on “family, faith, freedom and America,” Land
attended a BYU football game with Mormon leaders and joined them to hear
James Taylor sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Days later, George O. Wood, the general superintendent of the
Assemblies of God, also visited BYU, followed by the Rev. R. Albert
Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptists’ flagship seminary.
Is there a new detente — perhaps more practical than theological — between evangelicals and Mormons?
For more than a decade, Mormon and evangelical scholars have
discussed their differences and similarities, and even written books
together. But leaders of the two faiths appear to have reached a new
juncture, with some on both sides seeing benefits in more public
engagement.
“At the very least, the two communities, evangelicals and Mormons,
have been … each other’s worst enemies,” said Richard Mouw, the former
president of Fuller Theological Seminary and a longtime proponent of
evangelical-Mormon dialogue.
“There’s a significant part of the evangelical movement that is now
having healthy and friendly conversations, and it’s gone from a group of
two dozen scholars talking to each other to church leaders meeting each
other, going to see each other.”
John Taylor, director of interfaith relations for the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, said there is a growing sense that Mormons
and non-Mormons can agree in some areas — from humanitarian aid, where Mormons have also joined with Catholics — to the desire to retain their younger members.
“There’s a realization among faith groups generally that despite
doctrinal differences — and we have doctrinal differences, there’s no
question about that — we do have areas of commonality,” said Taylor.
The recent Utah meetings, which came at the invitation of Mormon
church leaders in Salt Lake City, have centered on faith, family and
religious freedom. Mohler — who was careful not to paper over doctrinal
distinctions in his BYU speech — addressed joint concerns about the intersection of those issues.
“That is why I and my evangelical brothers and sisters are so glad to
have Mormon neighbors,” Mohler said in his talk on Oct 21. “We stand
together for the natural family, for natural marriage, for the integrity
of sexuality within marriage alone.”
In a statement, the Assemblies of God said “no restrictions were
placed on Dr. Wood’s lecture” when he addressed some 400 BYU students on
Sept. 16. He “shared freely” about his Pentecostal faith and being
brought up in a missionary family.
Land, who considers Mormonism to be a “fourth Abrahamic faith” — and
thus distinct from Christianity — said there has been “gradual increased
understanding on both sides.”
He accepted the invitation to BYU because Mormons and evangelicals,
with shared opposition to the growing national acceptance of same-sex
marriage, need to face together what they both view as increasing
religious hostility.
“Those who oppose us are not going to make any distinctions,” said Land, the new president of Southern Evangelical Seminary in North Carolina. “They’re hostile to people of faith, period.”
The outreach has gone both ways. In September, Taylor joined two
members of the LDS church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at the
Washington installation of Russell Moore, who succeeded Land as head of
the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty
Commission.
“It’s clear where we disagree, but we’re standing together in the
public square for religious liberty,” said Moore, who has recently
spoken with Mormon officials about military chaplains’ religious rights.
Bob Millet, a BYU religion professor who suggested the evangelical
visitors to LDS officials, said the rapprochement helps Mormons, “a
sample of the population that’s not well-understood and highly
misunderstood.”
As Mormons continue to work toward greater acceptance and visibility —
from Mitt Romney’s White House bid to a category of questions on “Jeopardy”
— they are more likely to have tangible benefits from this engagement,
said Stephen Webb, author of the new book “Mormon Christianity: What
Other Christians Can Learn from the Latter-day Saints.”
“It’s not just the fact that evangelicals are being more curious
about Mormons and being more willing to listen to them and learn from
them, but it’s also a matter of the Mormon leadership itself wanting to
be part of the American Christian mainstream,” he said.
Gregory Johnson, co-founder of Standing Together, a Utah group of
evangelical pastors, has given dozens of presentations with BYU’s Millet
called “A Mormon and an Evangelical in Conversation.” He dubbed the
recent get-togethers “the year of the evangelical at BYU.”
Some scholars credit colleagues such as Johnson, Millet and Mouw with
the thaw in relations, which still remain tense in some circles. Mouw,
for instance, gets hate mail — “a lot of angry stuff” — from pastors
and groups that don’t agree with his friendships with Mormons.
The recent evangelical appearances in Utah have sparked online
debates, with some welcoming them and others warning they hurt
traditional Christianity. A moderator for the unofficial LDS.net who calls himself “prisonchaplain” concluded the meetings were more civil than groundbreaking.
“As far as ‘fruit’ goes, these events sure beat the cold theological wars of the past,’’ he said.
And there’s more to come: Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias, who
spoke at the Mormon Tabernacle in 2004, will be at BYU in January,
followed by a second appearance by Mohler the following month.
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