News
September 5, 2001 - By Jim Duke and Jody Brown
News Magazine Spotlights Mormon Attempts at Mainstreaming

(AgapePress) - The Mormon church is unhappy about an article in Newsweek that says the church is trying to appear more Christian.

In this week's edition of Newsweek, the magazine examines differences between Mormon theology and traditional Christian doctrines about God and man. Kenneth Woodward is Newsweek's religion editor.

"The basic Mormon documents do seem strange to the ears of traditional Christians," Woodward told Associated Press. "For example, God is a finite being -- He's married. And the 'Heavenly Mother,' as they call her, produces spirit children in the 'pre-existence' -- that's you and me -- so that we take bodies when we're born into this world."

The article also says the Mormons are increasingly emphasizing Jesus and de-emphasizing their founder, Joseph Smith. "In their prayers and in many other ways, they're looking and sounding very much like evangelical Christians," Woodward says. "For example, when those Mormon missionaries come knocking at your door, in the old days they would start with a story about Joseph Smith and all of that. Now they start with Jesus."

In fact, Woodward writes in the Newsweek article that today it is difficult to find more than one image of Smith in the church�s new conference center in Salt Lake City. "Instead, the walls are lined with huge murals depicting scenes from the life of Jesus," he writes.

He also points out that in 1999, 119 images of Jesus appeared in the church� s official monthly publication; 30 years ago, however, only five such images appeared in the publication. And instead of being treated to a film about Smith and the Mormon journey to Utah, visitors to the Joseph Smith Center now view a dramatization of the Jesus story based on both the New Testament and the Book of Mormon.

According to Associated Press, in a letter to Newsweek editors church spokesman Michael Otterson rejects the idea that Mormons are trying to change their image and appear more mainstream. This past summer, Mormon officials asked the media to call them by their full name -- the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or simply "The Church of Jesus Christ."