Now that we have exposed Mormons as a cult, we can explore the more meaningful issue: are they a Christian cult? Remember, in fairness, all religions are actually "cults" based on an accurate definition of the word. We've got the Mormon Cult, the Baptist Cult, the Lutheran Cult, and the Chicago Cubs Cult, so calling someone a "cult," while trendy, doesn't always help intellectually astute people to fear and despise your target. To do that with good Christian folk, you're better off labeling your target as "non-Christian." But if you want to do that with Mormons, you need to do you're homework. Or rather, you need to find an insider like me who can do your homework for you. Remember, this site is produced by an actual Mormon who isn't afraid to take on these issues and expose the truth about Mormonism. I'm your inside guide, and I'll show you how to avoid the biggest pitfalls that would-be cult-fighters face when taking on the Mormon cult. If you want your attack to have any credibility, take the advice I give below.

So why do most anti-Mormon attacks fall short when trying to allege that Mormons aren't Christian? First of all, they fail to realize that Mormons are absolutely convinced that they are Christian. They are taught to worship Christ, the Christ of the Bible. They look to Him as their Savior, they end every prayer in His name, they make covenants to follow Him, and on and on it goes. Sneak into a Mormon home and you'll find pictures of Jesus on the walls, kids learning songs about Jesus (in between rounds of destruction on the XBox), and regular teachings from parents about following Jesus as their Savior. So you can't just go up to a Mormon and say, "Excuse me, did you know you don't believe in Jesus Christ?" Sorry, that's just stupid and ineffective.

Remember, the trick here is to use the right definition of Christian. "You aren't Christian because you don't believe in Jesus Christ" uses the old-fashioned dictionary definition of Christian: someone who believes in and worships Jesus Christ. That will get you nowhere with my Mormon friends, trust me, or with anyone who actually knows anything about the Mormons. You need a more informed, subtle approach.

Now a lot of you folks have come close by making clever lists of Mormon beliefs versus Christian beliefs (i.e., your particular beliefs), implicitly bringing in your beliefs and interpretations of the Bible as the gold standard definition for Christian. And that's the right approach - but you usually goof everything up in the execution. It's all about execution, baby. And I'll show you how to execute.

The problem is that traditional anti-Mormons don't do their homework. When they compare "Mormon beliefs" to their particular "Christian beliefs," they usually get the Mormon beliefs all wrong or distort them in ways that instantly lose credibility by those who know. It's easy to find crazy Mormon quotes from people's journals or random speeches or obscure publications. Yeah, someone once said that Joseph Smith taught that there were nine-foot tall Quakers living on the moon. Whoa, that sounds pretty bizarre and probably non-Christian, right? But Mormons don't really believe he said that. It comes from someone's journal many decades after Joseph Smith died. It's an outlier. Ditto for a lot of the whacked-out doctrines that are easy pickins' for critics. Adam = God? Boring. We don't believe that. Sorry. If they aren't official doctrines, Mormons aren't going to be swayed by attacking them. And if they sense you are twisting their doctrines to make them sound bad, they aren't going to buy your attack. Look, if you were, say, Muslim, you could mock Mormons and others for "having a weekly cannibalistic ritual in which they pretend to eat their God's body and drink His blood," but they will immediately sense that your caricature of their weekly "sacrament" or communion is a bit on the biased and nasty side. To them, it's an uplifting and positive experience that helps them remember Jesus, and you won't engage them effectively by putting that kind of spin on their teachings.

The ONLY WAY to create a spin-free, objective appearance in evaluating Mormon doctrines is to use THE PRIMARY SOURCE for official Mormon teachings, and that is the Mormon scriptures. Anit-Mormons usually miss this important and critical point. Forget the spin: just quote Mormon scripture, and then compare that to "true Christian" beliefs, and you'll be much more effective.

So we've got our strategy: look to the Mormon scriptures, take verbatim quotes to show doctrines that differ from your views, state that your views are the "normative Christian view," and then, since the two are different, out goes Mormonism! Not that I approve of that, because I am Mormon myself, but I can sympathize with your approach and say if you're going to do it, at least don't make a fool of yourself with all the silly spin. Now if you do this right - there's still a lot of skill needed in the final execution - you can make people think that Latter-day Saints aren't Christian. Well, better to say that "Mormons" aren't Christian. That "Latter-day Saint" name isn't foreign enough and conjures up memories of the official name of the Church: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church of Who? Better stick with the nickname "Mormon" when making this argument. One more free tip from your friendly insider.

So how about the actual execution of this strategy? Well, I don't mean to be a backstabber because I really like the Church and actually believe a lot of it, but to help my non-LDS minister friends and other anti-Mormons maintain a little accuracy and credibility in their attacks, and to increase the odds of actually doing some good in their ministerial efforts, I've prepared a sample table of Mormon beliefs versus typical mainstream Christian beliefs, and you're free to use it as is. The cool thing about this table is that the Mormon teachings in the left hand column come straight from official Mormon scriptures, exactly as printed in the latest editions of Mormon scriptures straight from Salt Lake City. I've done a load of homework to help you out. Now enjoy - and hopefully you'll be able to touch some soul for good. It's my little gift to you.

Now get out there and start preaching!