![\"Oliver](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2019\/09\/70737874_669374920230134_6710079826616647680_n.jpg\")
<\/a>We had a long day today, including hours of driving (from Rochester, New York, to the site of early-nineteenth-century Harmony, Pennsylvania \u2014 in modern Oakland Township \u2014 and back up to Rochester). \u00a0It was mostly Casey Griffiths\u2019s and Steve Harper\u2019s day, but I was also there, managing to bring the quality of the discussion down a bit. \u00a0We highlighted reconstructed homes of Isaac and Elizabeth Hale and of Joseph and Emma (Hale) Smith, the (possible) baptismal site down on the bank of the Susquehanna River, and the McKune Cemetery<\/a>, where the Hales are buried along with an infant son of Joseph and Emma.<\/p>\n On the way back, we drove through the impressive campus of Cornell University, where (by the way) we caught a glimpse of the pro-Palestinian tent encampment that has been erected on the Arts Quad. \u00a0Cornell has evidently begun to suspend students who have refused to strike the tents and free up the quad.<\/p>\n Speaking of which (sort of): \u00a0I came across the accusation today \u2014 I see it every once in a while \u2014 that the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> resemble those of Islam more than those of Christianity. \u00a0It\u2019s a monumentally inane and ignorant declaration. \u00a0But, as I say, it\u2019s been a long day, and I\u2019m tired; we returned to Rochester well after dark. \u00a0So I will respond by recycling a very slightly modified version of something that I wrote some while ago in response to a prior assertion of the same risible claim. \u00a0I could, of course, have listed literally scores of distinctions between the two faiths. \u00a0(What, for instance, is the equivalent in Islam of, say, the Susquehanna River? \u00a0Where is the Muslim place corresponding to the priesthood restoration site in Harmony?). But here are a few thoughts:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Back in 2012, when Mitt Romney was the Republican nominee for the presidency, a certain Ms. Eliza Wood took it upon herself to post an extraordinarily inept entry on Huffington Post<\/em> entitled \u201cAre Mormons<\/a> Closer to Muslims or Christians?\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIn reality,\u201d she said, \u201cIslam is about as close to Christianity as Mormonism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Well, actually, No, it\u2019s not. \u00a0And I say this as a Latter-day Saint who is (or was) a professional Islamicist.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But a walk down memory lane will illustrate how, at least with some folks, ignorant anti-Mormonism harmonizes very nicely with anti-Islamic prejudice.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n First of all, of course, Ms. Wood\u2019s question is misconceived. \u00a0It\u2019s rather like asking whether Fords are closer to automobiles or water buffaloes. \u00a0Fords are<\/em> automobiles. \u00a0And Latter-day Saints are<\/em> Christians.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But perhaps Ms. Wood can\u2019t really be blamed, because, quite plainly, she\u2019s entirely unqualified even to have an opinion on the subject.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBoth Islam and Mormonism,\u201d Ms. Wood declares, \u201chave teachings from the Christian Bible and believe Jesus was \u2018a prophet,\u2019 but they had prophets after Jesus that they believe to be more authentic and current than Jesus.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n I have no idea what Ms. Wood means by \u201cmore authentic,\u201d but I can\u2019t really think of any significant sense in which any believing and reasonably intelligent Latter-day Saint would agree that Joseph Smith, or Brigham Young, or Russell M. Nelson, or any other modern prophet is \u201cmore authentic\u201d than Jesus.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cMore current\u201d? \u00a0Well, yes, but only in the trivial sense that Jesus lived out his mortal life in first century Palestine while President Nelson is alive right now, in the twenty-first.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But, anyway, while Islam regards Jesus as a very great prophet, he\u2019s still a mortal and a creature and not divine. \u00a0Latter-day Saints, by contrast, believe Jesus to be divine, the only begotten Son of God. \u00a0That may be a small detail in Ms. Wood\u2019s mind, but others might think that it deserved at least brief mention.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cJesus\u2019 teachings,\u201d Ms. Wood somewhat obscurely says, \u201cwere a bit archived [???] in both because Muhammad and Joseph Smith were both visited by angels who told them to receive new orders from God. Both have respected Jesus\u2019 messages but moved forward with other teachings and practices that are not consistent with Christianity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But this is merely to say that Latter-day Saint beliefs aren\u2019t consistent with Ms. Wood\u2019s<\/em> version of Christianity, whatever that may be. \u00a0It\u2019s rather as if, defining squirrels as non-mammals, Ms. Wood were to point to the things that distinguish squirrels from giraffes, killer whales, and Bengal tigers as \u201cnot consistent with being mammals.\u201d \u00a0That would be not only rather eccentric but obviously circular.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIslam teaches that Muhammad was the last prophet,\u201d Ms. Wood informs her audience, \u201cand Mormonism teaches that a line of prophets extended from Joseph Smith all the way to the present with Thomas S. Monson, who is currently considered their prophet.\u201d \u00a0[As I say, the article was published in 2012.]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Well, yes. \u00a0But Ms. Wood doesn\u2019t really explain how the fact that Islam believes the final prophet to have died in 632 AD, while the Church of Jesus Christ affirms that there is a living prophet on the earth today, supports her claim that the two religions are \u00a0similar.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhile in some ways neither Islam nor Mormonism is very much like Christianity,\u201d writes Ms. Wood, who has never actually defined Christianity<\/em>, but who appears to believe that merely asserting that Latter-day Saint beliefs aren\u2019t Christian does that work for<\/em> her, \u201cthe two faiths actually have a lot of similarities. For example, both had founding prophets who received visits from an angel, leading to revelation of Scripture. Both consider the family unit as the foundation for religious life, and both have an insistence that religion is their complete way of life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Seriously? \u00a0Insisting that religion is a complete way of life is scarcely unique to either Muslims or Latter-day Saints.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n And, while both Islam and the Church of Jesus Christ consider family life important, their respective theologies of family bear only the most superficial resemblance to each other.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Yes, though, both religions do really include visits from angels within their founding stories. \u00a0Among many thousands of potential similarities and differences, that\u2019s one example of a similarity. \u00a0But the stories and the roles of the angels are quite different in Islam and the Restored Gospel.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIslam and Mormonism,\u201d announces Ms. Wood, \u201cboth require fasting and ritual cleanings.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But fasting and ritual cleansing (e.g., baptism) are common to religions worldwide, not merely to Islam and the Restoration.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThey both believe theirs is the original religion of Adam,\u201d Ms. Wood writes.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But so, historically, have mainstream Christianity and Judaism.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBoth Islam and Mormonism,\u201d says Ms. Wood, \u201callowed four wives but both forbid homosexuality and bisexuality.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Historically, very few religions have traditionally celebrated homosexuality and bisexuality. \u00a0It\u2019s true, however, that both the Restoration and Islam have allowed polygamous marriages. \u00a0 Islam still does. \u00a0Mormonism does not. \u00a0But, while Islam limited men to four wives, \u201cMormonism\u201d never did.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBoth religions,\u201d Ms. Wood explains, \u201cforbid alcohol and gambling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But the Restoration and Islam are scarcely unique in frowning upon gambling and alcohol!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThis may be alarming to some,\u201d writes Ms. Wood, who very likely hopes that her readers will<\/em> be alarmed, \u201cbut both Islam and Mormonism teach that marriage can extend into the afterlife.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s not at all<\/em> clear that Islam teaches a continuation of marriage into the afterlife.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n And, by the way, it\u2019s not clear why Ms. Wood finds the idea \u201calarming\u201d that marriage might continue beyond the grave. \u00a0Is she revealing something about herself? \u00a0(And, by the way some critics insist that it is the Restored Church that separates husbands and wives at death; everybody else has always expected marriage to survive death \u2014 until the Latter-day Saints came along to rain on the parade.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cNeither worships their founding prophets,\u201d continues Ms. Wood, with remarkable charity, \u201cbut both hold them with special respect.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Well, shiver me timbers and blow the house down! \u00a0Judaism and mainstream Christianity, too, venerate ancient prophets and saints. \u00a0Has she never heard of St. Peter\u2019s Basilica? \u00a0St. Paul\u2019s Cathedral? \u00a0Saint Patrick\u2019s? \u00a0Santa Ana, California? \u00a0San Francisco? \u00a0There\u2019s nothing even remotely unique about regarding prophets, apostles, and saints with particular respect.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBoth religions heavily proselytize,\u201d Ms. Wood writes, \u201cand believe everyone should belong to their faith.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Huh? \u00a0Does Ms. Wood seriously believe that Christianity hasn\u2019t been a missionary faith from its very beginning? \u00a0Has she ever read the New Testament book of the Acts of the Apostles? \u00a0What does she think St. Paul was doing on all those trips back and forth across Anatolia and the Mediterranean? \u00a0Relaxing on the Lido Deck of a luxury cruise ship?<\/span><\/p>\n Posted from Rochester, New York<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 We had a long day today, including hours of driving (from Rochester, New York, to the site of early-nineteenth-century Harmony, Pennsylvania \u2014 in modern Oakland Township \u2014 and back up to Rochester). \u00a0It was mostly Casey Griffiths\u2019s and Steve Harper\u2019s day, but I was also there, managing to bring the quality of the discussion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":26776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12218,2905,788,37472,10582,12988],"class_list":["post-104942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-harmony","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormon","tag-oakland-township","tag-pennsylvania","tag-susquehanna"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a>
(Still photo by James Jordan from the set of the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s 2021 movie, \u201cWitnesses\u201d)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n