![\"Bethlehem](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/12\/Bethlehem_8296039511.jpg\")
<\/a>Many years ago, my good friend Lou Midgley and I drove up to the Salt Lake Valley one Sunday night to spend the evening at an evangelical Protestant church. \u00a0The good folks there were showing an anti-Mormon film of some kind, and Lou and I wanted to see it. \u00a0We hoped simply to sit quietly in the back and watch.<\/p>\n
However, we had committed an elementary, na\u00efve, and obvious mistake: \u00a0We went to the event dressed in conventional Latter-day Saint church clothes \u2014 with white shirts and ties, no less. \u00a0We might as well have been carrying flashing neon copies of the Book of Mormon. \u00a0Nobody else in the place, not even among the women, was wearing either a white shirt or a tie. \u00a0None were dressed in what most Latter-day Saints would recognize as \u201cSunday best.\u201d \u00a0All were clad in pretty casual attire.<\/p>\n
After the showing of the film, which, to be honest, I can\u2019t even remember, we were swarmed by aggressive evangelicals trying to save our souls. \u00a0Well, actually, I don\u2019t know that saving our souls was high on their list of priorities; they were quite aggressive and not especially nice. \u00a0(It was something of a best-practices demonstration on how not<\/em> to save souls.)<\/p>\n They deployed a number of pretty standard evangelical anti-Mormon arguments, and the conversation, such as it was, was going nowhere in particular. \u00a0If we responded to one critique, another was immediately offered in its stead.<\/p>\n One of the most assertive of our hosts decided to concentrate on the doctrine of the Trinity. \u00a0We weren\u2019t Christians, he said, because we didn\u2019t believe in biblical trinitarianism. \u00a0(For some of my thinking on the subject of biblical trinitarianism, which may perhaps surprise a few, see \u201cNotes on Mormonism and the Trinity.\u201d<\/a>) \u00a0He unleashed a torrent of proof texts and assertions and condemnations that scarcely permitted time for response.<\/p>\n Eventually, I managed to get in an edgewise word. \u00a0So as to slow him down a bit, I asked him exactly what he understood by \u201cthe Trinity.\u201d \u00a0He explained to me that there is only one God, that God is one being who manifests himself in different modes or aspects, sometimes as Father and sometimes as Son and sometimes as Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n I responded that, yes, by the standard of mainstream traditional Christianity, my Latter-day Saint view of the Godhead is indeed heretical. \u00a0I think that I remember him smiling in triumph. \u00a0But then I pointed out that, again by the standard of mainstream traditional Christianity, he too was a heretic. \u00a0I told him that his view was an expression of Sabellianism, or what is sometimes called \u201cmodalistic monarchianism.\u201d \u00a0Sabellianism was a third-century heresy that denied the existence of real, distinct persons within the Trinity. \u00a0It viewed the one God as, if I may, something of an actor, one who simply puts on this or that mask, according to whatever would serve at the time. \u00a0Sabellianism was rejected by most Christians anciently and is still considered a false doctrine.<\/p>\n He protested against my description of what he had said, claiming that his was true, biblical, trinitarianism.<\/p>\n \u201cActually,\u201d said one of the others who were standing nearby, \u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019re right. \u00a0Maybe you need to talk with Pastor.\u201d<\/p>\n And then others joined in. \u00a0Eventually with considerable animation. \u00a0While they were going back and forth \u2014 I\u2019m not making this up, although it seems almost like something in a slapstick comedy \u2014 Lou and I slipped out. \u00a0Unnoticed, so far as I could tell.<\/p>\n I hadn\u2019t thought about that experience for a long, long time, until I saw this little item, dated 30 March 2025, from the Christian Post<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cMost American Christians don\u2019t believe in the Trinity: Survey.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Which reminds me, in turn, of a recent exchange between Utah\u2019s Senator John Curtis and the former governor of Arkansas, the Baptist pastor Mike Huckabee. \u00a0You may or may not recall Mr. Huckabee\u2019s fairly ham-handed effort to weaponize anti-Mormonism against Mitt Romney during the 2008 Republican presidential primaries. \u00a0That constitutes the background for Senator Curtis\u2019s question: \u00a0\u201cSen. John Curtis asks Mike Huckabee to clarify feelings about Church of Jesus Christ in Senate hearing:\u00a0Huckabee was nominated to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019ve seen one or two responses to what Mr. Huckabee had to say that seemed satisfied by his reply. \u00a0I, however, was not remotely<\/em> satisfied. \u00a0Nor, I\u2019m gratified to say, was Hugh Hewitt, the conservative radio talk show host, lawyer, and academic (and Catholic): \u00a0\u201cMormon Memory Lane \u2013 Being Better\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n And, while I\u2019m on the subject of Mike Huckabee, I want to share this article by Fares Abraham, a Palestinian Christian pastor. \u00a0(I suspect that more than a few people out there \u2014 though certainly none among the esteemed readers of this blog! \u2014 would be surprised to learn that there are<\/em> such creatures as Palestinian Christians.) \u00a0His is a voice that, I think, many Americans need to hear: \u00a0\u201cCharlie Kirk doesn\u2019t feel safe in Bethlehem. It\u2019s his worldview that\u2019s to blame, not my city. \u2014 To Charlie Kirk, Mike Huckabee and every Christian taught to fear my people and my city \u2014 come and see.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 Many years ago, my good friend Lou Midgley and I drove up to the Salt Lake Valley one Sunday night to spend the evening at an evangelical Protestant church. \u00a0The good folks there were showing an anti-Mormon film of some kind, and Lou and I wanted to see it. \u00a0We hoped simply to sit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":38850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2556,3172,4276,4799,38551,81],"class_list":["post-109666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anti-mormon","tag-bethlehem","tag-bigotry","tag-evangelical","tag-huckabee","tag-palestinian"],"yoast_head":"\n