Evangelicals and LDS seeking common ground

Having dinner recently with a top official of the Anglican Communion in his British castle, two Utah men talked about their attempt to create a bridge of understanding between historical Christians and Latter-day Saints.

That they found themselves the guests of Bishop N.T. Wright of Durham, England, was just one of the pleasant surprises they've encountered on a public journey toward understanding that began five years ago as a discussion between friends.

Robert Millet, who holds an academic chair in religious understanding at Brigham Young University, and Greg Johnson, a Utah-born former Latter-day Saint who has become an evangelical minister, have been finding common religious ground since they first met in 1997. And since 2000 they've been talking about it publicly with whoever cares to listen.

Bishop Wright has reason to tune in. He is currently trying to help bridge the chasm created by American Episcopal bishops, who ordained an openly gay bishop in 2003, and the bulk of the 77-million member worldwide Anglican Communion of which they are a part.

Many Anglicans say the Americans have ignored scripture and Christian teaching, while the U.S. bishops counter that their action embodied the highest biblical mandate to love one another without reservation.

While both camps believe in Jesus Christ and the Bible, their approach to the issue of homosexuality comes from widely different poles on the religious and political spectrum. Though the chasm has threatened to throw the faith into schism, Anglicans share much common ground.

So it is with Latter-day Saints and evangelical Christians, say Millet and Johnson, though both concede there are significant doctrinal differences between historic Christianity and a faith that claims to be a restoration of Christ's original gospel.

The history of interaction between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and most long-established Christian faiths has been a rocky one ever since Joseph Smith told Christian ministers he had seen God and Jesus Christ in a vision in 1820. Smith's subsequent publishing of a unique scriptural canon known as the Book of Mormon and other extrabiblical scriptural texts set Latter-day Saints apart in significant ways from Protestant and Catholic tradition and teaching.

The differences simmered for decades, with occasional spurts of public discussion. But Southern Baptist Convention leaders' public proclamations in the late 1990s that Latter-day Saints were not Christians brought the topic into focus on the public stage, as LDS leaders countered the claims.