Profound 'Divide' explores 2 faiths

BRIDGING THE DIVIDE: THE CONTINUING CONVERSATION BETWEEN A MORMON AND AN EVANGELICAL, by Robert Millet and Gregory C.V. Johnson, Monkfish, 186 pages, $14.95, softcover.

At a time when Mormons and evangelicals are constantly being compared and argued about in the national campaign for the Republican nomination for president, especially regarding Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, this book appears, written together by a Mormon and an evangelical.

Robert Millet, a prolific LDS author and Brigham Young University professor, and Greg Johnson, a former Mormon who converted to evangelism in his teens and then became a Baptist minister, have been carrying on a public dialogue about their faiths for a decade. They have appeared at more than 50 churches and universities, drawing crowds as large as 1,600 at a single event.

The reason for their success, they agree, is that they are not trying to debate or convert each other — but to establish a dialogue that will help members of both faiths to understand each other. Now they have written a book together in which they argue that it is important that their two faiths "discover ways to come together" or they "will surely suffer together."

Millet's introduction hopes for "intellectually stimulating and spiritually encouraging" results to come from the book. Over the course of their dialogue, they discuss "the only true church" ("divine institutional authority restored to Joseph Smith"), "What is an evangelical?" ("a subcategory of the Protestant branch of Christendom" who believe "salvation comes through faith alone in Christ alone" and they are "transdenominational — Lutherans, Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodist, etc."), "the nature of God" (Mormons believe in "three separate beings, two with bodies and one a personage of spirit," while evangelicals believe in the traditional concept of the Trinity, "three in one") and several other issues.

Responding to audience questions, the authors treat LDS doctrine, kindness, prayer, the Book of Mormon, the Trinity, life after death, interfaith marriage, worthiness, baptism for the dead, Christianity — and several other stimulating topics.

This free and open discussion of issues with two leading theologians is refreshing, indeed.

The conclusion is especially expansive as Millet and Johnson agree that whenever either hears someone express incorrectly he beliefs of the other, they feel the need to correct them. That is because they love their neighbors enough that they feel responsible for each other's reputation.

"When we love people, we begin to feel a Christian responsibility for them — for their welfare, for their safety, and even for their reputation and good name," they write.

That is a profound and welcome conclusion for all disparate faiths.

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E-mail: dennis@desnews.com