Mormon author: "I’m perfectly happy not being a Christian."

David V. Mason, an associate professor at Rhodes College and author of My Mormonism: A Primer for Non-Mormons and Mormons, Alike, let's it fly in a recent op-ed for The New York Times:

This is the so-called Mormon Moment: a strange convergence of developments offering Mormons hope that the Christian nation that persecuted, banished or killed them in the 19th century will finally love them as fellow Christians.

I want to be on record about this. I’m about as genuine a Mormon as you’ll find — a templegoer with a Utah pedigree and an administrative position in a congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am also emphatically not a Christian.

For the curious, the dispute can be reduced to Jesus. Mormons assert that because they believe Jesus is divine, they are Christians by default. Christians respond that because Mormons don’t believe — in accordance with the Nicene Creed promulgated in the fourth century — that Jesus is also the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Jesus that Mormons have in mind is someone else altogether. The Mormon reaction is incredulity. The Christian retort is exasperation. Rinse and repeat.

The theologically astute reader will note a significant problem: orthodox Christians do not believe "that Jesus is also the Father and the Holy Spirit", as that is not what the Nicene Creed states. The Son is "one in being with the Father", but he is not the Father, nor is he the Holy Spirit, as they are three divine Persons. The Athanasian Creed states, "For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal."

Small potatoes? I don't think so—if only because it suggests that Mason hasn't considered such matters very well or carefully—but Mason apparently thinks that such doctrines are essentially metaphysical puzzles that have taken up too much time and energy over the centures:

Continue reading on the CWR blog.