The Voice Of One Crying Out In Suburbia

When a denial is not a denial

Mike Huckabee made some noise recently by raising the question: "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?" It was probably intended as a clever way to feign ignorance, knowing all the while that the brotherly relationship of Christ and Satan is firmly entrenched mormon dogma. It raises the question in people's minds, and serves to draw a stark contrast for those who are evangelical Christian voters but like Mitt Romney's recent conversion to conservative social values. While that is a clever political move, perhaps dirty pool a bit, it is not nearly as interesting as the reaction from the mormon church:

A spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Huckabee's question is usually raised by those who wish to smear the Mormon faith rather than clarify doctrine.

"We believe, as other Christians believe and as Paul wrote, that God is the father of all," said the spokeswoman, Kim Farah. "That means that all beings were created by God and are his spirit children. Christ, on the other hand, was the only begotten in the flesh and we worship him as the son of God and the savior of mankind. Satan is the exact opposite of who Christ is and what he stands for."

Note that they never deny the doctrine, much in the same way that they never condemn polygamy or the treatment of blacks by the mormon church. It is the modus operandi to cry persecution in lieu of a serious and legitimate answer. What does mormon material, official mormon material say? I still have our Gospel Principles book, our study guide of mormon beliefs for when we first joined the church, printed by and an official publication of the mormon church. In describing the pre-existence, it speaks of how our heavenly father needed a plan to pay for our sins. Apparently God was uncertain what He should do, so... "Two of our brothers offered to help" One of these brothers was Jesus, "Our oldest brother, Jesus Christ" The other brother was the Devil, "Satan, who was called Lucifer" (Gospel Principles, 1992, pp. 17-18). Two brothers, making us a) different from Christ only in that He was oldest and was chosen to be begotten in the flesh (in the same way all of our parents did, through a physical, procreative sexual act) and b) Making Jesus, Satan and us all brothers and sisters. That is what is (or at least was) taught. How incredibly dishonest for Kim Farah to dissemble in the way she did when asked a simple and direct question. I expect a level of ignorance by the average lay mormon, but she is a spokesperson, so you would think she would be more familiar when called upon to respond to these sorts of questions.

Hmm, so it seems that the doctrine of Jesus and Satan being brothers, rather than something stated by those seeking to "smear" mormonism, really is indeed a teaching of the mormon church.