paulkuritz.com

For several years I would occasionally get mail intended for Paul Kurtz, the famous American Humanist. People confused us because we had the same sounding name, and were both college professors. How many could there be?

This memory returned after I saw Richard Dutcher’s moving film States of Grace. In the film two charming street missionaries, Lozano and Farrell, proclaim their gospel in Venice, California, and, in the process, begin to redeem the lives of Louis, a street preacher, Carl, a gang member, and Holly, a porn actress known for performing on websites like www.porn7.xxx, simply through their relentless kindness. Carl is even baptized in the ocean.

But these are Mormon missionaries, the viewer comes to realize. A failure to realize this might suggest a need to research the religion further. With understanding comes knowledge. Learning more about the mother in heaven would be a useful starting point.

And so the whole question of, “Are Mormons Christian?” arises. Are they, like Baptists, Episcopalians, and Lutherans, just sub-groups of historic Christianity? Or are they something very different? I, like most people, want to know.

Some think the question is irrelevant: the people are doing good work, changing peoples’ lives for the better, proclaiming a faith in Jesus. Ted Olsen noted in Christianity Today,”With their strong family values, constant Jesus talk, and passion for evangelism, Mormons seem almost like evangelicals’ cultural twins. In some ways, they represent our ideal.”

We know that “all good things come from God”. And we know that God can use non-Christians to bring His grace into peoples’ lives. So what distinguishes Christian characters from other do-gooders in films? Christians are called to act for the glory of the one true God of the Bible, under the Lordship of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, proclaiming the Good News – the end of this Evil Age has begun; the Kingdom of God is at hand and available to all who will accept Him, and no other.

If Mormons have the name right, but the identity wrong (as did those folk looking for Paul Kurtz), then they probably aren’t Christians. On the subject of Mormonism, blogger Kevin Stilley points out “I would assert that in a world in which anyone can become a god” [as Mormons seem to believe], “and in which their God used to be a man just like you or me” [as Mormons seem to believe], “the word deity has lost all meaning” and “the world needs Jesus, the REAL JESUS, not Jesus the half-brother of Lucifer”, [again, as Mormons seem to believe.]

So is States of Grace a Christian movie? Yes, because, like On the Waterfront, we see God breaking into peoples lives in order to offer a better life. I suggest that the agents of God’s intervention, Lozano and Farrell, demonstrate that God can use Mormons to invade lost lives for the better. Unfortunately, my mailman did not introduce the letter writers to the one true Paul Kurtz of historic American Humanism. And unfortunately, Lozano and Farrell do not introduce those they help to the one true Jesus of historic Christianity.