Talk:Comparison of the Community of Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Purpose and Scope
The purpose of the article is to describe how the Community of Christ is differentiated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The relative size and awareness of the two denominations naturally casts the comparison in this light. It answers the understandable question of the reader, how is the Community of Christ different. Since the question is almost always phrased in this way and since the independent source material and body of thought being described in the article always approaches the question in this fashion, the article mirrors the existing discussion in the field.

The article does not attempt to fully describe the history, organization or doctrine of either church. For that, see the main articles for either group and there sub-articles. It should be noted that this article was created as a branch from the Community of Christ History article. The subject does not attempt to fully describe the theology of either denomination.

An attempt has been made to preserve a neutral point-of-view. There is no suggestion that either or both groups are right or wrong. The article also avoids original research. The differentiation cited is a summary of an existing body of material on the differences between the two groups.

As mentioned in the article and discussed by commentators in the field, it is a difficult comparison to make largely because of the lack of fixed ideology in the Community of Christ. An attempt has been made in the article to segregate the enumerated differences into "traditional" diffferences that existed from the foundation of the Community of Christ in 1860 and newer differences that have resulted from the major transformation in Community of Christ doctrine and theology that has occurred since around 1960, when a major international expansion of the church began. It may be difficult for writers unfamiliar with the recent history of the Community of Christ to appreciate the extent of doctrinal transformation that has occurred. A common mistake of those making comparison between the two groups, is to focus exclusively on the traditional differences. To do so, ignores the last 50 years of history.

The article still needs considerable work. The traditional differences are explored at a surface level. The description of the LDS doctrinal position may need work. A more accurate description of the effects of intrnationalization would be useful.

Those who edit this article are asked not to inject personal opinion about how the Community of Christ "ought" to be, but rather focus on the way it is. Having said this, minority viewpoints within the Community of Christ must be acknowledged. However, a large majority of the dissidents in the COmmunity of Christ left the church to join various Restorationist groups. There opinions therefore are therefore more accurately represented and summarized in the articles on those groups and detract from an understanding of the predominant differences between the Community of Christ and the LDS. Hope this helps understand. SOme of the above probably needs to move into the article.

LDS corrections
It is best to let members of each denomination write their own description. I have tried to correct some misrepresentations of the LDS Church beliefs, but they should be invited to make their own assessment of what is presented here. You evidently relied partly on a 1950 RLDS tract, and partly on an evangelical Protestant website to describe LDS beliefs, but it should be understood that their theology has also evolved over the past 50 years, not to mention that their own description of their belief might vary from that offered by rival denominations. That is not very neutral. --Blainster 21:32, 7 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I definitely welcome and encourage corrections and updates to the descriptions of the LDS. Glenn4pr 09:08, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Temple as think tank

 * the Community of Christ transformed the temple concept to something more closely resembling a seminary or think tank on peace, justice and Christian thought.
 * Are you certain this is how the CoC would describe their temple? I can't recall hearing it referred to in such a way.  I would appreciate a reference for this. This is how Presiden Kenneth Robinson describes it, more in terms of the presence of God and God's prophetic call to be God's people. --Blainster 23:43, 7 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I've changed the article.

Article title
The title is misspelled (lower case "saints"), but before making the change we should consider a different title that doesn't use parens. They should only be used to disambiguate from another title. Long titles are also less than ideal. I suggest something like "Distinctive theology of the Community of Christ", or just "Community of Christ theology", which would serve the same purpose and allow some flexibility. We don't want these articles to degenerate into apologetic debates. --Blainster 16:53, 8 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Other ideas: "Community of Christ distinctives" or "Community of Christ evolution". I don't think this is a theology article. And the CofC doctrine is easier to read without the tedium of these comparisons. The justification for treating this as a seperate article is that it constitutes a lengthy historical aside that would make the main article on CofC history too long and confusing. Glenn4pr 10:12, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Historical differences between the churches
Most of the text in this section has no citations and I would like to move it to this talk page until references can be found. Any objections? --Eustress (talk) 20:10, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

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Community of Christ Membership
I noticed the membership for Community of Christ was taken from a report from 2014. According to the new report (https://www.cofchrist.org/common/cms/resources/Documents/FY18-CofC-Audit-Report.pdf) membership is now at approximately 250,000. — Preceding unsigned comment added by DVanheest88 (talk • contribs) 14:34, 20 February 2020 (UTC)