stevo4212 wrote:WTF with Final Jeopardy, Well, I guess they say if it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true.
Isn't Mormonism a Christian religion? Why does Jeopardy get away with that nonsense? unique religion X 4 then Mormonism.
It depends who you ask. Mormonism does not meet the classic definition of Christianity as set forth in 325 A.D. by the Council of Nicaea. The Nicene Creed has been a fixture in Christian churches and a benchmark for what constitutes the essential Christian confession of faith. East may have divided from West since then. The Protestants may have attempted a Reformation and splintered into a million groups instead. But they have all always agreed on The Nicene Creed.
There have been quibbles around a few edges of the Creed (e.g. the
filioque debate) and skirmishes over how it should be interpreted. But at the core of the Nicene Creed is the Trinity. The Council met to nail down that precise doctrine and to do it precisely. At that point, the Church defined groups that believe what the Mormons believe as non-Christian. Other modern groups that wouldn't make the cut are the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Christian Scientists, and the Unitarians.
I think the writers generally treat Mormonism/LDS as a specific religion without specifically implying that it is non-Christian. The Shrove Tuesday clue really bollixed things up in this respect. "Christianity" was the accepted answer there despite applying only to a large minority subset of Christians. That made it clear that the correct response for "Pioneer Day" had to be something
other than "Christianity."
Compare that to these two clues from the past:
#3258, aired 1998-11-04 THE MORMONS $200: Mormons consider themselves this, like about 2 billion others; Southern Baptists don't agree
#4297, aired 2003-04-15 TAKES 2 TO TONGA $400: 15% of Tonga's almost all-Christian population are of this branch usually associated with Utah
The 1998 clue doesn't take a position; it just reports the position of others. The 2003 clue unequivocally tags LDS as a "branch" of Christianity. I'd say this recent clue is out of step with that stance.
I agree that in any event, the category shouldn't have had two clues centered around the same religion. Even if one considers Mormonism a heresy, it's a
Christian heresy, not a Muslim or Shinto heresy. I say dump the "Shrove Tuesday" clue and leave "Pioneer Day" in. That's the more interesting clue from a TOM perspective. If a contestant says "What is Christianity?" BMS them.