Now that Super Bowl XXXVI has come and gone, the sports world can turn its attention to the Winter Olympic Games.

With that, the world spotlight pivots to focus on Salt Lake City - the Mormon Mecca of the United States.

I make that reference because it seems I have yet to see an Olympic preview about the host city in which its dominant religious influence isn’t mentioned.

Through this second point, I have found the inspiration to write this column. It has come to my attention the Mormon Church is sponsoring television advertisements during the games to promote awareness about its religious convictions.

The television spots will feature famous Mormons, such as former San Francisco quarterback Steve Young, who will dispel popular fictions about the church’s beliefs.

For example, the Mormon Church has not promoted polygamy for more than 100 years. In fact, according to information at is official Web site, www.mormon.org (the source of my Mormon research for this column), members of the church risk excommunication if found to be engaged in multiple marriages.

I was a bit surprised to hear this but what comes next is what really threw me for a loop.

The message I found to be most interesting in the commercials that I have seen, is “Mormons are Christian too.”

I would assume The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would be a Christian church since Jesus is mentioned in the name. So why wouldn’t it be considered a Christian church?

That is when I realized I pretty much knew nothing about Mormonism and logged on to the World Wide Web to find out more.

According to its Web site, the church’s first three basic beliefs are in God (the Heavenly Father), Jesus (the Son of God) and his resurrection and the Holy Ghost (or Holy Spirit), which proceeds from God and is the third member of the “Godhead.”

It sounds like the Catholic concept of the Holy Trinity. But my research goes on.

What about the Book of Mormon?

Apparently, it is conceived by Mormons their book of the same name is a confirmation of the Bible as “another witness that Jesus Christ really lived, and that he was and is God’s Son.”

The book contains writings from God’s prophets living on the American continent dating back to 600 B.C.

It seems members of the Mormon faith believe God continues to inspire prophets to share Its word.

According to the Web site, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is led by revelation from God to a living prophet, who receives God’s word just as Abraham, Moses, Peter and other ancient prophets and apostles did.”

They consider the head of the Mormon Church to be a “living prophet.”

It is a notably different view than held by most other Christian denominations but it is not hard to understand.

There is nothing I have found in my research to make me think Mormons aren’t Christian.

History (post-Jesus) has been filled with different types and denominations of Christians. If one surveyed the various faith groups in the ancient world, they might be shocked to find Christian differences today pale to those in the Greco-Roman world.

For example, there was a group of Christians, referred to as Adoptionists, who believed Jesus was divine in birth but adopted by God at his baptism (hence their name) to be Its son on Earth. They would suggest Jesus was as human as any other person on Earth.

At the other end of the spectrum was a community of Christians referred to as Marcionites, who weren’t even monotheistic. This group believed in multiple gods and perceived Jesus to be one of those divine beings.

They considered God to be evil and believed Jesus appeared to rescue people from Its malicious grip. Since everything made by this creator god was inherently evil (including humans), Jesus couldn’t be human. Instead he only appeared to be flesh.

While Adoptionists believed Jesus to be totally human and not divine, Marcionites believed him to be totally divine and not human. Certainly, Christians today don’t differ that drastically.

So, I am left to ponder this question: Why do we (Christians) spend so much energy focusing on our differences instead of our similarities; such as in the case with our Mormon brothers and sisters?

All Christians put their faith in Jesus - the rest is minor details.

Matt Treadwell is the State News opinion writer. Reach him at treadwe7@msu.edu.