And besides, in the maternity ward, after they cut off their tails, shave their faces, and teach them how to use that thumb, they are just like us.
That's a bad joke, folks, don't beat me up.

I got a giggle, EB.

And I have always considered them human. Having the fallacies of life that all of us possess.

Doesn't that about sum it up?

I’ve always considered Mormons to be Christians since they’re believers in the divinity of Jesus Christ.

And I have always considered them human. Having the fallacies of life that all of us possess. I have lived amongst them, and "Jesus Christ" most of them were decent people. Sure, there are extremist's in their religion, just as any other. I never had any problems with their beliefs and how they treated other people.
When asked a question about their religion, they did not stammer, look away, and the cast their eyes down to see if they needed a shoeshine. Straight in your eye, they would tell you what they believe. And given that, if they think they are Christians, that is good enough for me.

And besides, in the maternity ward, after they cut off their tails, shave their faces, and teach them how to use that thumb, they are just like us.
That's a bad joke, folks, don't beat me up.

Some key phrases from the above: "cursory," "my understanding," "I think," and "in my view." By no means do I claim to be anything resembling a final authority. But no, Mormons don't appear to be Christians in the traditional sense.

HELL DIRECTOR: Hello, newcomers, and welcome. Can everybody hear me? [taps the mic a few times] Hello? Can everybuh-? Okay. [the crowd quiets down] Uh, I'm the hell director. Uh, it looks like we have about 8,615 of you newbies today, and for those of you who are a little confused, uh, you are dead, and this is hell, so, abandon all hope and uh yada yada yada. Uh, we are now going to start the orientation process, which will last about-
MAN 4: Hey, wait a minute, I shouldn't be here. I was a totally strict and devout Protestant! I thought we went to heaven!
HELL DIRECTOR: Yes, well I'm afraid you were wrong.
SOLDIER: I was a practicing Jehovah's Witness. HELL DIRECTOR: Uh, you picked the wrong religion as well.
MAN 5: Well, who was right? Who gets into heaven?
HELL DIRECTOR: I'm afraid it was the Mormons. Yes, the Mormons were the correct answer.
CROWD: [disappointed] Awww.

That said, I think Mormons are Christians. They believe in the divinity of Christ, they believe that Christ's sacrifice in the crucifixion represented some type of redemption for mankind (although they don't quite follow the mainline Christian view of how that works), and so forth.

I always thought the Catholic view on Mormonism was kind of amusing. Apparently, Mormonism is so different from Christianity that it doesn't even fit into the category of "wrong but Christian", like the Protestant faiths - instead, it's classified by the Catholic Church as a pagan faith, in the same category as Islam, Buddhism, and so forth.

Andrew is just mad at the Mormons because they were supported Prop 8 in California and funded it heavily, so naturally he'll look favorably on anything to knock them.

hat seems like a good starting point

Not really. There are any number of indubitably Christian denominations whose members no doubt consider Roman Catholics damned.

In other ways, this could be argued to be an inside baseball kind of argument. It is the case that mainline Christianity (the Catholic Church, and practically every (if not all) Protestant denomination that one can think of) consider Mormonism to be outside the fold--likewise Jehovah's Witnesses and Christian Scientists, despite the fact that those groups use the Bible as a sacred text and ascribe divinity to Jesus.

However, the issue of defining what the divinity is is the main issue. The mainline Christian church (in a universal sense as briefly defined above) sees Christ as God Himself, part of the Holy Trinity of Father-Son-Holy Spirit, while the Mormon see Jesus as the literal son of the Father (and also has a broader cosmological view wherein there are numerous such fathers and sons). It is a substantially different definition of God, and if we consider the basic differentiation between religions to be their conception of God, then there is (despite the shared language) a substantial difference between Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, etc and Mormons, et al.

(This is, of course, a sketch of a broader theological argument).