My definition of “Anti-Mormon”

In response to a question posed by a commenter on this site, I figured it was fair to provide an answer since I do use the term rather broadly at times. I see there being multiple types of anti-Mormons:

1. The Professional anti-Mormon. These are folks like Jerald and Sandra Tanner who have dedicated their lives to anti-Mormonism as though it were its own religion.

2. The Amateur anti-Mormon. These are the people who attack the Mormon church, but on a part-time basis, when it’s convenient or when they get particularly riled up, but they have day-jobs and lives that aren’t defined by their animosity towards the LDS Church. But make no mistake, these people harbor a lot of negative feelings against the Church and would like to see it taken down.

3. The anti-Everythings. There are some people who aren’t particular about being against the Mormon church, they’re just against a lot of things and the Mormon happen to make the cut. These might be people of another faith who attack all faiths other than their own, or it might be an atheist who attacks all religions.

4. The Peaceful anti-Mormon. It’s almost incorrect to call these people “anti-Mormons”, because they’re not out to take down the Church and they’re not looking for battles. You wouldn’t know they have anything against the LDS Church except that they occasionally get dragged into a conversation that exposes how they feel.

5. The Closet anti-Mormon. This is the person who may not even know how negatively they themselves feel about the LDS Church or some of its doctrines. They might confuse their tactics with an intellectual search for truth, when in fact they have no real intention of an open-minded search for truth but are merely attempting to assert their “intellectual superiority”.

6. The Accidental anti-Mormon. This is the person who is not, in fact, any sort of anti-Mormon, but due to the way in which they have phrased a question or statement appears to be one, and therefore gets labeled as one on this blog. If that’s the case, I apologize.

All of these people may, at one time or another, be labeled as “anti-Mormons” on this website. While it may not be 100% accurate to do so, for the sake of time we must deal with labels that are sometimes incorrect, or risk spending so much time worrying about proper labeling that we ignore the actual points we are trying to debate.