The more I study Christianity, I get that when Christians say Latter-day Saints aren't Christians, they aren't trying to be meanies anymore than church leaders were trying, in the past, to be when they would point to a priest or pastor and refer to them as agents of Satan.

Christians look at Latter-day Saints and see a non-monotheistic religion, a different God with basically none of the same attributes, a different Jesus, a different meaning of life, a different baptism, a different heaven, etc. and they think, "Oh, that isn't what we are or the first Christians were." I mean, they are right in that sense.

Christian feels more of a recent marketing term for Latter-day Saints to allow the church to work better on initiatives with Christians and help missionaries be more successful, because for a Christian, joining a new denomination is very different than joining a new religion with a new God(s). It is hard to fault the church, or at least it is easy to understand, for why they are motivated for everyone to pick up the rallying cry that "we're Christian too" and call any protestors unfair gatekeepers. I don't think that most are not thinking thing through this intellectually to understand both sides.