Against all odds, they have survived for thousands of years in countless places where they were a small minority and often through unspeakable suffering. What has enabled the Jews to survive is the Jewish notion of “peoplehood” - their collective identity as People of the Book – that makes Judaism a culture and not just a religion. So whether one is Reform or Orthodox, or indeed whether one’s practices are those of a Lithuanian Jew or a Sephardi Jew, the culture of being Jewish transcends all of this.

As a "minority religion," Mormonism offers a convenient comparison for this discussion. Jews and Mormons have about the same numbers in this country – roughly six million apiece. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is now the fourth largest church in the US, although its members still comprise only about two per cent of the population. However, some writers have suggested that Mormonism has already transcended the simple status of minority religion to become a culture in its own right.

In what sense is Mormonism a culture? When the apostle Paul talks about members of the early Christian church being “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints,” he seemed to be describing the idea that a collective embracing of certain core beliefs and practices transcends more familiar identities. The early church members who were converted in Ephesus or Athens remained citizens of those cities with all their obligations, but they also embraced a wider and very distinctive identity as people of God which developed into its own culture.

So what is it that ties members of this particular minority religion together in ways that suggest a distinct identity? Being Mormon means that a person embraces certain fundamentals that are the essence of the faith. Most Mormons would probably start with the centrality of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Redeemer of the world, and a commitment to living by the principles He taught. In fact, much of Mormon belief would strike other Christians as very familiar but it is not what makes Latter-day Saints distinctive. The fundamentals for Mormons also include the idea of personal inspiration or revelation from God in one’s life, the belief that the ancient Church of Jesus Christ drifted into apostasy and lost its priesthood authority, that it needed to be restored, that the agent of that Restoration was the boy Joseph Smith, and that the revelations that flowed from it included the Book of Mormon and a clear understanding of the purpose of life and our eternal destiny in the context of family. For the purpose of this article, it doesn’t matter who else outside of Mormonism believes this. Suffice it to say that most Mormons I know, whether active in the faith or not, would agree that these fundamentals are among those that define Mormons.

There has been much public debate over the past months as to whether Mormons are or should be considered part of the mainstream of American religious faith. What is often lost in the discussion is that Mormons don’t seek that mainstream status if it means losing their distinctiveness. I know of no leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who believes or teaches that Mormons should just be like everybody else or concede various doctrinal disagreements with other churches in order to be more socially acceptable.

This doesn’t mean that change within the culture isn’t possible. Neither does it mean that every Mormon has to agree with what every other Mormon might have said throughout history. There are facts such as those I’ve mentioned that are important for the core of the faith, and there are facts that are merely interesting. In fact, a belief in continuing revelation that is central to Mormon belief presupposes that change - sometimes very significant change - will happen. Our “roots” - to borrow the word from “On Faith’s question - include the belief that The Church of Jesus Christ has been restored and that the Book of Mormon is scripture. There is no way to tamper with those roots without damaging the tree.

So, unapologetically, Mormons want it both ways. Individual Mormons are already integrated seamlessly into society at every level and, like anyone else, they want to be accepted and respected as part of the social fabric. At the same time, some of their beliefs and the way that devoted Mormons live their lives within the culture of Mormonism will always lead them to be “a peculiar” people – to use the scriptural phrase - meaning distinctive rather than odd. Latter-day Saints have no intention of sacrificing that distinctiveness on the altar of social acceptance. That would be the quickest way to oblivion and, a century from now, to becoming nothing more than a footnote in history.