It is common to hear the (grossly misinformed) claim
by some Evangelical critics that Latter-day Saints only recently started to
claim to be “Christian” in recent years; however, this is not only false; it is disproven by the facts (e.g.,
see this response by Jeff Lindsay).
The following is the concluding paragraph of a book, What
Jesus Taught by Osborne J.P. Widtsoe (Deseret Book Company, 1926), p.326, which was published for the Deseret Sunday School Union, and shows that “Mormonism”
has always been a Christ-centred faith, well before the time when critics claim the Church tried to become more "ecumenical":
The stone which the builders rejected has become the Christ, the Savior of the world. He is the Keystone of our salvation, He is our Master, our Teacher, our Friend. He has restored His Gospel to us with all its blessings and privileges. Him will we follow, and His commandments will we keep; for it was He Himself who said, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”