October 10, 2011--Mitt Romney's "Cult"

A desperate Rick Perry, slipping in the polls, has finally played the Mormon Card.

At the heart of the Texas governor's campaign to appeal to the Republican base are his efforts to present himself as the most Christian, most evangelical of all the candidates.

An implied subtext is that love him or hate him at least he's not Mitt Romney. This means that he isn't a flip-flopper. To his credit he stood behind his attempt to enact Dream-Act-like legislation in Texas to enable children of illegal immigrants to be helped to attend college and he still think it a good idea for adolescent girls to get the HPV vaccination. But, above all, it means that he is not a Mormon.

To most evangelical Christians, Mormonism is not a religion but a cult. And in spite of its official name, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, it is not by them considered to be a Christian denomination.

To get a flavor of this, here is a selection from Got Questions?org: The Bible Has Answers!, a Website devoted, among other things, to exposing Mormons as cultists:

Mormons believe the following about God: He has not always been the Supreme Being of the universe, but attained that status through righteous living and persistent effort. They believe God the Father has a “body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s.” Though abandoned by modern Mormon leaders, Brigham Young taught that Adam actually was God and the father of Jesus Christ.

In contrast, Christians know this about God: there is only one true God, He always has existed and always will exist, and He was not created but is the Creator. He is perfect, and no one else is equal to Him. God the Father is not a man, nor was He ever. He is Spirit, and Spirit is not made of flesh and bone.

Mormons believe that there are different levels or kingdoms in the afterlife: the celestial kingdom, the terrestrial kingdom, the telestial kingdom, and outer darkness. Where mankind will end up depends on what they believe and do in this life.

In contrast, the Bible tells us that after death, we go to heaven or hell based on whether or not we had faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. To be absent from our bodies means, as believers, we are with the Lord. Unbelievers are sent to hell or the place of the dead. When Jesus comes the second time, we will receive new bodies. There will be a new heaven and new earth for believers, and unbelievers will be thrown into an everlasting lake of fire. There is no second chance for redemption after death.

Mormons believe that there are different levels or kingdoms in the afterlife: the celestial kingdom, the terrestrial kingdom, the telestial kingdom, and outer darkness. Where mankind will end up depends on what they believe and do in this life.

In contrast, the Bible tells us that after death, we go to heaven or hell based on whether or not we had faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. . . .

So you see, Romney presents issues for fundamentalist Christians--who politically are eager to see the U.S. transformed into a Christian theocracy--because he, a cultist, might become their candidate or, even more concerning, their president. They are having enough trouble dealing with Obama's alleged religion to want to think about having a Mormon in the White House. What would happen if a President Romney decided to take a few more wives or . . .

So, to play on these concerns, at the conservative Values Voters Summit last week in Washington, to set the stage for his comments, Rick Perry had the Texas pastor Robert Jeffress introduce him. The same pastor Jeffress who established a "Naughty and Nice List" where businesses are listed based on whether or not they openly celebrate Christmas, saying " "I want to do something positive to encourage businesses to acknowledge Christmas and not bow to the strident voices of a minority who object to the holiday."

Regarding Mitt Romney, here are the pastor's exact words--

Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. Even though he talks about Jesus as his lord and savior, he is not a Christian . . . Mormonism is not Christianity. Mormonism is a cult. And just because somebody talks about Jesus does not make them a believer.

Of course the Perry team would not say anything on the record about Jeffress' slander. They didn't even mention that in its early years even Christianity was considered to be a cult. All they did was stand around and wink.

After he spoke, the good pastor at least had the courage of his convictions when he said:

I think it's going to be a major factor among evangelical voters. The thing is they won't be honest and tell you that it's going to be a major factor. Most people don't want to admit--even evangelical Christians--that they have a problem with Mormonism. They think it's bigoted to say so. But what voters say to a pollster sometimes is different than what they do when they get into the privacy of the voting booth.

No matter. What does matter is getting a true Christian nominated. Then they will deal with Obama.

But just in case Romney manages to win the nomination, Jeffress is prepared to swallow hard and encourage his followers to vote for him:

I'm going to instruct, I'm going to advise people that it is much better to vote for a non-Christian who embraces biblical values [including, I suppose, that God has not always been the Supreme Being, that He needed to attain that status] than to vote for a professing Christian like Barack Obama who embraces un-biblical values.

This requires a little translation, which even his biblically-illiterate flock should be capable of understanding--

"It is better to vote for a professing Christian cult member like Romney than a professing Christian like Obama who is really a Muslim who was born in Kenya."