Posted on 11/02/2012 1:48:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Remember the good ol' days when folks in the media were fond of telling us that conservative evangelical Christians would exhibit anti-Mormon bigotry and fail to vote for Mitt Romney simply because of his religion?
Well now that conservative evangelical Christians seem by-and-large on board with the Romney/Ryan ticket liberal CNN Belief Blog contributor Stephen Prothero has turned the tables and criticized conservative evangelical leaders with, essentially, denying their faith by being pro-Romney. From his November 1 post, "My Take: Billy Graham and Ralph Reed are putting politics before God" (emphases mine):
Why are evangelicals like Billy Graham and Ralph Reed stumping for Mitt Romney? And why are roughly three-quarters of white evangelicals inclined to vote for him?
Because politics matters more to them than religion.
[...]
Until quite recently, many evangelicals saw Mormonism as a dangerous cult spreading false theology and dooming its followers to hell. In fact, only after Romney showed up for a meet and greet with Billy Graham in North Carolina earlier this month did the website of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association erase a reference to Mormonism as a “cult."
Did Mormons all of a sudden change their theology? Did Graham change his definition of a “cult”? Of course not. It just became politically expedient for Graham to declassify Mormonism, given the fact that Romney, a Mormon, was the presidential nominee of his beloved GOP.
Ralph Reed, too, is forsaking his theology for his politics, mobilizing his Atlanta-based Faith and Freedom Coalition to place voter guides in Ohio churches in the run-up to election day.
I am old enough to remember when the main purpose of Reed’s Christian Coalition and other groups on the religious right was to put born-again Christians in the Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court. And for decades those who were running those groups saw Mormons as non-Christians.
And don't get me started on Mike Huckabee, who in a recent ad says that a vote for Obama is a vote for your own damnation.
Have LDS Church members repudiated the Book of Mormon as “another testament of Jesus Christ” or their view that the Bible is the word of God only “as far as it is correctly translated”? Have they accepted the Trinity? Rejected their teaching that there are many gods?
As Ben Witherington, Albert Mohler, and many other evangelical thinkers continue to insist: no, no, and no.
I used to believe that the purpose of the religious right was to infuse American politics with Christian politicians and Christian politics. I no longer believe that. The purpose of the religious right is to use the Christian God for political purposes. Why any Christian, conservative or liberal, can say "Amen" to that is beyond me.
I am perfectly happy to see Reed stump for Romney in Ohio and Graham plump for Romney in an ad in The Wall Street Journal. Just don’t tell me they are doing so as Christians. They are doing so as shills for the GOP.
First off, the Huckabee ad, as I explained yesterday, has nothing to do with damnation or hell. But to Prothero's larger point, plenty of evangelical Christians still have strong disagreements with Mormon teaching, but they recognize that secular politics is not about selecting a national pastor but electing a president, a civil officer, not an ecclesiastic one. Secondly, Ralph Reed has long been disassociated with the Christian Coalition and a thoroughly partisan Republican activist for years, so it's ludicrous for Prothero to hit Reed for partisanship.
You'll notice that Prothero insisted that the Christian Coalition was founded "to put born-again Christians" in all three branches of the federal government. While that doubtless was and probably remains a desire of many folks within the Christian Coalition, it appears nowhere in the group's mission statement, available online and excerpted here (emphases mine):
The Coalition is a political organization, made up of pro-family Americans who care deeply about ensuring that government serves to strengthen and preserve, rather than threaten, our families and our values. To that end, we work continuously to identify, educate and mobilize Christians for effective political action.
Our Mission:
•Represent the pro-family point of view before local councils, school boards, state legislatures and Congress
•Speak out in the public arena and in the media
•Train leaders for effective social and political action
•Inform pro-family voters about timely issues and legislation
•Protest anti-Christian bigotry and defend the rights of people of faith
What's more, a review of the Christian Coalitions site finds no explicit "vote for" pitches for candidates for federal office, although it's clear the organization is friendly to Romney and conservatives and highly critical of liberal Democrats and President Obama. The Coalition does have a 2012 legislative agenda, which, among other things, wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent and repeal ObamaCare.
Prothero has a right to his opinion, but the Boston University religion scholar really needs to tighten up his argument with facts, rather than misleading innuendo.
(Nor does God put unelected leaders like Cyrus before us...If you're going to keeping making "no Christian kings" point...then unelected leaders like Cyrus can't be deemed analogous, either)
All I have to say is, even if they aren’t Christian, Romney specifically as a person has enough values when it comes to being faithful and committed to his wife and children, and has some plain-out common sense about how awful it is to make up a video excuse, or Obama lying and throwing a hissy fit over dead Americans due to his dereliction of duty as president. Obama is plain out disgusting, I wouldn’t fit Mormons in with the polytheists in the sense that they wouldn’t condone the crap done by the Baal worshippers one bit. But I wouldn’t care if our president believed in many Gods, or personally believed in whatever it is Mormons believe in the next life, so long as the guy is willing to do his job, and Romney is willing to do this, so whether or not Romney is a Christian, it doesn’t matter to me, because frankly, he’s got more honor and dignity than most of the politicians in D.C. do, and his running mate is a decent guy too, with a great enthusiasm to learn and try new ideas out. I wish Romney and Ryan the best on their campaign, and will look forward to voting for them come next Tuesday.
but the Boston University religion scholar really needs to tighten up his argument with facts, rather than misleading innuendo.
The things this country was founded on has became a haven for political whores who will do anything in their power for more power and never realizing they are just some ones puppet.
The same thing has happened to the Gospel of Jesus, it has been turned into a haven for religion whores whose goal is power and are puppets of the same master.
The politicians need to get back to God and the constitution, and the religious leaders need to get back to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Ok, just give me some reasons to vote for Obama.
(There are none; tho there’s PLENTY of reasons to vote for Virgil Goode or Tom Hoefling)
(There are none; tho there’s PLENTY of reasons to vote for Virgil Goode or Tom Hoefling)
I live in Wisconsin, a swing state. If I vote for them I'm voting for Obama.
(Not necessarily...If you vote for Romney, and Romney loses in Wisconsin, you wasted your vote...Anti-Obama-wise, it then would prove to have been no more "anti-Obama" effective vs. voting for Goode or Hoefling...In fact, for a pro-life voter who eschews abortion, if you wind up voting for a pro-abort loser...and your vote did no damage to Obama, you then have that on your conscience from that point on)
Mormons love America and its values
Mormons love liberty and freedom
Mormons revere the constitution
Mormons place family first
Mormons believe in work and self reliance
Mormons give generously and are quietly first on the scene with help wherever in the world there is a crisis
Mormons believe in higher education and as a group have passed up jews as the most highly educated.
You shouldnt vote for Romney because he believes there is a second witness to Jesus Christ??? Huh??
CNN saved this for election eve to scare evangelicals. Where is the equal time assessment of Liberation Theology?
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