Posted on 11/20/2007 4:44:55 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
DALLAS - When a pair of Mormon missionaries knocked at the door of Jerry Pierce's home in a north Dallas suburb last month, he marshaled his arguments and stood his ground.
"I look forward to encounters like that. I like to talk to them about the nature of Christ and who Jesus is," said Pierce, a staunch Southern Baptist, the biggest Protestant denomination in the United States.
Mitt Romney, a Mormon, is running into similar resistance as he tries to win over Southern Baptists and other evangelical Protestants in the race for the Republican Party's nomination for the 2008 U.S. presidential election.
Romney will need the support of this traditional Republican base if he is to take on former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is running strongly in opinion polls despite his three marriages and a pro-abortion position that is anathema to many Republicans.
The reason Romney faces difficulties with Southern Baptists, according to many experts, is his Mormon faith. Not only do many Southern Baptists regard the Mormon church as a cult, they also regard it as a competitor that is winning -- or poaching -- converts from among the evangelical flock.
"There are now more Mormons that used to be Southern Baptist than any other denomination," said Dr. Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, a 16-million strong group.
"As a consequence, Southern Baptists and other evangelicals have taught their people what Mormons believe and why it's beyond the boundaries of the Christian faith, to inoculate them against those Mormon missionaries," he told Reuters.
This is no small matter for people who take their faith as seriously as Southern Baptists do, and to counter the perceived threat they teach their members in Sunday School to be ready for that knock at the door and be wary of Mormon missionaries.
Romney himself did missionary work overseas.
Some say a Mormon in the White House would help the faith -- founded in 1830 in New York state by Joseph Smith and still struggling with the legacy of polygamy -- become more accepted. This is a dim prospect for evangelical leaders, who see themselves competing with the religion, literally, for souls.
"Many evangelicals do not want to see Mormonism mainstreamed," said Matthew Wilson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
For Romney, the stakes are high. He is casting himself as a social conservative family man opposed to abortion and gay marriage, in a bid to win over white evangelical Protestants, who account for about a third of the Republican electorate by some estimates.
A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found he only had the support of about 10 percent of white Republican and Republican-leaning evangelicals.
"There are a lot of conservative Christians who are going to look at the Mormon thing and say, 'Wait a minute, he may be conservative but he's a Mormon,' and they're not going to go there," said Steve Swofford, a pastor in the city of Rockwall, near Dallas, and former president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.
Romney has managed to make some headway with evangelicals who have yet to unite around a single Republican candidate.
He has received support from politically active evangelical leaders such as Paul Weyrich and there is a small group of bloggers called "Evangelicals for Mitt."
On the other hand, there is no group called "Mormons for Mitt" and Romney plays down his faith.
Many Americans associate Mormonism with polygamy, once a central tenet but now practiced by only about 40,000 renegades. One of those renegades, polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, was sentenced to 10 years to life on November 20 for forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry her cousin.
Evangelical Protestants tend to be more aware than most that the Mormon church now opposes polygamy, but they have other bones of contention, such as Mormon efforts to recruit their members.
NUMBERS AND GROWTH
There is no hard data -- the Mormon church does not crunch numbers on the previous faiths of its converts -- but there is evidence pointing to Mormon inroads among Southern Baptists.
The Mormon faith is growing faster than almost any other. In 1963, its membership stood at two million but now is close to 13 million with over half outside of the United States.
"The church of course is growing everywhere, now somewhat faster overseas than in America. But we do not as a matter of policy attack other churches," said Mike Otterson, a spokesman for the Mormon church in Salt Lake City.
In America some of its fastest growth has been in Southern Baptist strongholds, notably the South, according to data provided by the Mormon church.
In the United States overall its membership grew by 3.2 percent from 2004 to 2006. But in 13 states of the South its numbers grew over the same period by 5.3 percent.
Evangelical soil can be fertile ground for Mormon growth.
Mormons and Southern Baptists take similar conservative stances on social issues and tend to vote Republican, so their cultural and political outlooks are not really in conflict.
"Some Southern Baptists will live near Mormon communities functioning at their best, where they will see in practice the kind of family-oriented, sober, diligent, and disciplined lives that Southern Baptists preach but do not always display," said Mark Noll of the University of Notre Dame.
Noll, a leading evangelical historian, also said the theological underpinnings of the faiths had some similarities.
"Southern Baptists maintain a vigorous doctrine of divine revelation. That latter belief is not too far from the Mormon belief that God spoke to and through Joseph Smith," he said.
That pig wont fly.It is not his religion, its his rino hide.
Exactly. The Christians I know have no problem with his religion. It’s his faux-RINO ways, plain and simple.
If it keeps going, what would mean it couldn't continue to Mo-hammed, or Joe Smith?
It could go smoothly or not so smoothly. It depends on how the GOP, Romney, his campaign, and how his family handles and reacts to it all, IF he gets the nomination. Obviously, the wierdoes will come out, and even legitimate rational people will come out with opposition. The Dems will have to take advantage of some of that.
What is intriguing is pitting the Romney Family against Klinton. Klinton really doesn’t have a family. America would see two very different families. This is something the GOP is going to consider IF, for example, it comes down to Romney and Rudy. My fear is that the GOP will be so scared of Klinton that it will choose Rudy.
The way I sees it, his Mormonism is his second religion, his first religion is flipfloppertarianism and THAT is the religion I have big problem with.
I will not vote for a cult member to be the leader of the most powerful nation on earth. I will vote for whoever the opposition candidate is if this cultist gets on the ballot.
Yeppers.
Why would they tell you?
“is his Mormon faith. Not only do many Southern Baptists regard the Mormon church as a cult,”
It is a cult..but pick your Election Day 2008 cult, Cult Romney, or cult Hitlery!!
If Romney gets the Republican nomination he has to win Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. If he wins South Carolina it will go the same way the speculation that a divorced man,(Reagan) could not win the votes of Southern Baptists. I don't know how many times the media printed that Reagan was divorced, and because he was divorced he would have a hard time winning in the South especially against a born religious Southerner named Jimmy Carter.
Once Reagan won South Carolina that speculation ceased. The same will happen for Romney if he wins South Carolina.
Southern Baptists are all sinners; but, none of them are Mormon.
I talk with many of my friends about politics. Its something we enjoy doing.
“...once one has accepted that prophecy is possible after the end of the Old Testament.”
Quite a Jesuitical banana peel there, as we Catholics say.
The advent, ministry, and sacrifice of Jesus was the fulfillment and completion of the Old Testament prophecies which foretold the Messiah, as professed by we Christians.
The New Testament describes all of the above. After that, that’s all there is, there isn’t any more.
OBTW, for those who believe otherwise, I give you fourteen centuries of the murderous rampages of the followers of Mohammed who study the Koran.
Won’t even mention believers in the Book of Mormon. They don’t kill those who either refuse to convert or leave after converting. Everyone here says Mormons whom they know are the nicest people. I fully agree.
Wonder how Jews, Muslim and Atheists would fare [assuming practicing Catholics are considered Christians]?
We are all sinners.
You are exactly right...it has nothing to do with his religion. I think Romney is just another RINO who will change his positions as quickly as he decided to announce that he was conservative.
Good analysis.
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