Posted on 12/15/2011 12:53:37 PM PST by SeekAndFind
It’s official: it is no longer acceptable to call the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the fourth largest religious institution in the United States, a church with 7 million members in the US and 14 million members around the world, a “cult.”
That’s the message Newt Gingrich sent when he fired his newly-hired Iowa political director Craig Bergman after it was revealed that Bergman had proposed a national crusade against the “cult of Mormon” in an Iowa focus group last week.
Last Wednesday,The Iowa Republican reported on the focus group it organized:
“There is a national pastor who is very much on the anti-Mitt Romney bandwagon,” Craig Bergman said. “A lot of the evangelicals believe God would give us four more years of Obama just for the opportunity to expose the cult of Mormon…There’s a thousand pastors ready to do that.”
Gingrich’s campaign hired him the very next day.
Of course, Gingrich did the right thing asking Bergman to resign. But this “cult of Mormon” debacle revives persistent questions about his campaign’s organization, discipline, and judgment.
Gingrich’s recent surge into frontrunner position seems to have taken the candidate by surprise, leaving his organization scrambling to meet filing deadlines in states like Ohio and Missouri.
And this is not the first time carelessness has cost Gingrich key staff members in Iowa. In May 2011, Iowa political director Will Rogers resigned—along with the entire Iowa staff—out of sheer frustration with Gingrich’s lack of organization.
Is it possible that Gingrich could have saved himself this embarrassment by vetting Bergman a little more closely? Bergman’s track record as a political consultant in Iowa includes ties to the campaigns of Alan Keyes and a failed Tea Party rally for Sarah Palin last September. He also served as Iowa political director for Ron Paul in 2008 but was apparently not rehired.
A self-described “Rock N Roll Cowboy,” Bergman identifies as a Christian “dispensationalist,” a politically theocratic and end-times focused strand of Protestantism.
His religious beliefs may have influenced Bergman’s suggestion that the Gingrich campaign could benefit from enlisting conservative Christian pastors as surrogates to lead a crusade against Mormonism. That such a strategy was even considered worthy of discussion reflects both the continuing acceptability of anti-Mormon sentiment among the GOP grassroots and a jarring disconnect between the worldviews of conservative Christian voters and mainstream national opinion. After all, most Americans don’t want “national pastors” leading the national conversation about our next president.
But most revealing is the fact that Gingrich entrusted a key position in an important and volatile primary contest to Bergman—a passed-over political operative who talks like a tobacco-chewing member of a nineteenth century midwestern anti-Mormon mob.
“Well, Craig, I’m sure you’ve got a lot of class, and some day we may find it, but right now it’s time to play ‘You Bet Your Life.’”
Apologies to Groucho.
“Well, Craig, I’m sure you’ve got a lot of class, and some day we may find it, but right now it’s time to play ‘You Bet Your Life.’”
Apologies to Groucho.
2 days old. Not news to FR.
Yep, old story now. Newt wants to keep a positive campaign and he had to go.
Of course its a cult... anybody that knows what mormons believe knows its a cult.. but many protestant groups are cultic as well.. Mormons believe things fully as strange as some of the things Roman Catholic churches do too..
Western religion is itself quite cultic..
Course “the Bible” does say “the way” is quite narrow and few there be that find it..
Most religion seems to be a “Cargo Cult”...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult
Newt: “It’s time to stop lying about the Middle East!”
But it’s okay to disguise the truth about the LDS?
RE: Of course its a cult... anybody that knows what mormons believe knows its a cult..
Mormons have been trying for the longest time to get the general public to accept that they are just another denomination of Christianity no different from say, Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists or those who call themsevels Evangelicals. Just making an observation here.
They don’t like to be known as a CULT.
Mormons are invented Christians
When she heard the remark on the news this a.m. my wife said "Of course it's a cult". We lived in the SLC valley for four years due to business. We know as much about the religion as anyone on the outside can. We read a lot about it in order to deal with it on a personal basis. It's a cult.
But Gingrich is playing for votes. he doesn't want to ostracize an entire religious block. And I can't blame him for that. If he get's the nod, that's a large block of mostly GOP votes you want to hang on to.
Mormonism is a cult...
Mormonism is a false religion..
Mormonism has nothing to do with Christianity...
Politically Correct and Correct are not synonymous.
Mormons are invented Christians
_______________________________________
NO
Mormons started out as anti-Christian...
Joey Smith invented a whole new religion in opposition to Christianity...
In fact each of the Ten Commandments were broken as a tenet in his new religion...
Mormons are invented Christians
_______________________________________
NO
Mormons are invented Islamics
Joey Smith wanted to be the 2nd Mohammad “Joseph Smith or the Sword”
He called himself a “prophet” just as Mohammad did...
and “borrowed” from Christianity and Judaism just like Mo did..
Joey Smith was called the American Mohammad..
Whatever they believe in, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings great Christmas music.
[ They don’t like to be known as a CULT. ]
People all over the world “seek God” with whatever they have to seek him/her/it with... in their culture..
Can’t blame them really.. few it seems get out of “the Box” in the God thing..
Could be thats the way it’s supposed to be..
If God is not a doofus, I would suspect “it” knows that...
I have little amusement with a God with no “Grace”..
Apes can ape humans but humans can ape, APES.. as well..
I don’t fault Newt for this one. No serious candidate is going to get into a religious battle with 7 million potential voters. It doesn’t truly matter to the country right now whether the next President thinks that the LDS is a cult or not. It’s not really something that effects what the President is supposed to do.
The biggest problem this country has is gullible voters.
Let's name it something else. I mean, come on. It's just various green denominations from a slightly distinct publisher.
"Counterfeit" is too much of a pejorative phrase.
It also casts counterfeiters in a bad light. And we all know that in a flagging economy, we need more "money"; not less.
And you know how we all want to get along to get along...and play kum ba yah...and sing "We are the World" in Mormon Tabernacle Choir multi-part harmony.
Besides, there's probably 14 million counterfeiters now...with 52,000 of them out there to ensure they become even more multiplied. It's a worldwide movement. It's not just a mom-and-pop printing press by a guy named Joe and his 20/30/40-something bed partners.
So. If you hear anybody reference that from here-on-out highly unmentionable phrase anymore...particularly if they work for a candidate...fire 'em...because, you know...we wanna send a message of how "tolerant" we all are about things like "freedom of expression."
/S
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