Why should the Christian Right listen to him again?
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.
This Evangelical Christian Conservative is obeying God and speaking out for TRUTH........
I will proudly cast my vote for ROMNEY /RYAN on Tuesday.
I am NOT voting on his faith. I don’t agree with his faith.
I AM VOTING for his policies. The policies I don’t agree with we will fight for later.
IF OBAMA wins again, Christianity will be forced to go underground!!
When it comes to voting for a Mormon or Muslim or a Black Theologic racist Christian or whatever the hell Obama is, I go with the Mormon. Every time.
Gee don’t these guy’s believe in diversity???? LMAO. In everything except if you disagree with them.
I vote Mormon everytime because they have American values.
In a choice between a mormon and a gay muslim marxist, go with the mormon.
CNN religion blogger is NOT even a Christian. OK you may be asking how I know this? Truth is I do not even know who he or she is, but I just KNOW thhat they are NOT Christian, if they were they would not be “a cnn blogger”
Just as I KNOW that the WashPost religion editor whatever is NOT a Christian.
Christians are NOT capable of supporting a party or candidates that want the Name of Jesus removed from classroom public/ square etc, or that want homosexuality taught to children and who support abortion in any way shape or form
So yes I have NO idea who the cnn person is, but yes I know that if they were Christian they would have nothing to do with CNN or Democrats
Man, are these people desperate.
PING!
Why should the Christian Right listen to him again?
Hey Prothero:
People aren’t voting for Mormonism, dumbs***. They’re voting for the [viable] candidate more likely to preserve religious freedoms and curtail government attacks thereupon.
In other words, they ARE voting in the interest of their religion.
I admire Benjamin Franklin. But he was a Deist. Does that mean I’m going to Hell because Deism doesn’t mesh with my personal beliefs? I also admire the work of the Dalai Lama, but WAIT! He’s not Christian. Does that make me a Tibetan Bhuddist shill too?
Ugh.
This was predictable. I am not surprised they are playing the “religion card” the weekend before the election. Won’t do any good.
My grandfather up until the time he died hated mormons. He would always tell us the story of our relatives that died in the “Buchanan’s Blunder” at Mormon hands. Don’t think this has as much legs as it would have if Obama used faith as a centerpiece, but after sweeping his own under the rug to win 2008 it is a little late to be reviving it now.
This guy’s logic seems to be that you have to become a Mormon if Romney is president. WTH?
You can’t be a CNN contributor or employee and be a Christian. So what does this guy really mean?
Remember how hot under the collar Ted Turner got when he saw CNN employees with ash on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday years ago?
Reality: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Asso. left itself wide open to this attack from all sides by politically -- expedience-wise -- removing all cult references from its Web site immediately after Romney's visit to Billy Graham.
Hence, Romney, for the Mormon church PR arm, becomes the "ambassador" on behalf of Mormonism to Christianity to get them to remove Mormonism as "cult" status not just Billy Graham-wise...but eventually ALL of Christendom...
Politics trumping truth...
...A disgrace to Christianity...
Well, I've addressed this in my tagline of late:
Gee...I simply didn't know that Mitt Romney pretended to be a "god in embryo" only on Sundays!!!!
Ted is bipolar so what he thought he saw was most likely different from reality. Good advice here ~ never assume you understand what bipolar people mean ~
choice, morman or muslim, loves american, hates america and is marx...JFK as a catholic went through religious bigotry also...we aren’t choosing a pastor or priest but a president..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.