Article VI Blog

I am on vacation and not supposed to be posting, but I ran into a piece that I feel like it really is my job to respond to and this post just sort of blossomed from there. Romney and the religion issue is beginning to complicate. Recent polling data may indicate his problem is as much, or even more, from the left than from the evangelical right. (The Salt Lake Trib has gotten a look at the breakouts.) I ran across this post which is a classic example of how left opposition to Romney's faith might look. Interesting as this development is, it is not what has caused me to break my hiatus … … This is –a post from clearly devoted creedal Christian people about why they cannot possibly support a Romney candidacy. The post contains not a single word about policy, issues, campaigns, elections, parties, planks, or anything else that contributes to the actual governing of the country. Here is the money quote:

None of this is biblical and I consider it to be an apostate religion. I know the Mormons are fine, upstanding citizens of this country, but I cannot support a man who is a member of a cult and doesn’t know it. I believe our country has been blessed because of our Judeo/Christian beliefs that there is One God. Our God is not flesh and bones, Satan is not His son but is a fallen angel, Jesus was conceived by Mary through the Holy Spirit in what we call the Immaculate Conception. Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus and remained so until after His birth. These are some of the reasons I cannot support this man for public office–especially the most important office in our land. I want to keep God’s blessings on our country and knowing what I do know about the Mormon faith I fail to see how God would not be displeased with such a decision by His creation.

I really hate to break it to my creedal Christian brethren/sistren here, but Romney, or any other hypothetical Mormon president, would hardly be the first "apostate" to hold office and yet our nation has been and continues to be blessed beyond all others. From Jefferson's Universalist faith, to Eisenhower's Jehovah's Witness background, to Kennedy's rather hedonistic form of Catholicism, Presidents whom fundamentalist Christians (such as those who wrote the above post) would consider apostate are numerous. Given that fact, and despite their claims to the contrary, can their objections to a Mormon candidate be other than bigoted? I also find the reference to "Judeo/Christian beliefs" fascinating. Theologically, Judaism and Christianity are almost as diverse and Christianity and Mormonism, what they hold in common is an ethical/value structure. Current CJCLDS adherents hold that very same ethical/value structure. Why would a logical God withhold blessing because of one set of theological disagreements, but not do so because of another? Despite the writers' claim to a lack of bigotry, I cannot find anything in this post that is other than pure prejudice. The entire argument is based on the cultic status mainstream and evangelical Christians grant to the Mormon faith. I don't like the term "cult" much, in the early days of the church, Christianity was a Jewish "cult" - the term is used as a perjorative and does not properly examine the genuine issues that confront differing faiths, and in this instance political decisions. All this said, people are going to think what they want and vote as they see fit, but I do think it important that when sloppy thinking rears its head in print, we address it and correct it. If Romney's faith lead him to stances on issue with which I had major disagreement, then I would need to oppose him - but I see no evidence of that here. Which brings me back full circle to opposition from the left to a Mormon candidate BECAUSE of that candidate's stances on issues, and because their religion supports and informs those stances. As conservatives we spend a lot of time and energy decrying the irreligious left and their stances on particularly social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage - and we accuse them of religious prejudice! And yet their bias against religion is based on achieving their political aims - right wing evangelical bias against a Mormon is based solely on religion, for we share the same politcal aims. Is that not somehow an even more heinous form of prejudice than what is practiced by the left? What is the goal of the religious right? Politically, I think it is to have a social environment where our religious beliefs can flourish, and we can have the freedom to spread those beliefs as far as we can. When we have a bias against a particular religion solely on the basis of that religion's belief, are we not creating the same stifling effect we accuse the left of creating? Is that smart?

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