The SBC, the nation's largest Protestant Christian denomination, regards as heresy the Mormon belief that Smith was a prophet and that the Bible was not the final word of God. And it posts essays on its Web site saying Mormonism is a non-Christian cult.
The faith's early history was marked by tension and brutal forced exiles, sparked in part by the practice of polygamy -- having multiple spouses -- by some church members. After Smith was arrested in Nauvoo, Illinois, a mob killed him and drove off his followers. The Mormons fled west, ultimately settling in Utah in 1847.
Polygamy fed repeated conflicts with the federal government until the church banned the practice worldwide in 1904. The church has flourished in recent years and now claims 13 million members worldwide.
Romney's candidacy revived old lines of attack and mockery of some of the church's unusual practices, such as secret ceremonies, the wearing of special undergarments, and the baptizing the dead in the belief that it will help them join family members in heaven.
Some Evangelicals Brand Romney's Mormon Faith 'Un-Christian'
Among the most active critics were practitioners of evangelical Christian "apologetics" -- speakers and writers who make their mission to actively defend their faith. For some of them, that involves criticizing Mormonism. At the Life Point Bible Church in Quincy, Illinois last month, evangelical apologist Rocky Hulse told 35 members that Romney should not be considered a Christian.
Hulse, himself a former Mormon, told the group that Mormons believe in more than one god and that they believe God impregnated Mary in the normal fashion, not by granting her a virgin birth. The audience sat rapt.
Scott Gordon, president of the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, a Mormon group, says Hulse is wrong on the facts. Mormons pray to one God, he says, and believe, like most Christians, that Mary was a virgin. Gordon went on talk-radio shows to rebut claims of other apologists.
Huckabee Remark Sparks Anger Among Mormons -- and a Decision to Fight Back
In December, while campaigning for the Iowa caucuses, Republican candidate Mike Huckabee asked a magazine reporter: "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?" Huckabee is an ordained Southern Baptist minister who stepped down from the pulpit in 1992 to run for governor of Arkansas to succeed Bill Clinton, who won the White House that year.
Mormon church leaders, who repeatedly asserted the church's neutrality in elections, had tried to keep out of the political fray. But church spokesman Michael Otterson says they couldn't ignore Huckabee's comment. Members said it implied that they were devil worshipers. Phones were ringing off the hook at church headquarters in Salt Lake City.
"Jesus Christ and Lucifer are indeed offspring of our Heavenly Father and, therefore, spirit brothers" from a pre-existing world, the church said in a statement. "Christ was the only begotten in the flesh."
"I'm not impugning the motives of a political candidate," Otterson said. "But the result of the question was to confuse the situation, not to enlighten." Huckabee swiftly apologized to Romney for the comment. He handily won the Iowa caucuses, helped by huge numbers of evangelicals.
(With Romney now out of the race, Huckabee himself may face voter opposition for his religious views. The January Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showed that 45 percent of Americans have concerns about an evangelical Christian as president.)
Soon, the Mormon Church began posting its videos on YouTube -- twenty-two so far. One clip, for example, showed Ballard, the church apostle, answering the question "Are Mormons Christian?" It has drawn 26,000 views. By contrast, a cartoon clip from "The God Makers," a 1980s film that mocks Mormon beliefs, has been viewed 945,000 times.
Ballard's call for more new-media activism inspired dozens of new Web sites. On Politicalds.com, several Mormons of different political views write about the presidential race. Founder Mike Rogan, of Chandler, Arizona, says he started the blog "to combat some specific misconceptions about Mormons," including that all Mormons are "conservatives with a mindless 'sheep' mentality."
Mormons Are New Testament Christians, not Creedal Christians
Mormons are not Creedal Christians.However, they do believe in the Jesus Christ of the New Testament:
The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) is often accused by Evangelical pastors of not believing in Christ and, therefore, not being a Christian religion. This article http://mormonsarechristian.blogspot.com/ helps to clarify such misconceptions by examining early Christianity's comprehension of baptism, the Godhead, the deity of Jesus Christ and His Atonement.The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) adheres more closely to First Century Christianity and the New Testament than any other denomination.For example, Harper’s Bible Dictionary entry on the Trinity says “the formal doctrine of the Trinity as it was defined by the great church councils of the fourth and fifth centuries is not to be found in the New Testament.”
One Baptist blogger stated“99 percent of the members of his Baptist church believe in the Mormon (and Early Christian) view of the Trinity.It is the preachers who insist on the Nicene Creed definition.”It seems to me the reason the pastors denigrate the Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) is to protect their flock (and their livelihood).
by
Bot (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 6 comments)
on Friday, February 15, 2008 at 12:52:29 PM
We should be biased about religion. Religions can be extremely dangerous. The vaunted Neocons that engineered us into 911 and the Iraq war were subversive Zionist Jews (amongst other things).
If an individual indicates that he is basically secular with religious trappings, I don't mind, because I know that he isn't subversive with subversive agendas. Romney, Hucklebee and other religionists can't be trusted any more than the Rev. Moon.
Of course hustling and nationalism are religions too. In the name of "tolerance", let's not let another flock of crooks and traitors in.
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John Hanks (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 869 comments)
on Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 8:53:29 AM
Any political party is more dangerous to freedom than any religion, including extreme religions like Muslims. People can always be organized as factions in opposition to religion, but historically they cannot be organized against political parties that take over governments. In fact, the worst atrocities committed in the history of the world were organized and enacted by political parties which arose in opposition to religions, the Nazi Party in their attempt to exterminate the Jews and the Communist Party in their attempt to destroy all religion.
It should not surprise us that political parties in this country have decided to turn their attention toward a religion. As an independent voter, I view political parties as the "self-created societies" that George Washington said they were, and wielders of "artificial authority", which President Washington said would eventually be turned against freedom, in this case, freedom of religion.
The two major parties which generated this outbreak of hatred are not the government of the United States. They are private organizations which say they are the government of the United States and which distribute propaganda in whatever direction they perceive will increase their power and control of the people, in exactly the same way the Nazi Party used propaganda to increase the power of the Nazi Party. In Germany it was hatred of the Jews that was used to unify the Germans; in America the two major parties are using hatred of Mormons to unify party faction here. Party members tend to be emotionally unstable people who have no real beliefs of their own, but will blindly follow where party propaganda leads them. Their entire political philosophy is based on belonging to a large group, which necessarily is opposed by another large group, not on determination of what is right or wrong.
If we examine what political parties are, then it is inherently wrong to support them, just as President Washington cautioned in 1792. The fact that something wrong is popular does not make it right. That being the case, the best thing to do in American politics is to register independent and work through the corrupt politics of our day to establish free elections right here in the United States. I know this will seem like a radical idea to some of our political party friends who are busy imposing their interpretation of free elections by military force on other parts of the world.
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Robert Winn (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 24 comments)
on Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 7:54:17 PM
