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April 16, 2007

Ooohhh... Romney is a CULTIST!!

(PK reader Spyder emailed this to the crew here.)

Frank Pastore writing at TownHall.com has his priorities straight and in full public view. At issue is the Mitt Romney candidacy for the presidency. Or rather the fact that Romney is a cultist.

Though I could vote for Romney, my ballot should not be seen as an endorsement of Mor-monism. Conservative Mormons are among the finest people I've ever met, and they are critical allies in the culture war. I appreciate their contribution to advancing our shared values. Yet as we make common cause, I should not be asked or feel pressured to compromise, weaken, or di-lute my theology. Allies need not obfuscate distinctives. We can unite politically and socially to advance our cause, but we must not blur the lines between our distinct religions.

Just as Christians and Jews, by definition, cannot ignore their differences over the resurrec-tion and the New Testament, so too Christians and Mormons cannot ignore the differences be-tween the Bible and the three books of Mormonism: the Book of Mormon, Doctrines and Cove-nants, and the Pearl of Great Price.

Yet many Mormons in recent years have taken to calling themselves Christians, and a grow-ing number of Christians are willing to speak of Mormonism as something akin to another Chris-tian denomination. But, Mormonism is not a Christian denomination, nor is it merely "a non-Christian religion." To be theologically precise, though perhaps politically incorrect, Mormonism is a cult of Christianity (www.apologeticsindex.org/c09a01.html) – a group that claims to Chris-tian while denying one or more central doctrines of the Christian faith.

What difference does it make if Mormonism is a cult if, as Pastore claims, he could vote for Romney? Either it matters or it doesn't.

What Pastore has done here is to very clearly spell out what is most important to the religious right and why they have stuck by morally and ethically challenged Republicans like Tom DeLay and our own Dubya.

Understand that all of the rhetoric about policy positions by this faction of the far right is just that... rhetoric. If you talk like they do and belong to the "correct" church then nothing else really matters.

Posted by Kevin at April 16, 2007 12:56 PM