The Wrong Kind Of Religious

The New Republic: Despite His Efforts, Romney's Mormonism Always Held Back His Campaign

(The New Republic)  This column was written by Peter Keating.

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Mitt Romney suspended his presidential campaign yesterday, after his poor showing on Super Tuesday made a victory over John McCain all but mathematically impossible. As much as McCain and Mike Huckabee loathe Mitt, it's been easy to imagine them conspiring to deliver the killing stroke. Conventional wisdom says Huckabee won five southern states outright and helped turn others, such as Missouri, to McCain by taking conservative votes away from Romney.

But Romney probably wasn't going to earn those ballots anyway. Southern states have GOP primary electorates dominated by evangelical Christians, specifically by Southern Baptists. And many of those Southern Baptists are committed to blocking the ascension of a Mormon to the presidency.

For the conservative pundits backing Romney who missed this story, ideology trumps theology. But for many evangelicals, it's the other way around. Southern Baptists and Mormons are not only two of the four largest religious denominations in the country, they are the most aggressive of American missionary faiths, and have been on a collision course for generations.

Protestant leaders have been objecting to various tenets of Mormonism for 175 years, but Southern Baptists grew especially alarmed when Mormon churches moved into Georgia and Texas in the 1980s. Since then, the Southern Baptist Convention has moved aggressively to warn its members about the "dangers" of the Mormon faith, characterizing Mormonism as a cult in books and teaching kits it has offered to its members. As Columbia doctoral student Neil J. Young put it, "Probably no other organization in the nation has played a bigger role in perpetuating the idea that Mormonism is a cult than the Southern Baptist Convention."

In 1998, the Southen Baptists held their annual convention in Salt Lake City, opposing the "cult" head-on. As one minister called Mormonism "counterfeit Christianity" and the convention passed a resolution stipulating "biblical revelation [as opposed to, say, the Book of Mormon] as the sole source of saving truth," 3,000 Baptist volunteers went knocking on doors in the heart of the world capital of Mormonism, attempting to evangelize local residents.

Something else happened at that 1998 confab: The governor of Arkansas and former president of the Arkansas Baptist Convention, a fellow named Mike Huckabee, addressed the Pastors' Conference, a two-day meeting preceding the actual convention. "I got into politics," Huckabee told his fellow Baptist ministers, "because I knew government didn't have the real answers, that the real answers lie in accepting Jesus Christ into our lives." Reporters attending the Pastors' Conference found copies of Huckabee's most recent book, Kids Who Kill: Confronting our Culture of Violence, in the press room. They also got a book called Mormonism Unmasked.

The Baptists' propaganda efforts have been successful. In November 2006, 53 percent of evangelical Christians (compared with 43 percent of all Americans) told a Rasmussen survey they would never even consider voting for a Mormon presidential candidate. Last December, the Pew Research Center found that of white evangelicals who attend church regularly, 52 percent believe Mormonism is not Christian.

Maybe because the kind of Republicans Romney hung out with at Bain Capital and the Olympics don't share this outlook (62 percent of white mainline Protestants told Pew they think Mormonism is Christian), he rather blithely dismissed the views underlying these numbers. But they cropped up almost from the beginning of the presidential campaign. Last August, for example, in advance of the Iowa straw poll, a group called U.S. Christians for Truth circulated a flyer that stated: "We strongly believe that Jesus Christ, if he were alive in the flesh in this time and voted, would NEVER vote for Mitt Romney under any circumstances. ... Mitt Romney represents Mormonism which is counterfeit Christianity, a cult."

On December 5, the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board launched a three-part website series called "Is Mormonism Christian?" Among the highlights of the second installment: "Deceived or deceiver? Either way, it seems pretty clear that Joseph Smith was not a prophet of God. Accordingly, despite the fact that the Mormon church embraces a few beliefs in line with biblical Christianity it is demonstrably a false religion." The following day, the series declared, "Mormonism is a theological cult." And in addressing the question of Romney's candidacy, it stated that while his issue positions could be what matter most, "others may argue, a Mormon president would provide Mormonism with visibility beyond anything it has had up to now and consequently give a boost to Mormon missionary efforts."

Less than a week later, The New York Times Magazine quoted Huckabee as saying he didn't know much about Mormonism and asking, "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?" Huckabee later said he was speaking out of unfamiliarity, with no harm intended. Sure he was. Just like the commenters on Huckabee's website who slammed Mormonism for weeks afterward were, too.

By the end of 2007, some Mormons were wondering if the cross that famously appeared in the window of Huckabee's Christmas ad was directed specifically against their faith, which focuses more on Jesus' rising than his death. Various churches in South Carolina devoted Christmas-season sermons to anti-Mormon lectures. Evangelicals helped get out the vote for Huckabee in Michigan. "If we turned out every evangelical Christian on election day, Gov. Huckabee would get six times as many votes as Romney!" Huckabee supporter Gary Glenn wrote in an e-mail on January 6. Glenn listed the churches the campaign needed to mobilize: "Assembly of God, Baptist, Church of God, Nazarenes, Lutheran, non-denominational, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Reformed, Word of Faith." And which to avoid: Catholics and Mormons, who were lumped together with "any church you know to be liberal on issues such as abortion and protecting traditional marriage."

Obviously, there are reasons beyond faith for the failure of Romney's campaign. The guy's a puling phony, and McCain and Huckabee are both funnier and better under pressure. But maybe Romney's campaign was doomed for the simple reason that as he exposed his Mormonism to a greater number of right-wing Christians, he branded himself as unacceptably impure, a priori, to a critically large subset of them. And maybe the reason Romney got so little bang for his advertising buck is because the cost of luring evangelicals to support a Mormon - of conversion, if you will - is essentially infinite.

Going back at least to the Clinton years, politics in America has been realigning across rather than along denominational lines. We are increasingly divided as seculars vs. traditionalists, and these days, conservative Catholics often believe they have more in common with conservative Protestants than with casual Catholics. Keeping these religion-first voters in lockstep at the polls has been an important part of Republican strategy. And few groups have proven as reliably willing to vote for ideological allies outside of their faith as Mormons, who have been fanatically Republican for decades.

But sometimes denomination still matters. Southern Baptists were always ready to draw the line at supporting a Mormon candidate for President. Their traditions say Mormons are false Christians. The Internet gives them a way to spread their teachings and attacks. And the Huckabee campaign provided evangelicals who wanted to stop Mitt Romney a way to cast their vote for a Southern Baptist.

Romney probably should have cast himself as the take-charge northern governor he is, as many commentators have suggested. Among Southern Baptists who see him as antichristian, Romney's effort to become the candidate of the religious right never had a chance.

[cyndu]

Mormonism is nothing like Islam. Mormonism has a single leader that sets doctrine, is revelation and authority based not book based, and does not have a paid or supported ministry.

Evangelicals and bible-based Christians are far more like Islam. Both Ismal and Evangelicals are based around a book, are bottom-up grass root groups formed around a particular preacher, has not single authority that can declare radicals to be outside the religion, and has paid support of the preachers.

The match between Islam and evangelical Christianity is stunning.

[elkc]

If anything (although I did not support Romney for President) the message is clear...If left up to the evangelical and religious extremist there will be no Freedom of Religion! Had Romney, at least been Methodist, he would have had the backing of more "Self Proclaimed Christians" than he did! He also would still be in the contention for President. Romney''s fall is a cry out that the "Christian Right''s Movement" is to eradicate any religion in the United States, that is not in direct agreement with hate mongering preaching%u2019s of money grubbing religions! The man was not evaluated on his abilities to lead, but was judged up on how he chose to worship God. One Nation, One Religion, One Privileged Group beneath God!

[it_oldtimer]

Quote: "In just one example of the practices that set Mormons apart, LDS church founder Joseph Smith revised %u2014 and in his view corrected %u2014 parts of the Bible."

Christians (particularly evangelical Christians) firmly believe that the Bible is literally the divinely inspired Word of God, and that any form of "biblical revision" is inherently heretical and blasphemous.

From my perspective as a non-religious person, Mormonism seems to have much more in common with Islam than it does with "mainstream" Christianity.

Islam also acknowledges Jesus'' existence - up to a point - but then goes on to claim that since Christ''s departure from the scene, new spiritual directions have been supplied to us all by a new prophet sent by God, and that this later prophet''s claims are now the only truly legitimate source of the current "complete" message of God.

Islam has it''s prophet Mohammad, and the Mormons have their prophet Joseph Smith - and the evangelical Christians clearly do not believe in either of these "new prophets" or in their respective biblical "revisions".

Mormonism is obviously no more "Christian" than Islam is, when you get right down to it.

[wasntmyvote]

Pardon if I don''t feel sorry for Mitt or the Mormons. You can''t be elected dog catcher in Utah if you aren''t a Mormon. When Utah elects a Catholic governor I''ll consider voting for a Mormon president.

[guysdigdirt]

So Mormons don''''t believe that non Mormons go straight to hell. Wouldn''''t you say that is an accurate statement.
Posted by SenorBahen

If you are saying Mormons believe non-mormons will go straight to hell... you are wrong. Mormons do not believe non-mormons will go straight to hell, or to hell at all for that matter. That is not up to the mormons, and they do not belive it is.

[guysdigdirt]

investigated Mormonism when Romney appeared. I wanted to know just how crazy he might be. What I found amazed me; Mormonism seems to have more in common with Alice In Wonderland''''s Through The Looking Glass than with any religion that I''''m familiar with.

I don''''t want to see an evangelical fundamentalist like Huckabee elected either, but Romney seems even worse. Perhaps it''''s just a matter of being more comfortable with the devil that you know than with the devil you don''''t, but I''''d be NO more inclined to vote for a Mormon than I would a Scientologist.

That anybody could embrace such a strange set of beliefs tells me all that I need to know about their fundamental level of sanity, and thus, their suitability for high public office.
Posted by IT_Oldtimer

Tell us where and how you did your research. Did you find all your education at the anti-mormon web-sites or did you talk to a number of them and find out the truth of what they believe?

[guysdigdirt]

What about the family planning clinic bombings and murders of doctors who perform abortions? What about the hit lists posted on the internet, encouraging other wackos to do the same? What about the good Christian KKK killing black people? What about that good Christian Timothy McVeigh? (etc., etc.)

Christianity is the single most violent, bloody religion of all time!
Posted by MyIDonCBS

Just because one commits a crime and belongs to a religion does not mean the religion condones that crime.

You are expressing your views but I do not assume the company you work for agrees with your views. How is religion any different?

[myidoncbs]

runningralph says "that no one has been machine gun ambushed, suicide bombed, or poison gassed over this huge religious conflict in the US."

Not so! What about the family planning clinic bombings and murders of doctors who perform abortions? What about the hit lists posted on the internet, encouraging other wackos to do the same? What about the good Christian KKK killing black people? What about that good Christian Timothy McVeigh? (etc., etc.)

As more and more "Christian" denominations adopt the G.I. Joe version of Jesus (the guy that''s going to lead them all to destroy, i.e., murder, all of the Muslims and other "unbelievers" in Armageddon), I expect we''re going to see more violence from the "Christians" in this country. If they ever do manage to kill all the Muslims, Jews, atheists, etc., next they will turn their attention to killing one another over trifling little differences in scriptural interpretation. It''s a long and bloody path, and they''ve already taken the first steps. (Not to mention their history of doing the same for thousands of years throughout europe, africa and the middle east!)

Christianity is the single most violent, bloody religion of all time!

[neobrian-2009]

The GOP IS EVIL as We Know it Today !
The Present day GOP is a VERY EVIL SECT ,..led by Their King W...Greed,Oil,Perversion,..The G O P
Friends Don`t let friends vote republiCon !

[rowdytexan2]

I can''t understand why so many keep bringing religion into the election process. The war we are waging is about greed and corruption. Is it because the ones commiting it CLAIM to be Christians that hold dear family values, when in fact they are just thieving bastwards???

[billpl-2009]

"The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) adheres more closely to First Century Christianity and the New Testament than any other denomination.....blah, blah.."
Posted by Bot14

According to your logic, if you''re truly Christians, it would make FLDS?.... truly Mormons.
BETTER Mormons at that.

FREE Warren Jeffs!!!!!!


not

[runningralph]

IOWEIGN,
You''ll have to explain that one to me, pal. All I can see going on between Islamic churches is guerilla warfare. But it''s all good, whatever makes them happy.

[ioweign]

The posts on this article have been surprisingly easy going. The nastiest as usual coming from atheist leftists. I want to point out that no one has been machine gun ambushed, suicide bombed, or poison gassed over this huge religious conflict in the US. Islamic countries should take note and try to emulate the United States of America.

Posted by runningralph at 06:59 AM : Feb 09, 2008



They have been for sometime...

[runningralph]

The posts on this article have been surprisingly easy going. The nastiest as usual coming from atheist leftists. I want to point out that no one has been machine gun ambushed, suicide bombed, or poison gassed over this huge religious conflict in the US. Islamic countries should take note and try to emulate the United States of America.

[it_oldtimer]

The nature of a candidate''s religious beliefs, as well as just how fanatical they actually are about them, is VERY important to me as a non-religious person who is politically active.

To me, all religious people are suspect, and potentially dangerous. I think they all suffer from an insidious form of mutually supportive mass-delusion. To me, they''re all a bit crazy, to one degree or another.

There are "degrees" of religious wackiness to be considered though: a candidate who only attends church occasionally, and who speaks very seldom (or not at all) about their religious convictions seems far less threatening than one who''s constantly bringing up their religious beliefs in support of their political agenda.

I investigated Mormonism when Romney appeared. I wanted to know just how crazy he might be. What I found amazed me; Mormonism seems to have more in common with Alice In Wonderland''s Through The Looking Glass than with any religion that I''m familiar with.

I don''t want to see an evangelical fundamentalist like Huckabee elected either, but Romney seems even worse. Perhaps it''s just a matter of being more comfortable with the devil that you know than with the devil you don''t, but I''d be NO more inclined to vote for a Mormon than I would a Scientologist.

That anybody could embrace such a strange set of beliefs tells me all that I need to know about their fundamental level of sanity, and thus, their suitability for high public office.

[moneyball90]

This article points out something that I recall talking about when Mitt announced his intentions to run for president. People simply don''t know enough about the Mormon church. This could have been overcome, but it would have to be someone like Harry Reid on the left side of the isle. Dems just don''t care as much and seem to be more accepting - more inclusive than exclusive IMO.

I like how the article uses the word "conversion" to describe how Romeny was trying to get evangelicals on his side - it really is that difficult to change a negative view point from a given culture.

It actually would have been very interesting to see Reid run for President as a dem b/c then the message would be very clear - he''s not conservative and is a Mormon, let''s get out and vote.

[tbweb]

Mitt Romney lost because he kept changing his positions, he was a moving target! As soon as he was attacked on an issue he was on your side wondering what you were talking about! lol What was really hilarious was his campaign signs near the end touting "Change", it looks like Obama''s! Amazing, simply amazing. Will the real Mitt Romney please stand up!

[bibleprophecy_ndbpsa]

The Church within EVERY Denomination -

The church is within every denomination throughout the entire world.

We who are in Christ Jesus have become a %u201Cnew%u201D creature (Gal.6:15, 2 Cor.5:17). We have BECOME the church of God (1 Cor.10:32, 1 Cor.1:2, 1 Cor.15:9, Gal.1:13), Jesus%u2019 living body (Col.1:24).

No matter which denomination one attends, the living body of Christ is there.


Patricia (ndbpsa )) Bible Prophecy on the Web
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BibleProphecy

[lloydbest1]

I suppose at bottom all religions are cults. Even the one which worships the "Flying Spaghetti Monster". I''m not sure just what it is that compels "believers" to insist that their creed and theirs alone has the sole monopoly on truth. Even atheists are not immune...just read what some of them write on these threads. But whatever it is, it is also divisive, fragmentary and costly - both in terms of human lives and good will. Far more humans have died over which god to believe than whether one should believe in a god or not. And far, far more have died than in all secular causes combined.
Not every believer does this, of course. There are some of every faith that validate another''s sincerity in holding to a one that is different from their own, so such acceptance is possible.
Why Baptists and Mormons are at each other''s throats, I don''t know. I don''t care. I wish it would stop.

[nativewoman]

"their" not "there".