The Texan pastor Robert Jeffress caused quite a ruction last week with his endorsement of Rick Perry for the GOP nod. Mr. Jeffress said that he thought all good Christians should prefer a Christian as their president, and that in his opinion this disqualified Mitt Romney — because the “cult” of Mormonism is something other than real Christianity.
These entertaining remarks seemed to bother just about everybody, as far as I can tell (except other evangelical Christians, of course.) Not me, though: I like a man who comes right out and says what he thinks, and I thought Pastor Jeffress was making perfectly good sense. Why wouldn’t a Christian like him want a Christian president? Why wouldn’t an evangelical Baptist think Mormonism is a bizarre perversion of Christianity? (It certainly seems that way to me, and I’m just a Hell-bound, godless heathen.)
Anyway, the Washington Post has lent Mr. Jeffress its pulpit, and he has responded with what I think is an excellent riposte. You can read it here.
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In his article, Jeffress conveniently neglects to mention that he called the Mormon religion a cult, which is a word we usually associate with Charles Manson or David Koresh. Sort of like Louis Farrakhan calling Judaism a “gutter religion.” If you’re going to make bigoted and incendiary statements: keep it to yourself.
He also ignores the fact that Mormons certainly consider themselves to be Christians. What right does this pisher have to tell them they are wrong?
Personally, I think that eating wine and wafer to symbolize the blood and body of your Savior is pretty weird. In my view, believing in Heaven, Hell, or Satan is as risible as believing in tooth fairies. Jesus had a virgin birth and rose to heaven after he died? You’re kidding me, right?
Is the LDS church any more of a “bizarre perversion” than any of these mainstream Christian beliefs? As they say on sports television: you make the call.
Well, actually the guy did link to another item in which he explained what he means by a “cult”; he uses the word to refer to any religion with a human, rather than a divine, founder. (I guess that would include Islam, too.) And I do have to say that even compared to most religions, Mormonism is pretty far “out there”, which is saying a lot.
As for whether Mormons are Christians, well, they do part company from all other forms of Christianity in their view of the nature of Christ, though admittedly that’s a pretty confusing topic.
But hey, I don’t care: I don’t have a god in this fight. My only point is that Mr. Jeffress is perfectly within his rights to look askance at Mormonism, and to encourage Christian voters to steer clear.
Mormonism is more different from traditional Christianity than Christianity is from Judaism.
I doubt that Christians could claim to be Jewish and expect that rabbis would agree.
Mormonism differs in so many ways that I can only infer that not the evidence but our postmodern, politically correct times drive the conclusion that Mormons are Christians.
Easy ways to get others to scream moral reprobation at you — just say:
“Mormons aren’t Christian.”
“Islam isn’t a peaceful religion.”
“Islamophobia is reasonable.”
And so on . . .
Jeffery Hodges
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Right, Jeffery. Oh, and I meant to add:
Mormons aren’t Christian, Islam isn’t a peacful religion, and Islamophobia is reasonable.
You would say that, you racist!
Jeffery Hodges
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“Well, actually the guy did link to another item in which he explained what he means by a ‘cult’; he uses the word to refer to any religion with a human, rather than a divine, founder. (I guess that would include Islam, too.)”
For what it’s worth, I think Muslims would say that Allah is the founder of their religion, not Muhammad.
Well, sure, religions are about God. But Jeffress’s point is about their founding prophets, and Christians have a divine one.
What if you think there is “nothing there” and religion is a load of bs?
Well, you’re in good company — but you aren’t going to find a lot of candidates running on that platform.