Yearning For Acceptance

This article in today's newspapers is a real jewel. I encourage you all to read it. It's an AP article, so it's in wide circulation.

A few highlights...

Some Evangelicals feared that a Mormon in the White House would draw more converts to his faith.

Maybe because Religion News Service slipped up and posted a quote by an LDS representative a few months ago who was asked a question about this and the reply was that they would, indeed, use a Romney candidacy and presidency as a tool for their evangelism.

"It is prejudice," said Richard Bushman, an emeritus professor at Columbia University, who is a leading historian and devout Mormon. "Underlying all these questions is that these beliefs are basically crazy so you've got to explain them to us."

Well, if you're wearing holy underwear, yes you do. Yes, you also need to be clear about your polytheism.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints anticipated some of the backlash and tried to get ahead of it. Well before the former Massachusetts governor officially announced his candidacy, Mormon officials started traveling the country, speaking with reporters and editorial writers about the LDS church and its political neutrality.

Which confirms what many of us stated publicly, that there was a PR campaign going on behind the scenes, and it was designed to legitimize the Mormon faith by portraying it as just another sort of Christian denomination.

"I was surprised at the level of intensity and sometimes flat out animosity," said Lowell C. Brown, a Los Angeles attorney who is Mormon. "I had no idea. I'm in my 50s, I've been a Mormon all my life, I've lived in L.A. for 25 years, and it floored me."

Welcome to the real world, where Christians still know enough about their cardinal doctrines to distinguish truth from error when Mormons come along. There may yet be hope the apostasy in the American church can be averted.

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

Which sort of proves what we've been saying all along.

Mormons were especially outraged when GOP presidential contender Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist pastor, asked whether Mormons consider Jesus and the devil brothers. Latter-day Saints say Huckabee's question is usually raised by those who wish to smear the Mormon faith rather than clarify doctrine.

According to Ensign Magazine, this is certainly something you believe. Perhaps the problem here is that Huckabee exposed the truth, that Mormons aren't just another sort of Christian. Remember, that's the Mormon line. It's false. Had Mormons not made that claim, we'd not be having this conversation. They have only themselves to blame.

"If you're making a decision about whether or not to vote for someone because of their religion, you're flirting with bigotry," said Brown. He monitored the commentary on his blog Article VI, named for the constitutional provision barring any religious test for public office.

Of course, Utah carried Romney. Is it bigotry to vote against somebody because he's a Mormon but not bigotry to vote for a man because he is a Mormon? Of course, the reason many of us did not support Romney is because we put the gospel before our politics. That's my first priority. The other reason is because Romney tried, like many Mormons, to pawn himself off as another sort of Christian. That's a lie. I 've said it before, I'll say it again. I have no problem with a Mormon running for office as long as he doesn't try to pawn himself off as a Christian. Be honest. I'm tired of dishonest politicians. The real irony here is that even Bill Mohr, who I can't stand, realized this. He, on national television called Mormons "shapeshifters." He knows Mormons aren't Christians, and Mohr is no friend of Christianity. He even made the same connection many of us Evangelicals made. Romney is Odo. He'll turn into whatever he must in order to win an election.

"What's going on when his son runs and all of a sudden there's this overt hostility that came out, which did not come out toward his father," said Mouw, who is part of a group of evangelical and Mormon scholars who meet to discuss their theological disagreements. "I'm kind of ashamed of the way that a lot of traditional Christians have handled this."

I guess it still hasn't hit Dr. Mouw that many of us are ashamed of the way he has handled Mormonism himself.

Mormon leaders posted videos on YouTube explaining their faith. A church elder, recently speaking to Mormon college students, urged young people to post about the Latter-day Saints on blogs — a major move for a denomination with a history of quietly answering its outside critics.

Yes, we've seen the cut and pastes on this blog. I hope he reads this article in his newspaper, and Dr. White decides to post the occasional interaction with some of this material on You Tube.

After Romney's Dec. 6 speech in Texas defending his faith, a Mormon leader went on al-Jazeera television, the Quatar-based network, to discuss the church.

This one had me in stitches laughing. Talk about stupidity! Muslims have a hard enough time wrapping their minds around the concept of the Trinity, and they find it an abominable idea that Christians affirm that God has a Son, because they infer from this that Jesus is precisely what Mormons say He is, the literal son of God. That's one of their major problems with Christianity, and one we have to constantly explain and reexplain to them and correct. Now, can't you just imagine what sort of impression they would have if the leader of the free world was a man who not only believed Jesus is the literal son of God, but God has a flesh and bone body and that Jesus and Lucifer are spirit brothers? Do we really need to give the Muslim extremists another reason to destroy America?