01 January, 2009

I Guess the Romance is Dead

Deary, deary me. Someone draw up the divorce papers - I do believe the bloom is off the rose:
Tom Minnery, senior vice president of government and public policy at Focus on the Family Action, makes the extraordinary claim that Mitt Romney "has acknowledged that Mormonism is not a Christian faith."




This statement seems to have come as something as a surprise to Mittens:

But that's news to the Romney camp, according to Michael Scherer:

On Saturday, I read this quote to Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's traveling press secretary. He did not hesitate or mince his words. "The governor has not made that acknowledgment," Fehrnstrom told me. "He has said that his belief is not the same as others. But there is no doubt that Jesus Christ is at the center of the LDS church's worship."

In fact, the Church of Latter Day Saints, also know as the Mormon church, holds as a central belief that it is a Christian faith. This belief is a concern for some evangelical Christians, who see Mormonism as a competing religion. On the campaign trail, Romney has avoided discussing his faith in depth, and he has acknowledged that there are differences between his faith and others. But he has not been quoted saying Mormonism is not a Christian faith.

Why did Focus on the Family Action's Tom Minnery think that Romney admitted that Mormonism is not Christianity? This quote from Romney's speech on religion:
There is one fundamental question about which I often am asked. What do I believe about Jesus Christ? I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. My church's beliefs about Christ may not all be the same as those of other faiths. Each religion has its own unique doctrines and history.
What we've got here is a bad case of FoF hearing what they want to hear. Now that they've used the Mormon church's power and money to keep icky gays from getting *gasp* married in California, evangelical Christians are right back to insisting the Mormons are just some bizarre cult, totally unlike Real Christians™ .

It's too bad they can't just admit they're all making shit up. Amusing as it is to watch them assassinate each other, it's also rather pathetic watching adults argue over whose fantasy is really real, especially after they've just finished using their fantasy to unite in denying such a simple human (dis)comfort as marriage to people they don't like.

2 comments:

Cujo359 said...

It's funny when people who belong to a religion that has as confusing and contradictory a set of religious texts as Christians do talk about how others aren't really part of that religion, because they take different parts of the text more seriously. I've written before that religions are more like Rorshach tests than absolute moral guides. You can pretty much take whatever lessons you want from most of the major ones. What individual members of a religion choose to believe says a lot more about them than it does about their religion.

Bot said...

Tom Minnery should know that Mormons' theology is based on the Jesus Christ of the New Testament. Tom's theology is based on the Jesus Christ of the Nicene Creed. Both are Christians, as are any denomination which considers Him divine, and the Savior of the world.

http://www.MormonsAreChristian.blogspot.com