Mitt to take off gloves on Mormon faith

Posted December 2nd @ 9:07 pm by James Print This Post

Throughout the primary campaign, Republican Mitt Romney has dodged questions about his Mormon faith. Now, trailing in Iowa caucus polls to conservative Christian Mike Huckabee, Mitt is taking off the gloves. He’ll address his faith in a news conference scheduled for today.

I suspect he will echo President John Kennedy, who argued he was not running as a Roman Catholic candidate but the Democratic candidate, and will continue to dodge specific questions about the Mormon faith.

Here are some resources for understanding the Mormon faith:

Mormon beliefs (official LDS site)

Mormonism vs. Traditional Christianity (a helpful chart from Belief.net)

Mormonism: A Survey and Biblical Critique (from ChristianAnswers.net)

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8 Comments

Kevin Oyler
December 3, 2007 at 02:56

Here’s another great site for learning about Mormons: http://www.mormon.org

Thanks
Bill Blackrick
December 3, 2007 at 10:26

Thanks James for the links…the christiananswers.net link was very imformative
Miranda
December 3, 2007 at 13:07

I love your blog…...almost every day! But I’m disappointed in this post. Why do you only supply links to websites that are biased against those of the LDS faith? We are Christians, just as all honest, hardworking catholics, methodists, pentecostals, and the like. We might be a little different, but that doesn’t mean we’re wrong. We strive to live our faith in everything we do, from saying a quick prayer for the car that cut us off on the freeway to accepting God’s will in the death or disease of our loved ones. If someone genuinely wants to learn more about our faith, they should look at both sides: websites that are biased FOR us, maybe even crack open our scriptures and read for themselves. Every last one of us was asked to find out the truth of this church for ourselves, we don’t take ANYONE’S word for it. We gain a testimony of truth by sincere investigation followed by sincere prayer, and if we want to know the truth, God will tell us.
A couple of good websites:
http://www.mormon.org
scriptures.lds.org

Thank you.
Awn
December 4, 2007 at 16:17

I should also point out that I have read a large portion of the Book of Mormon and familiarized myself with the D&C and J&D.

The bias is against the LDS because it bears the burden of proof for items like the Book of Abraham which in 2001 Robert K. Ritner, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Egyptology at the University of Chicago, was commissioned to perform a full translation of the papyri. It was shown to actually be an Egyptian “Book of Breathings” about embalming and other Osiris stuff, and not about Abraham or Isaac. The foundations of the LDS are the crux of the issue, not your sincerity.
John Ferguson
December 4, 2007 at 16:30

No offence Miranda, but I wouldn’t class Mormons as Christians. Maybe some are, but then I wouldn’t class many Roman Catholics as Christians either. That doesn’t mean I don’t like them as people, because I’m sure most Mormons and Roman Catholics are probably better people than I am, it means I disagree with their theology. I also disagree with my own denomination over infant baptism (I’m against), but I still joined my local congregation. So, please, don’t take it personally Miranda. Remember, I could be wrong, but from my studies (not all of it from negative sources) and from meeting a couple of Mormon evangelists I couldn’t agree with their theology. I also believe Custance (http://custance.org) and Cooper (http://www.ldolphin.org/cooper/index.html) have a better explanation for the origin of the Native Americans as being Hamites rather than Israelites.

I haven’t read Hugh Hewitt’s book on Mitt Romney, but I believe he puts the case that evangelical christians can support him.
James
December 4, 2007 at 20:24

Hi Miranda,

Good point!

I’ve now balanced the coverage. One pro-Mormon site (the official LDS site), one neutral site (Belief.net), and one that points out the the biblical problems with Mormonism.

I’ve also changed my site: http://www.jameswatkins.com

Thanks for keeping me an OAF: objective, accurate, fair.

Jim
Siarlys Jenkins
December 12, 2007 at 20:32

I’m not sure how we “class” anyone as Christians or not Christians. Every denomination began with the claim that all previously existing denominations were incomplete or wrong in their teaching, and the founders’ new teaching was the latest and greatest, or a return to the original intent, etc. I can say that there are reasons I am not a Roman Catholic, nor a Mormon, but I can’t say that people who belong to those churches are not Christian. People have tried to define what “mere Christianity” is—and the last time I got a mailing for a new magazine with that purpose, I found they were drawing lines I could not agree with! (It’s called Touchstone and it was interesting and provocative, just not authoritative.) I currently apply the two commandments on which Jesus said hangs “all the law and the prophets.” If you sincerely try to follow those commandments, you can be a Christian, if you want. But since those commandments were originally offered by Hillel, you might be Jewish, and I bet some Muslims follow them too. I have no desire to judge.

My concern with Mitt Romney is this: the LDS church is a hierarchical church. I do not want anyone as President of the United States who is going to take ORDERS from a church hierarchy about his decisions on public business. That was the primary legitimate concern about Kennedy, and he laid it to rest, much to the disappointment of some Roman Catholics who thought he darn well SHOULD take orders from the Vatican if he were elected president. Romney has not been entirely clear as yet.
Miranda
December 17, 2007 at 21:43

thank you, jim, for publishing my links.

john ferguson, why would you not consider mormons to be Christians? what is your definition of Christianity? i don’t take it “personally”, like you said, but i really want to know.

to me, a Christian is someone who both a) believes that Jesus was and is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, and He atoned for our sins, AND b) tries valiantly to follow Him. that last one is the kicker, and to me, that disqualifies a lot of people who claim to be Christian. i’m sorry, and maybe it’s prideful of me, but if you don’t follow Him, you obviously don’t really believe in Him, b/c if you did, you’d know that He expects us to live His teachings!
so, by this definition, mormons (at least the active ones) are Christian. We believe in, worship, love, and serve Jesus Christ, and we follow Him every day.

http://www.answers.com/christian&r=67
a page with a few more definitions of Christianity. mormons fit all of them except the silly columbia encyclopedia entry.

are you, perhaps, confusing the terms Christian and protestant? no, we’re not protestant, if that’s what you mean.