Mormonism

We keep hearing from conservative activists that progressives are fueling anti-Mormon sentiments, even though attacks on the Mormon faith mainly come from the Religious Right. Today on Voice of Christian Youth America’s Crosstalk, Jim Schneider hosted Tricia Erickson, a former Mormon and author of Can Mitt Romney Serve Two Masters: The Mormon Church versus the Office of The Presidency of The United States of America.

Erickson has previously appeared on other conservative Christian radio programs including Focal Point with Bryan Fischer and The Steve Deace Show, and told Schneider that a Mormon president would be bound to the dictates of the Mormon prophet “even if those mandates go against our nation” and that Mormons are seeking the “millennial overthrow of the United States government.” Crosstalk is no stranger to promoting anti-Mormon beliefs, as host Vic Eliason once warned listeners against supporting Mitt Romney because “we might have a president who would suddenly evacuate the White House and go to another planet and become a God!”

Schneider: Are you suggesting Tricia that if Mitt Romney is elected President of the United States that there is an allegiance to the Mormon Church that would supersede his oath to the United States or the Constitution of the United States?

Erickson: Absolutely…. As president of the United States, Mitt would have less authority than that of the living prophet of the Mormon Church, he is therefore no matter his position as leader of our nation subject to the prophet and to his orders and to his mandates, even if those mandates go against our nation.

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Erickson: The political machinery of the priesthood of the Mormon Church is named the Kingdom of God and/or the Government of God, and the goal of the Mormon Church, through the Mormon Kingdom of God, is to bring the United States government, this is true, under the rule of the priesthood, the Mormon priesthood. Mormons believe that they are the only true church, all other religions are false, and their main objective is to be ready when the time comes for the millennial reign by having their leaders ready to rule or already in key places of authority and power. Their ultimate goal is better serve their agenda by being able to rule and govern before the millennium actually takes place and the Mormon Church and its corporate empire, assets and resources will be the chief element in the millennial overthrow of the United States government.

Religious Right activists are positively giddy over the new momentum behind Rick Santorum’s candidacy for president, and Maggie Gallagher today praised the former Pennsylvania senator as “a latter-day Rudy suddenly lifted above his Notre Dame teammates in a fantastic photo finish.” Gallagher said that the left wants “to go after him with a hatred unlike anyone else has yet generated in this race,” writing that progressives “hate him with that special ire reserved for his virtues, not his vices.”

On Tuesday night in Iowa, he stood before the cheering throngs like a Republican Rocky, or better yet, a latter-day Rudy suddenly lifted above his Notre Dame teammates in a fantastic storybook finish. On Tuesday night, for the first time, Rick Santorum was a contender. And a contender like nobody has yet seen in this race.

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I have not yet endorsed anyone in this presidential race. And unlike some values voters, I am not anti-Mitt Romney. Romney is a fundamentally decent, extremely capable man, who fought hard for marriage in Massachussetts [sic]. If he is the GOP nominee, I can vote for him with great good will and a clean conscience.

But when the guy who has taken more hits than any other for standing up for life and marriage fights his way with nobody's help from nowhere to, well, Tuesday night -- you have to cheer.

The left, which thought it had buried Santorum years ago, is going to go after him with a hatred unlike anyone else has yet generated in this race. They hate him with that special ire reserved for his virtues, not his vices.

They will go after him not just to defeat him, but to smear his good name, to associate it with their own muck, to take a decent and honorable man and try literally to make his name mean mud. They will not succeed.

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I am not anti-Romney. But after Tuesday night's victory, count me as pro-Rick.

Meanwhile, Concerned Women for America’s Penny Nance penned a column lauding Santorum and couldn’t help herself from taking digs at Romney’s Mormon faith:

Santorum’s appeal to women and evangelicals centers on a desire for authenticity. Rick’s been consistent in behavior and record. His stance on the sanctity of life and traditional marriage gained the voters’ attention.

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Many of my Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee (CWALAC) members respect Mitt’s savvy business skills, but they are having a hard time wrapping their minds around him as a whole package.

They can’t ignore that it was the former Massachusetts governor who championed health care reform that cost the state $4.3 billion and 18,000 jobs. Nor can they ignore his past support for so-called “domestic partnerships” or the fact that after the Massachusetts Supreme Court’s paper tiger ruling on “gay marriage,” he ordered Justices of the Peace in the state to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples or be fired.

With evangelical Christians being one of the largest voting blocs in America, “the Mormon thing” may be an issue, but I am not convinced this is what has held him back. However, some of my CWALAC ladies would love to understand the whole “eternal pregnancy in heaven thing,” which, admittedly, to me sounds more like damnation than heaven.

We frequently hear from conservative commentators that Religious Right voters have no problem with supporting a Mormon politician and any anti-Mormon sentiments actually come from the left and the media. But today on American Family Radio’s The Matt Friedman Show, Rick Scarborough of Vision America said he refuses to support Mitt Romney in the primary because he is a Mormon. Scarborough is a prominent endorser and ally of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose campaign earlier this year promoted the fiercely anti-Mormon pastor Robert Jeffress, and is best known for organizing “patriot pastors.” Scarborough previously signed a letter with other Religious Right activists opposing Romney, and told Friedeman that he disagreed with Chuck Colson and Franklin Graham for saying that voters should not reject Romney outright because of his faith.

Like Jeffress, Scarborough said he would ultimately vote for a Mormon over Barack Obama but would certainly not support Romney “as long as there is another candidate” because Mormonism is “so outside the realm of normal, theological boundaries.”

Watch:

Friedeman: I’m asking you here, with Franklin Graham and Chuck Colson coming out and saying Mormonism isn’t that big of a deal in this presidential election, do you agree?

Scarborough: I do not agree. I respect profoundly both of those men for a myriad of reasons, but I do not agree with that statement. Right now, the most prominent spokesperson for our values in the radio field is Glenn Beck, who is an avowed Mormon, and now the leading presidential candidate is an avowed Mormon. Because of the state of the spiritual life of our country right now, I just think that’s a place I don’t want to go. And the other side of that is, what is not spoken are some of the details of Mormonism, which will be aired completely in a presidential race and I think it will make it difficult if this man secures the nomination for him to be elected just because there are some aspects of the doctrines of Mormonism that are so outside the realm of normal, theological boundaries, that I think it will be a real issue if he got the nomination. Now if the choice comes down for me between a Mormon and Barack Obama, I’d vote for the Mormon every time, but I’m certainly not going to support him as long as there is another candidate.

A new movie looking at Joseph Smith’s campaign for president and assassination in 1844 and connecting Smith’s legacy to contemporary Mormon politicians like Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman is supposed to present a “balanced” look at the Mormon religion and history. Director Adam Christing, who was raised a Mormon but who is not a member of the LDS Church, said the film, A Mormon President, is neither a “puff piece” nor a “hit piece” on Mormonism:

Already in this election cycle, we have seen American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer claim that Mormons are deceived by Satan and do not have First Amendment rights, right-wing radio talk show host Janet Mefferd mock Romney for thinking that being president is a “step down” because he is going “to be a god” in the afterlife, and of course, pastor and Rick Perry-endorser Robert Jeffress attacked the Mormon faith as a cult from the “pit of Hell.”

In an interview with the AFA’s OneNewsNow, Christing noted concerns about the “conflict between [Romney’s] loyalty to the Constitution and his loyalty to the Mormon Church”:

Christing, who is a member of the Mormon History Association, says pastors are concerned that as a temple Mormon, Romney took a vow called the Oath of Consecration.

"He pledges all of his time, talent, and money to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So some people are very concerned that if push came to shove and there was a conflict between his loyalty to the Constitution and his loyalty to the Mormon Church, many fear that the loyalty would be to the church," the filmmaker explains.

But the filmmaker remarks that those fears might not matter when Christians go into the voting booth. "I did talk to many evangelicals who feel like they would vote against Obama and for Romney -- almost like they would choose their wallets over their worship, voting for the lesser of two evils," Christing accounts.

So he hopes the documentary will help people make up their own minds about whether Mormonism should even be a factor if a Mormon contender is on the ballot in 2012.