Religion

Earlier this month, just as the right-wing anti-mosque hysteria was getting whipped up, Focus on the Family posted a video in which Stuart Shepard and Bruce Hausknecht complained about how municipalities were discriminating against churches using zoning laws:

Shepard: What does this tell us about the state of religious freedom in the United States?

Hausknecht: Well, we're seeing first a hostility toward religion. You would think in this day and age of tolerance that there would be tolerance for religious views, religious people. There is not. We're seeing it in the zoning cases, we're seeing it in the schools. That is a definite wake-up call for people of all faiths to stand up and protect their rights.

At the time, Focus was one of the few Religious Right groups that had not yet taken a position on Park 51, so I wondered if the organization would defend the right of Muslims to build the Islamic Center, especially in light of the organization's plea for "people of all faiths" to wake up and protect their religious freedoms.

So I know it will come as a shock to you all to learn that Focus' concerns for the rights of "people of all faiths" does not, in fact, apply to Muslims:

During CitizenLink's weekly webcast, Tom Minnery said, "Nobody is suggesting that the brand of Islam practiced by the owners of this mosque [is] going to lead to more terrorist attacks. But for Heaven's sake, in the name of all that is decent and in the name of common sense, build it elsewhere."

He said the group had the right to build, but he questioned the prudence of doing so. "Is it dishonoring to the 3,000 people who gave their lives to have this mosque which, in some minds, represents a similar religious belief that caused the terrorists to do what they did?" said Minnery.

Stuart Shepard, host of the webcast, noted that this position is a departure from Minnery's previous positions on religious liberty.

"You have spent a lot of time talking about religious freedom. And you work for Alliance Defense Fund quite a bit helping them fight for the rights of people, for religious freedom. It is quite a turn for you to say that this is not the right location for religious freedom to be expressed," said Shepard.

"Well, it is indeed," said Minnery.

It really is remarkable to see Glenn Beck, who is currently coming under attack from the Religious Right for his own Mormon faith, attack President Obama and others as false Christians, saying that those who "pervert the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you are evil. And when you know you intentionally are doing it power, and control, and money, and a hidden agenda and you lie, cheat, and steal every step of the way to do it, you are evil":

I am getting really tied of this holider-than-thou line of attack from Beck, even as his beliefs as a Mormon have been subject to similar attack, so I am just going to excerpt some passages from the book "Mormon America: The Power and the Promise" by Richard and Joan Ostling explaining the differences between Mormonism and mainstream Christian denominations and why the latter do not consider the former to be part of the Christian family:

In 2001, the Vatican reached the significant decision that LDS converts to Catholicism must be rebaptized, though the church customarily accepts baptisms performed in most other denominations. L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican daily, explained that the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith decided that Mormon baptism "is not the baptism that Christ instituted," partly due to the LDS belief that "God the Father had a wife, the Celestial Mother, with whom he procreated Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit."

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America's largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, staunchly opposes LDS theology. The second largest, the United Methodist Church, reject LDS baptism in 2000 on the grounds that Mormonism is self-definition "does not fit within the bounds of the historic apostolic tradition of Christian faith." A Methodist paper noted that the LDS church add scriptures to the Judeo-Christian Bible and has "some radically differing doctrine on such matters of belief as the nature and being of God, the nature, origin and purpose of Jesus Christ ; and the nature and way of salvation. Other cited problems: God the Father is a procreating deity with "a body of flesh and bones" and is "male gendered and married to a heavenly mother of clear female gender." Jesus is not eternal with the Father and is "an entirely separate and distinct being" identified with Jehovah, the Father's oldest child. Mormonism uses the language of the Trinity but with different meanings and is tri-theistic or possibly polytheistic. Also, "God's and human are the same species of being, but at different states of development," and the goal of human salvation is "achievement of godhood."

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was one of the first major bodies to study officially whether Mormons are Christians. The project began with a national Presbyterian convention in Salt Lake City in 1990, with a follow-up study released in 1995. Presbyterian guidelines state that the LDS church "expresses allegiance to Jesus Christ in terms used within the Christian tradition" but nonetheless is not regarded as "within the historic apostolic tradition of the Christian Church."

Presbyterians are advised to treat Mormons as adherent of another religion, putting relations under the "interfaith" rubric. Besides the need for rebaptism, Mormons should not receive Presbyterian Communion; and weddings and funerals involving mixed families are handled as "interfaith" rather than intra-Christian rites.

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In the Mormon understanding of history, the church literally disappeared shortly after Jesus' apostles died, although apostate human organizations perpetuated the false claim to be Christian. The same process of apostasy was repeated among the believers in the New World who were visited by the Mormon Jesus. There was no church on earth during a hiatus of some 1,400 years until God intervened to restore apostolic governance through the prophet Joseph Smith and his successors.

As Joseph Smith wrote, "we believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly" ... and by "translated correctly, Smith meant the version he wrote that was designed to bring the text more in line with established Mormon doctrine and "restore truths to the Bible text that had become lost or changed since the original words were written."

As we have noted twice in the last week, the Religious Right doesn't consider Beck to be a Christian - and neither would most of the major Christian denominations - and yet he continues to accuse President Obama and progressive Christians of being apostates and heretics. 

You’d think that Glen Beck would be able to look at his own experience and see how callow and nasty these attacks really are. But you’d be wrong.

The Islamic Center of Temecula, California has been seeking permits to build a mosque for over a year and a half and its proposal is scheduled to come before the Temecula planning commissioners on Aug. 18.

And so Tea Party activists are planning to protest outside of the Islamic Center's existing facility and urging participants to bring dogs in order to intimidate worshipers because "Muslims hate dogs": 

An e-mail alert sent to area newspapers last week announced that a one-hour "singing – praying – patriotic rally" will begin at 12:30 p.m. July 30 at the Islamic Center’s existing facility. The advisory – sent by a leader of a conservative coalition that has been active with Republican and Tea Party functions – recommended participants "bring your Bibles, flags, signs, dogs and singing voices."

"We will not be submissive," the notice proclaimed. "Our voices are going to be heard!" The alert went on to question what its authors described as Islamic beliefs. It suggested that participants sing during the rally because Muslim "women are forbidden to sing." It suggested that rally participants bring dogs because Muslims "hate dogs."

A few weeks ago, we noted that Glenn Beck has been invited to deliver the commencement address at Liberty University's graduation ceremony and wondered if LU students would react negatively to the idea of having a Mormon deliver such an address, as students at Regent University did back in 2007 when Mitt Romey was invited to its graduation.

Well, the ceremony is tomorrow and we have to admit that we hadn't seen anything from Liberty students objecting to Beck's invitation ... until today when we saw this op-ed by Ryan Begue, who is being awarded the Master of Arts in Theological Studies, complaining that he is "perplexed as to why it seems more [students] are not as equally alarmed" about it as he is:

For those who may not be aware, Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., which has consistently been known for its strong conservative and Christian values as a Baptist school, has invited political talk show host Glenn Beck to give the commencement speech to its graduates this week. On the surface that may not seem alarming to many since he is conservative. But given the fact he is a Mormon there ought to be red flags and sirens going off all across Christian circles.

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I have no beef with Glenn Beck as a person, but I certainly do with his religious beliefs ...If you were under the impression Mormonism is a Christian group you are greatly mistaken. Mormonism is a polytheistic religion which believes Mary had sex with one of their gods and became pregnant with Jesus. They do not believe that salvation is by grace through faith alone or many other critical truths of our faith. Christians sadly have more in common with Muslims if you really get down to it since at least they are monotheistic — and we know how far from the truth Islam is.

I must say how shocked and disappointed I was when I arrived for the commencement ceremonies to discover that a man who is not committed to the Gospel was speaking to a group of graduates who have committed verbally that they are. If I were a student at BYU I would expect it, but not at Liberty. Let's not fall into the trap that conservatism is the greatest need in America.

I consider all the men I have met at Liberty as brothers, but am very concerned about the future of the school. If Liberty is doing this because they are trying to build bridges to reach out to the lost community I applaud their hearts, but this isn't the right avenue. It is time for Liberty to get on track and make sure they send a clear message to the world that their commitment is first to the Gospel.