A vote for Romney is a vote for Satan?

Rich206

Quote:
That's the word from Bill Keller, host of the Florida-based Live Prayer TV program as well as LivePrayer.com.

"If you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for Satan!" he writes in his daily devotional to be sent out to 2.4 million e-mail subscribers tomorrow.

Al Sharpton chimed in too:

Quote:
"As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways, so don't worry about that; that's a temporary situation," he said.

I found one line in the article particularly interesting:

Quote:
But the focus of his appeal to followers is to discredit Mormonism as a legitimate faith in line with the tenets of Christianity.

What exactly makes "christianity" a "legitimate" faith? Is it the age of the belief, its persistence or maybe number of followers? Judaism is older and has persisted in the face of considerable animosity, but has fewer adherents. Catholics outnumber protestants, yet are considered "outside christ" by many evangelicals. Is it soley related to acceptance within a society? If enough people persist in believing something irrational for a sufficient length of time, does that somehow convey legitimacy?

I suppose it depends on how one defines the word. For example, if it relates to publicly accepted standards, then most people would consider belief in god as legitimate, but I wonder what threshold has to be passed before a particular belief is considered legitimate. This evangelical apparently believes that the election of a mormon to the presidency would cross a threshold and convey a degree of legitimacy on mormonism that he feels it does not currently posses.

Another quote:

Quote:
"I guess what I can tell you is it shows that bigotry can still rear its ugly head in society," Alex Burgos, a spokesman for the Romney campaign, told WND. "It's sad that anyone would target a fellow American on the issue of faith."

In a poll I mentioned earlier, a majority of Americans stated that they would not even consider voting for an atheist, regardless of his/her qualifications. Would it be considered bigotry if someone targeted a fellow American on the issue of lack of faith, or is atheism considered "illegitimate" because it does not meet some standard of public acceptance?

By the way, I rather doubt the motives of the televangelist involved. He's an ex-con who spent time in the federal pen for insider trading before finding the (no doubt lucrative) lord. However, I don't doubt that many evangelicals share his stated belief regarding mormons as I've read such things on evangelical websites in the past.

Junk Drawer

Frank 013

Well you have to admit that the Christians are consistent… anyone who believes differently from them is an evil, vile, despicable, sin ridden, devil.

Later

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well
preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out,
shouting..."Holy Crap...what a ride!"

irishrosem

Although, if my perception is correct, the animosity between non-Mormon Christians, particularly evangelicals, and LDS is fairly mutual.

MadArchitect

Seems right to me, Rose. Mormons seem to consider Protestant and Catholic Christians as being just in need of salvation as any other non-Mormon group.

As for the legitimacy of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, a lot depends on whether you interpret the quote to mean "as a faith" period, or "as a faith in line with Christianity". You'd have to have a pretty slanted definition of religion to exclude Mormonism altogether, but there are strong doctrinal differences that might justify distinguishing it as strongly from Christianity as you would distinguish Christianity from Islam or Judaism. The sheer fact of its embracing a third revelation ought to be good enough, really.

As for the hard-line Christian media calling Romney Satan, etc., it doesn't surprise me. When so-called spiritual leaders get into the business of telling their constituency how to vote, I'd say it's safe to expect any amount of mudslinging from them.


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