Evangelicals, Mormons Search for Common Ground in Utah

A pioneering day for conservative religious politics in America.

[Todd Wood] A pioneering day for conservative religious politics in America.

Mormons, white evangelicals, conservative Catholics and conservative Jews have been voting the same for decades. The only thing that is changing is that Mormons, who for the longest have been content with the “behind the scenes” jobs as fundraisers, advisors, aides, Cabinet secretaries etc. now want a place at the table - real power and public representation of the sort that Catholics and Jews (though conspicuously NOT evangelical Christians!) enjoy - as payback for all these years of loyal service. It appears that evangelicals inclined to politics are listening because they are running out of options. Jerry Falwell has passed away, Pat Robertson is a marginalized figure, James Dobson has semi-retired, the Christian Coalition and the other groups are just a bunch of tiny alphabet soup acronyms with no real membership, money, organization or visible strong leadership, the libertarian-inclined Tea Party has all the attention and energy at the moment, etc. So, why not ride the Glenn Beck/Mitt Romney thing and see if it pans out? If it is a way back to power, influence and relevance, then they are willing to deal with any downsides as a cost of doing business.

Really, it is just the next step of selling out theologically and doctrinally for a few pieces of silver (and a very few at that … how many bills have these guys seen passed? When was the last - or the first - evangelical to win the GOP nomination for president? To be Senate Majority leader? Speaker of the House? How many evangelicals sit on the Supreme Court? Or are even on the federal appeals courts? John Ashcroft as attorney general - and he was closely watched and largely hamstrung except for being forced to enact and be an apologist for some of the more questionable actions and tactics of the Bush administration - has been as good as has gotten and as good as it is going to get). First Catholics were included, then Jews, Mormons were the next logical step. (Why not socially conservative Muslims? Still waiting for an answer on that. Is it because Muslims are, er, “non-western?” If Mormons are being included, it can’t be for theological reasons.I still remember George W. Bush trying very hard to bring Muslims into the “religious right” camp in his 2000 presidential race and the initial months of his campaign, before September 11th ended that political strategy.)

After a political merger between evangelicals and Mormons is accomplished, then doctrinal/theological accommodations to facilitate and justify it will come. We are going to start hearing how the Mormons really aren’t that far off, how they get the core or the basics of the Christian message right and are merely just confused about the Godhead, and how their great morals and values and outstanding works of charity have to count for SOMETHING. And around that time evangelical pastors who continue to preach against Mormonism and its falsehoods will be shunned as fanatics, extremists, bigots and “anti-intellectual fundamentalists.”

Isn’t the LDS Church the strongest voice of moral conservatism, social conservatism, and fiscal conservatism in America, today?

And isn’t the LDS Church the most unified and wealthiest network for American conservatism?

[Todd Wood] Isn’t the LDS Church the strongest voice of moral conservatism, social conservatism, and fiscal conservatism in America, today?

And isn’t the LDS Church the most unified and wealthiest network for American conservatism?

They believe that Jesus Christ and Satan are brothers. They believe that the fall of Adam, while technically disobedience to God the Father’s commandments, was a GOOD THING because it allowed humans to escape being trapped in pre-existence and progress to godhood themselves. And they also believe in absentia baptism of dead Jewish Holocaust victims against the wishes of their family members who have asked them repeatedly to stop in order to secure for them better treatment in the afterlife. They also have esoteric (freemasonry, gnosticism and occult mixed with, well, other stuff) beliefs that are very much a part of their aspirations for political, economic, and social power and influence. Look, for all the talk that the anti-Christ may be a Muslim (and possibly Barack Hussein Obama) based on what I saw a couple of years back about the esoterica embedded in that cult, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the anti-Christ were Mormon instead.

And I am supposed to view the NAE joining up with Mormonism as a good thing? Why, pray tell? The only distinction that I make between Muslims and Mormons is that there are a lot more of the former than the latter. Yes, Mormons are conservative. So what. So was Pinochet. So was Franco. So was “Papa Doc” Duvalier. And so was apartheid South Africa. It would be far better if the NAE were to dedicate their time, energy and vast resources to engaging theologically moderate CHRISTIAN groups in the hopes of getting some of them to cross over to the Bible-based Christianity instead of playing theological footsie with some anti-Christian esoteric cult that is bent on ruling the planet in return for a few scraps that fall to them under the table.

If they want to do some good, they should go see if they can get some Cooperative Baptist Fellowship churches to affirm inerrancy, or recruit the National Baptist Convention into the pro-life cause, or see if they can make some headway with some Episcopal, Lutheran, and PCUSA churches that are angry with their denomination’s drift on homosexuality and other issues. But by dealing with Mormons, they are playing with fire, which can only lead to their getting badly burned.

So you are saying yes to my questions …

I am within the bubble. So sometimes people think that I am off my rocker when I answer those questions with a Yes.

But I really believe that the LDS Church is leading American Conservatism as we know it, today.

Revelation 18:4 “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”

James 4:4 “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

“But I really believe that the LDS Church is leading American Conservatism as we know it, today.”

If that is true, then all it does is prove that American conservatism is just another ideology, another imagination or high thing, that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. If Mormons are better at conservatism than Christianity, maybe we should take that as a hint that conservatism isn’t a part of Christianity after all.

[JobK]
If that is true, then all it does is prove that American conservatism is just another ideology, another imagination or high thing, that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. If Mormons are better at conservatism than Christianity, maybe we should take that as a hint that conservatism isn’t a part of Christianity after all.

Another possibility, of course, is that the current Mormon leadership on cultural matters is more dedicated to standing up for moral issues in the public square than are most evangelicals. Rick Warren, who disdains everything the previous generation of leadership fought for, seems to be the new paradigm in the Evangelical world. Fad diets are now more important than defending marriage, for example.

I am embarrassed to say that here in California, many thousands of Christians gathered to pray regarding Prop 8, but the advertizing war was largely fronted with Mormon money. That’s why they took so much flack from the left. They bore the ridicule and haterd that should have been ours.

It could be that instead of moral conservatism being inherently unChristian, that the Lord is using the Mormons to shame us for playing while they fight. Just a thought.

And Wayne, I have heard this counter thought often.

There are leaders of moral and social conservatism in the West (of the Rockies): (1) *Mark Driscoll (the fiery preacher) tucked up in Washington, (2) John MacArthur (the traditional expositor) down in L.A., (3) Paul Chappel (the popular Baptist) in Lancaster, (4) and Douglas Wilson (the Reformed thinker & philosopher) in Northern Idaho.

But clearly, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is in the eye of the storm. And believe it or not, S.E. Idaho (the Northern Corridor) is even more of a stronghold for zealous conservatism than Utah. It is one of those fortress islands in America, just ask Mitt or Glenn. If the Constitution hangs by a thread in the days ahead, S.E. Idaho will be an Alamo. No doubt about it. :)

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* Mark D. being the only one, not caring as much about cultural conservatism.

[Todd Wood] And Wayne, I have heard this counter thought often.

There are leaders of moral and social conservatism in the West (of the Rockies): (1) *Mark Driscoll (the fiery preacher) tucked up in Washington, (2) John MacArthur (the traditional expositor) down in L.A., (3) Paul Chappel (the popular Baptist) in Lancaster, (4) and Douglas Wilson (the Reformed thinker & philosopher) in Northern Idaho.

But clearly, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is in the eye of the storm. And believe it or not, S.E. Idaho (the Northern Corridor) is even more of a stronghold for zealous conservatism than Utah. It is one of those fortress islands in America, just ask Mitt or Glenn. If the Constitution hangs by a thread in the days ahead, S.E. Idaho will be an Alamo. No doubt about it. :)

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* Mark D. being the only one, not caring as much about cultural conservatism.

Considering I’m watching Doug Wilson live online doing a cover* of The Eagles**, maybe you need to put an asterisk next to his name too Todd :-)

* a cover is copying exactly a song played by another group.
** Not Basilean