“Latter-day Saint Romney Was Never Christian Enough For Some Republicans. Somehow, Trump Still Is.”

Robert Jeffress, deep Christian thinker — A Wikimedia Commons photo, by Gage Skidmore, of Southern Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress addressing the 2011 Values Voters summit. During his remarks, he described Mormonism as a “cult” and declared that voting for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney would “give credibility to a cult” — a position that he had first taken in the 2008 election. Jeffress introduced then Texas Governor Rick Perry, calling him a “a committed follower of Christ.” Afterwards, he told reporters that was planning to give a sermon the following Sunday in which he would talk about “how a Christian should vote.” One of the criteria for candidates would be “Is he a Christian?”

Here’s the background for this blog entry:

“Romney on Mueller report: I am ‘sickened’ by ‘dishonesty and misdirection’ of President Trump”

Predictably, of course, Mr. Trump didn’t take Mr. Romney’s comment very well:

Rudy Giuliani, once widely respected as “America’s mayor” for his response to the 9/11 terror attacks and now a shameless shill for Donald Trump no matter what, continues to embarrass himself and to trash his own historical legacy:

“Rudy Giuliani on Mitt Romney: What a hypocrite”

And the often slimy Mike Huckabee slimes yet again:

“Huckabee blasts Romney: ‘Makes me sick’ that you could have been president”

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But now to the real meat of this blog entry:

From the Evangelical Protestant writer Nancy French: “Commentary: Latter-day Saint Romney was never Christian enough for some Republicans. Somehow, Trump still is.”

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While I’m at it, though, there’s also this:

“Even when Romney and Lee tell the truth, it doesn’t matter”

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And here’s some additional material on a particular interface between religion and politics and the continuing disgrace of many Evangelical Protestant leaders. First the background:

“Buttigieg Battles Mike Pence, or So He Imagines: Mayor Pete picks a fight with a caricature of the vice president that he knows from experience is false.”

“Franklin Graham to Buttigieg: Homosexuality ‘sin’ to be ‘repentant of’ not ‘flaunted’: While Graham’s homosexuality condemnation is not new, polling shows that a majority of white evangelical Christians support LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws.”

“Franklin Graham Delivers More Biblical Truth to Gay Democrat Pete Buttigieg”

And now, again, for the real meat, written by Nancy French’s husband, David French:

“Franklin Graham and the High Cost of the Lost Evangelical Witness: Graham’s willingness to abandon Christian principles when it’s politically expedient has cost the church dearly.”

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Finally, Rod Dreher, in a column that happens also to briefly discuss Brigham Young University, on what he calls “a massive setback” for religious liberty:

“Christian Dalits & Smelly Progressive Orthodoxies”

Here’s a Deseret News column on Rod Dreher that I published back on 11 May 2017:

“‘The Benedict Option’ or ‘The Brigham Option’?”