{"id":1009,"date":"2012-10-26T07:44:07","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T13:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2012-10-26T07:44:07","modified_gmt":"2012-10-26T13:44:07","slug":"evangelicals-are-coming-out-for-romney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2012\/10\/evangelicals-are-coming-out-for-romney.html","title":{"rendered":"Evangelicals are coming out for Romney"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"Content Director\u2019s Note<\/em><\/strong>: This post is a part of our Election Month at Patheos<\/a> feature. Patheos was designed to present the world\u2019s most compelling conservations on life\u2019s most important questions. Please join the Facebook following<\/a> for our new News and Politics Channel<\/a> \u2014 and check back throughout the month for more commentary on Election 2012. Please use hashtag #PatheosElection on Twitter.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve often gotten the question from other Evangelical Christians about Mormon faith<\/a>, whether it\u2019s a cult, whether or not they should feel okay about voting for a Mormon. I have had two answers:<\/p>\n

First, Mormonism is not a cult in my view<\/em>. It has cult-like qualities, but so does American Evangelicalism (or Roman Catholicism for that matter). However, I do not think that Mormonism is part of Christianity.\u00a0Mormonism is its own religion with it\u2019s own traditions, theology, and teaching that are separate and distinct from Christianity. The main kicker for me comes down to their view of the Bible. The best way I can describe it to say that The Book of Mormon is to the Bible what the Koran is to the Torah (the first five books of the OT).\u00a0When you compare Christianity and Mormonism there are just too many differences that matter: the Trinity, divinity of Jesus, status of the Bible, etc.\u00a0\u00a0-Mormonism is not part of the Christian faith.<\/p>\n

Second, I don\u2019t see any reason that a Christian couldn\u2019t vote for a Mormon<\/em>\u00a0based on their religious beliefs. I think there are many reasons our faith would compel us not to vote for Mitt Romney, as there are many reasons our faith would compel us not to vote for Barack Obama, but I wouldn\u2019t vote against Mitt based on his Mormon faith.<\/p>\n

That being said, I do have two persistent concerns with the candidate Romney\u2019s faith. These are concerns not because he\u2019s a Mormon, but because he\u2019s a Mormon running for president. The two concerns are 1) Mormon soteriology and women, which I hope to write about once I get a chance to do more reading. 2) Mormon theology<\/a> and race.<\/p>\n

The second issue is the focus of yesterday\u2019s\u00a0article by Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Beast<\/a>\u00a0which articulates a legitimate concern. Sullivan notes that blacks were never permitted to be a full participant in the church until 1970. Mormons<\/a> revised their teaching, which is a really good thing. But it troubles many that Romney never opposed the churches teaching on race prior to that change.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that evangelicals are squarely behind Romney.\u00a0The L.A. Times has a story out this morning<\/a> about Evangelical support for Mitt Romney in which it is noted that evangelical support is peculiar given that there is not a Protestant Christian on the GOP ballot. There was a time when this would have bothered people. In fact, it was not long ago:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen 150 self-identified evangelical leaders met in Texas in January to decide on a candidate to support in the Republican primaries, Romney \u2014 then the front-runner in the campaign \u2014 got four votes, according to an evangelical advisor, Mark DeMoss, who cast one of the votes himself.<\/p>\n

There are fewer concerns about evangelical support today, even with Romney\u2019s selection of a Roman Catholic, Rep.\u00a0Paul D. Ryan<\/a>, as his running mate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our belief that the great irony of this election will be [that] you\u2019ll have the first ticket without a Protestant on it, and that ticket will get the highest support by evangelical voters of any ticket in history,\u201d said Gary Marx, executive director of the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition. \u201cThat\u2019s going to be the great irony \u2014 supporting a Mormon-Catholic ticket at record levels, and I think that\u2019s already showing up in the polling data.\u201d\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The party line for evangelicals has been that they are urging people to vote for the candidate who shares their values, an obvious tip of the hat to Romney\u2019s stance on abortion and gay marriage. Many Christians have pointed out that caring for the poor and seeing that wealth doesn\u2019t concentrate in the hands of a few rich while the poor suffer should be considered Christian values as well. This focus on \u201cshares our values\u201d is a purposeful strategy that seems to be working.<\/p>\n

\u201cA vast effort has gone into selling Romney to conservative evangelicals, led in part by Marx and his boss, Faith and Freedom founder Ralph Reed, and by such figures as Jim Daly, president of\u00a0Focus on the Family<\/a>, and DeMoss, an evangelical publicist who has served as an unofficial liaison between Romney and the evangelical community since before the 2008 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of us have been trying to shift the conversation from theology to values,\u201d DeMoss said. \u201cI\u2019m more interested in a candidate who shares my values than if he or she shares my theology. And indeed, as an evangelical and a conservative, I have more in common with many Mormons than I would with a liberal Southern Baptist.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Content Director\u2019s Note: This post is a part of our Election Month at Patheos feature. Patheos was designed to present the world\u2019s most compelling conservations on life\u2019s most important questions. Please join the Facebook following for our new News and Politics Channel \u2014 and check back throughout the month for more commentary on Election 2012. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[145,115,128,48,147,46,144,146],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-andrew-sullivan","tag-barack-obama","tag-christianity","tag-election-2012","tag-la-times","tag-mitt-romney","tag-mormonism","tag-the-daily-beast"],"yoast_head":"\nEvangelicals are coming out for Romney<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Content Director's Note: This post is a part of our Election Month at Patheos feature. 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