The evangelical blog bigwig Hugh Hewitt has taken a much-publicized position that opposing Mitt Romney's candidacy for U.S. President because of his Mormonism is mere bigotry, the same moral crime as would be anti-Semitism or racism. Indeed, Hewitt has written a book extolling Romney and urging America's Christians to disregard the man's particular religion when it comes time to vote...a religion based on the extra-biblical (and anti-biblical) revelations brought by the angel Moroni to the chosen prophet, Joseph Smith.Good grief. Is Christianity so weak, so destitute, so irrelevant in this country that its adherents can't even stand against the clearest and most sinister of heresies?
In this column, Frank Pastore reminds believers of a few important basics.
When there is a conflict between the moral and the legal, the moral must trump. For the legal is the attempt to codify the moral. When there is a conflict between the church and the state, the church must trump (when the state attempts to prevent the church from being the church). For Christians, ultimate allegiance must be reserved for Jesus and His Word. Anything short of this is compromise and idolatry.
On the question of “Who is Lord?” The Christian can only respond, “Jesus is Lord.”...
... I’m a Christian-American-Conservative-Republican–in that order. I support Christianity first and foremost, everything else flows from that. I’m a Christian who happens to be a Republican, not a Republican who happens to be a Christian. I care more about people coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ than I do any political candidate. At the end of my life, the question I will be asked is not, “Whom did you help elect?” But, “Whom did you serve?”
Hugh says bigotry is exposed by simply inserting the word “Jew” for “Mormon” in suspect statements. This seems to imply that both stand in the same relationship to Christianity. This is not so. Jews and Christians worship the same God, Mormons worship different gods. And Jews don’t insist they are the restoration of Christianity after eighteen centuries of apostasy.
Since Joseph Smith so clearly misrepresents the person and work of Jesus Christ, and the Book of Mormon is antithetical to the Bible, why would it be bigotry if someone chooses not to support such heresy?
Hugh’s political point here is that any American is bigoted for rejecting a candidate simply because of his or her religion. My primary concern is that Christians will become excessively “tolerant,” that they will bend their knees to the Caesar of political correctness, that they will lose their confidence to confront a fallen culture, that they will be unwilling to say, “X is a false religion that teaches a different Jesus”—whether that X is Scientology, Islam, or Mormonism...
...As a political conservative, I like Romney more than I like Giuliani or McCain. If he wins the nomination, I’ll vote for him.
But my primary concern is as a Christian. This means that I’m concerned that should Romney win, public criticism of Mormonism will be chilled, the Gospel will be compromised, and Christians will have elevated the political expediency of the state above the eternal purposes of the church.
This must never happen. For to me, Jesus is Lord, not Caesar.
Every Christian should want Mormonism exposed for what it is to all the world. Even if it becomes the religion of the President of the United States.
These are extremely important issues to consider. Indeed, the points Pastore outlines are the very ones that, unlike him, convince me I could not in good conscience vote for Mitt Romney at all.
You see, I do not subscribe to a "lesser of two evils" voting philosophy. The right (and the responsibility) to vote is a very precious thing and I remember the sacrifices made to protect that right. I refuse to toss it in the dirt. Therefore, if a candidate has lousy ideas, a lousy record or, for that matter, is simply a louse, he or she doesn't get my vote. Simple. Uncomplicated. Pure. Christianity never allows for moral or intellectual compromises and so there are times when the necessary political choice is not a "this or that" but a principled "neither."
For more on Romney's religion, I remind you of these recent Vital Signs Blog posts: One; two; and three.
