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There is of course, nothing wrong with a good
chumming. However, such a public connection
between Christian leaders and Romney could
cause many people to draw a connection between
Christianity and Mormonism. This was
not the only confusion the article brought to
my attention. Enter second hash: the religious
right’s involvement with politics.
Therefore, I endeavored to write this article
in order to clear up a couple of points:
1) Mormons are not Christians
2) It is not okay for religious leaders to back
any politician.
First let’s clear up my biggest beef with the
three most important differences between
Mormonism and Christianity:
1) Mormons believe that God the Father is
separate from Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Belief
in the “Trinity” is central to the Christian religion.
The Trinity is defined as the unity of three
spiritual persons (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost)
in one Godhead. For instance, Christians believe
that Jesus (the Son) is God. This stuff was
debated over fifteen hundred years ago, back
then we just exiled the people who disagreed
with us. Not so easy now.
2) To Mormons, the Book of Mormon has
just as much if not more spiritual weight
than the Bible. Christians have what is
called a “closed canon” (nothing is added to
or subtracted from the Bible). There are no
“lost” Scriptures so the Book of Mormon has
no weight for Christians.
3) Only Mormons will be able to enter the
highest level of heaven that God has created.
This just doesn’t make sense. Why on earth
would Christians be considered Mormons if
Christians couldn’t even reap the full benefit of
their own religion?
It is impossible for two groups of people who
have such extremely different views of the nature
and will of God to be the same.
Then, there is the issue of any Christian leader
backing any politician. The political arena
can never, should never and (as long as we are
sane) will never be the religious arena.
I strongly support the separation of church
and state, but not for the state’s sake! I am
concerned about the health of the church.
When religious leaders start influencing
votes for political candidates, there are red flags
going up in my brain.
Who would be the first kind of person to use
your influence for a while and then lose you?
Definitely a politician. It’s not only that I don’t
trust them. My dear reader, I have to emphasize
something: The Christian church is bigger
than the United States. Once our leaders start
claiming “ownership” of a religion, it stops being
a religion and starts becoming a policy. I
don’t want America to be the Christian nation.
I would rather it be the pagan nation. That
way we would discover quickly who is truly a
Christian, and who just wants to be popular.
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