Friday, May 18, 2007

Mitt Romney’s Mormonism – Part I

There have been questions raised recently by some Christians regarding whether a Mormon should become president. The reason for this is because Mitt Romney, a “top tier” Republican candidate, is a Mormon. This issue reminds me of when John Kennedy was a candidate for president back in 1960. Some Protestants were concerned that a Roman Catholic president would be taking orders from the Vatican, ridiculous as that sounds to us today. Now a similar concern has arisen with Romney. Should Christians be concerned about a Mormon as president?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the official name of the Mormon Church (sometimes abbreviated “LDS”), has the name “Jesus Christ” in it, but it is quite different from mainstream Christian churches (i.e., Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox). There are three aspects of the LDS church that make most mainstream or orthodox (with a small “O”) Christians consider it not truly “Christian” in the usual sense of the term:

(1) It has the Book of Mormon and several other books as its scripture in addition to the Bible;

(2) Its theology is quite different from mainstream Christianity in many different ways;

(3) Its eschatology (final judgment and end times) is also very different from mainstream Christianity and what the Bible has to say on this.

You can go to http://www.beliefnet.com/features/mormonism.html or other religious websites for more details on Mormonism and its beliefs.

In a future posting I’ll discuss whether a person’s formal religious affiliation is something that a person should consider when choosing whom to vote for in an election.

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