I Could Be Wrong
by RAY WOLBRECHT
Robert Jeffries, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, issued the proclamation that Mormonism is a cult. His name was dragged through street garbage for that remark by our politically correct anything goes culture. Mitt Romney has been thrown marshmallows while Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Rick Perry have gotten the fastballs – the “gotcha” questions.
Romney is a Mormon – a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS). That makes the question of his beliefs an issue because, like it or not, his beliefs may predict how he’s going to act when faced with presidential issues.
Essentially there are two kinds of cults – sociological and theological with the David Koresh, the Jim Jones, and the Heaven’s Gate groups being both. Does the LDS church fit among these examples? Certainly not! Unlike the three groups mentioned, the LDS does not currently:
• have a charismatic leader
• have a retreatist, hostile orientation to major social institutions
But it does have major theological differences to mainstream orthodox doctrines, which the above mentioned groups have at their core but do not share. Therefore, LDS is a theological cult only in the sense that they have outgrown the antisocial behavior.
How are they different from mainstream orthodoxy?
• They disavow a Trinity relationship among the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• Jesus and Lucifer are brothers.
• God was once a man and is one god in a succession of many gods. An oft-spoken Mormon saying goes like this: “As we are, God once was; as God is, we can become.”
• By being a good Mormon and through good works (not by faith in Jesus and God’s grace) and by absolute belief in the prophet Joseph Smith,you will become a god of your own planet.
• Jesus’ death did not atone for the sins of mankind.
These are only a smidgeon of beliefs contrary to Christianity, which Mormonism is not!
Both Christianity and Mormonism have bizarre, far out beliefs to one who has never known either. God came down from heaven and was born of a virgin and 30 something years later he died for the sins of all mankind? Yeah … right! But when you learn the story of the creator of the LDS church, Joseph Smith, your brain will quake in your skull. At the onset of hearing about both, it’s clear that you have to set logic aside to believe in either. To be fair, take an honest man who has never been exposed to any religion and present him with the evidence for both Christianity and Mormonism. Christianity will stand up to scrutiny because it has been tested by the best for over 2000 years. Mormonism will fail on many accounts, the easy ones being archaeology and prophecy. For example: There are absolutely no remnants of Jewish cities in North America, told as fact in the Book of Mormon, that were built by two lost tribes of Jews who came here by boat around 600 BC, one tribe becoming the American Indian. Moreover, DNA analysis shows no connection between Jews and Native Americans. The inconsistencies go on ad infinitum. They rival the mutterings of Jeanne Dixon in their inaccuracy.
In many ways LDS people have a lot to admire. They, for the most part, have one of the finest work ethics I know of. Their family values are exemplary. Foul language is rare and they really look after each other. They seem to be gentle people, an asset to society. Cultural Christians should learn from them. True Christians already practice those good traits.
But one must ask the questions: If Romney truly believes the tenets of his religion, is he forsaking logic too severely for us to have confidence in his judgments? Are his analytical thought processes out of whack? Also the hierarchy of the LDS church is extremely authoritarian, exercising strict central control, logarithmically greater than the Vatican whom most Catholics ignore. What power over Romney will they exert? A Mormon who publicly questions LDS doctrines runs a serious risk of being banned from his religious community. It’s a social death sentence.
If you say it makes no difference what his private beliefs are, then you must approve without question a Wiccan, or a Scientology member, or an Atheist. A transvestite, maybe. What’s after that…NAMBLA?
If I am part of the choosing of the leader of our country, I want to know how he reasons and what logic does he use to make decisions.
That’s what I think but I could be wrong, you know.
