Some might think that Romney lost evangelicals because he wasn't Christian enough. I think it's the other way around. He acted too Christian.
Romney believed that to win the nomination he had to win over evangelical Christians. He figured the way to do that was to get all Jesusy. So he declared, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind." In so doing, he showed a fatal misunderstanding of the attitude of evangelicals toward Mormonism. Though some evangelicals do believe Mormonism is an evil cult, many simply believe it's an odd religion. Strange, but no stranger than all sorts of other religions. These evangelicals are actually quite tolerant, and would be willing to vote for a non-evangelical candidate who shared their values in other ways. Remember how popular Joe Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, was with evangelicals? Many Christians at the time simply said, well he's not of our faith but he's religious, the next best thing to being a religious Christian, and he's got conservative values.
Romney could have engendered the same response. He could have stressed his religiosity, and the wholesomeness of Mormons (a "brand asset" for the faith). But when he instead went around demonstrating his Christian-ness, he crossed a line, making many evangelicals think he was misrepresenting Christianity. He went from being odd to being dangerous."When he goes around and says Jesus Christ is my Lord and savior, he ticks off at least half the evangelicals,'' Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention said. "He's picking a fight he's going to lose."
Of course Romney was in a difficult position. Mormons do consider themselves Christian. So he was faced with the dilemma of alienating evangelicals and betraying his own faith.
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I grew up Evangelical Christian. Old reels of Dobson talking about family dynamics were some of the earliest memories I had in my Bible-Church in the 1st 1/2 of the 80s. It was rare to see a movie in church.
My Bible-Church wasn't to far from the LDS Temple under construction in Littleton at that time. We were taught explicitly that the LDS church was a cult.
The early 80s was a time the film 'The Godmakers' was being distributed. You can watch snippets of it on youtube.com (secret temple rituals, Mormon theology relating to deification).
Well, the Evangelical 'king-maker' Dobson supported Romney. My Evangelical leaning parents did too.
I gotta think that Evangelicals in Colorado Springs are shaking their heads wondering how the blatantly Evangelical organization was legitimizing what they consider to be a polytheistic cult in Dobson's tacit endorsement of Romney.
I was raised to believe that our American Founding Fathers were just as Evangelical as our own church flavor was.
I know that's BS now. Thirteen signers to the Constitution were Masons.
I have no problem with a candidate if as Jesus said his 'yes is yes' and his 'no is no'. Romney failed that miserably.
I've met many Mormons who don't believe they could make it to heaven through their own works. That would pass a Billy Graham litmus test.
So they've got the Trinity thing screwed up. How many Evangelicals understand the Trinity?
Since '94 I dropped the Evangelical thing. I could never wrap my brain around how the 'Sermon on the Mount' coincided with 'Supply Side' economics' preference for the rich.
Dobson, Robertson, Falwell, and Ralph Reed must all get it. They believe we need
Romney was such a dope, he campaigned at a car dealership in the Denver, metro area. Like we all trust car dealers? Yeah, maybe on planet Dobson.
Dobson is a piece of work to say the least. He's been moaning about how we live in a Christian country for the last two decades.
As Ben Franklin put it: Those compounded of gospel and law end up betraying both, and us as well.
Maybe Dobson should be giving lectures on condo-flipping.
It is a shame that Romney's kind of Christianity is not wanted in the Republican party. So much for the big tent acceptance of value voters. This is further evidence that the Republican party that has been formed by a large religious base can not show enough Christian good will to keep from falling apart. What goes around, comes around.
Mike,
I couldn't agree more.
Mormons are in an impossible situation. They are accused of not being Christian, their beliefs are regularly presented in a dishonest way by those who claim to be experts or former members, but if they say anything it creates a new set of problems. However, I think a very ugly underbelly of evangelicism has been exposed to the world that they should have kept under cover. Ultimately, bigotry never fares well under bright lights so congratulations to Romney for being willing to stand up to it. It won't be so difficult for the next candidate from the "wrong" religion.
Woop- I don't know when the last time you stepped in a Mormon church was which you "claim" to have served a mission for. Most of the members I know including myself have pictures of the temple, and of Jesus Christ on their wall- not Joseph Smith. EVERY talk in church, every testimony, every prayer is ended in the name of Jesus Christ- similar to swearing on the Bible in Court of days gone by.
We may mention Joseph Smith frequently- BUT it is as a prophet who we believe had a vision of who??? Jesus Christ. I don't worship Joseph Smith anymore than jews worship Moses.
Joseph Smith taught that the first principals of the Gospel are 1st Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,..(4th Article of Faith)
I think that Romney's "Mormon" problems were dying down to some extent, but I think that Huckabee seemed happy to work to take him out for McCain- Romney being the other religious candidate was "handicapped" vs Huckabee- no local LDS bishop would have invited Romney in to speak to his congregation.
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