For decades Billy Graham as assumed the role of the presumptive U.S. “National Pastor.” He was led astray in his “mix” of conservative politics and far right religionism.
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| Praying to Different Deities: Billy Graham and Richard Nixon 1972 |
From the Washington Post October 18, 2012:
The Rev. Billy Graham’s Web site has removed an article labeling Mormonism a cult, a move that follows Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s visit to the evangelical leader.Source: “Mormonism as ‘Cult’ Removed From Billy Graham Site” by Siobhan Hughes in the Washington Post on October 18, 2012.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reported the disappearance of the article earlier. The article had said that “Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, the Unification Church, Unitarians, Spiritists, Scientologists, and others” were cults. Mr. Graham, 93 years old, met with Mr. Romney last week, on Oct. 11 at his home in Montreat,North Carolina. Mr. Romney soon after addressed a crowd in Asheville, N.C.
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On his Web site, Mr. Graham says that a cult is a group that claims that it alone offers salvation. He doesn’t mention any religious groups by name, but says that cults often claim the books their founder wrote have equal authority to the Bible.
Prior to Dr. Graham’s endorsement of Mitt Romney, previously coined a “Mormon Cult leader”, this was Billy Graham Evangelical Association’s’s theological position on the “cult” formerly known as the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS) or Mormons:
Mitt Romney’s campaign just got an endorsement from Billy Graham. I’m sure that will change the minds of all of the Obama supporters in his congregation. There’s just this little hangup. Until a few month’s ago, Graham’s website said…
"A cult is any group which teaches doctrines or beliefs that deviate from the biblical message of the Christian faith. It is very important that we recognize cults and avoid any involvement with them. Cults often teach some Christian truth -mixed with error, which may be difficult to detect. There are some features common to most cults:
Source: "It’s God’s word… until it’s convenient for them to change it" by JT Eberhard on October 14, 2012.Some of these groups are Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, the Unification Church, Unitarians, Spiritists, Scientologists, and others."
- They do not adhere solely to the sixty-six books of the Bible as the inspired Word of God. They add their “special revelations” to the Bible and view them as equally authoritative.
- They do not accept that our relationship to Jesus Christ is a reality “by grace through faith” alone, but promote instead a salvation by works.
- They do not give Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, full recognition as the second Person of the Trinity, composed of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Graham’s wrongful theological (Christology) choice to endorse Romney’s occultism via Romney’s bid for the presidency has serious consequences for his Protestant Tradition: Racism and Mormon Occultism has been allowed to trump the Core Doctrines held by the Protestant Faith; The Divinity of Christ & the Infallibility and Literal Interpretation of Scripture.
Billy Graham Throws His Support to a Non-Christian Cult leader for U.S. President Thereby Promoting Occultism & the Errors of Mormonism Over and Against the Christian Faith
Romney visits with Rev. Billy Graham, Calls It A “Tremendous Honor,” the aging pastor led a prayer for the Romneys and promised to: “I'll do all I can to help you. And you can quote me on that,” according to a Romney advisor who sat in on the meeting.Source: Buzzfeed article by Chris Giedner on October 11, 2012.
This not the first time Billy Graham has stepped into the deep weeds of Republican politics and gotten mucked down by his decision.
This time however Billy has very possibly dealt waning Protestantism a death blow. Giving approval to the election of a Mormon amounts to an endorsement of the truth and authenticity Mormonism, that nativist American cult and all its fantastical claims, its political aggressive pursuit of civil law and prohibitions, occult rites, and non-Christian moral practices.
“God is very precise in this point; He will say to such as (Mormons who) invent ways to worship Him of their own, coin means to mortify corruption, obtain comfort in their own mint: 'Who hath required this at your hands?' This is truly to be 'righteous over-much,' as Solomon speaks, when we will pretend to correct God's law (“The Book of Mormon” and supplements such as “The Pearl of Great Price, the “Doctrine” and “Covenants of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”) of our own to His rule.” -- William Gurnall, (1617 –1679) English author and clergyman, in “How to Judge of the Truth of our Faith”Note: Parenthetical Additions made above have been inserted to illustrate the kinds of ‘inventions’ made the subject of Gurnall’s powerful statement identifying heresy and false doctrines pretending false doctrines intent ‘to correct God’s law’.
Crisis in November 2012: The intersection of cult racism and Religious Right Racism
Billy Graham began his ‘higher education’ at the racist Bob Jones College in 1933:
Lost in the spectacular news accounts of the election of a black man as president of the United States is another event — this time in higher education — that stands as a milestone in racial progress. In an eloquent statement, Stephen Jones, great-grandson of the founder and the fourth president of Bob Jones University, has apologized for the institution’s racist past.To Graham’s credit he left Bob Jones for Wheaton College, but his Old South heritage concerning Blacks and racism seems never to have been fully suppressed or changed within his thinking. In one of many conversations with the disgraced Richard Nixon, Graham is heard supporting the views held by southern bigots with whom Nixon had forged his infamous “Southern Strategy.”
President Jones stated, “For almost two centuries American Christianity, including BJU in its early stages, was characterized by the segregationist ethos of American culture. Consequently, for far too long, we allowed institutional policies regarding race to be shaped more directly by that ethos than by the principles and precepts of the Scriptures. We conformed to the culture rather than provide a clear Christian counterpoint to it.
“In so doing, we failed to accurately represent the Lord and to fulfill the commandment to love others as ourselves. For these failures we are profoundly sorry. Though no known antagonism toward minorities or expressions of racism on a personal level have ever been tolerated on our campus, we allowed institutional policies to remain in place that were racially hurtful.” (Emphasis Added)
“(It is) Rev. Billy Graham who facilitated the re-emergence of evangelicals into the public social sphere following a long period of inward-direction that occupied most evangelicals following the public humiliation they had suffered after the Scopes trial.”Source: “Mapping the Right: Historic Building Blocks of the Contemporary US Right” from “Roosevelt to Reagan - The Old Right Stuff” (Political Research Associates)
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| Billy Graham "Pastor to the Presidents": Preaching or Leeching? From Left to Right - George W.H. Bush, Bill Clinton, Billy Graham, (son) Franklin Graham and Jimmy Carter. |
More Billy Graham Political History
The endorsement of Mormonism, via Mitt Romney, is not Billy Graham’s first mistaken act of denial of the purity proclaimed by his ministry. Dr. Graham has been caught in the muck of mixing religion and politics repeatedly over a long time. The degree to which he did so is not fully known. Dr. Graham was caught up in the lies and the betrayal of the Republic in the Watergate affair.
However, there are several examples from the Nixon era, dark blemishes caught on tape one of which is when Rev. Billy Graham openly voiced a belief that Jews control the American media, calling it a "stranglehold" during a 1972 conversation with President Richard Nixon, according to a tape of the Oval Office meeting latger released by the National Archives:
"This stranglehold has got to be broken or the country's going down the drain," the nation's best-known preacher [Graham] declared as he agreed with a stream of bigoted Nixon comments about Jews and their perceived influence in American life.The description of this Nixon – Graham exchange by James Warren of the Chicago Tribune continues:
"You believe that?" Nixon says after the "stranglehold" comment.
"Yes, sir," Graham says.
"Oh, boy," replies Nixon.
"So do I. I can't ever say that but I believe it."
"No, but if you get elected a second time, then we might be able to do something," Graham replies.
Thursday's release of 426 hours brings to about 2,600, out of a total of 3,700, the hours of recordings either publicly disclosed or returned to the Nixon family because they were deemed strictly personal. Many recordings, including the Graham tape, are edited to exclude content believed to disclose national security information, constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy or reveal trade secrets, among other matters.Source: “Nixon And Billy Graham Anti-Semitism Caught On Tape” by James Warren, Chicago Tribune staff reporter, March 1, 2002.
Previous tapes have underscored the complexity of Nixon, including his insecurity and occasional nastiness. Apologists tend to cite his fits of bigotry as ancillary to his policy achievements, with the Nixon estate claiming that his harshness was often a display of faux machismo in the presence of H.R. Haldeman or his other top aide, John Erlichman.
While other prominent figures, such as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, then a Nixon aide, can also be heard on tapes during mean-spirited discourses by Nixon, many assumed a more passive role. Graham is unusual for being a distinguished outsider actively taking part.
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Haldeman's diaries noted the conversation. He wrote that there was discussion "of the terrible problem arising from the total Jewish domination of the media, and agreement that this was something that would have to be dealt with."
He continues, "Graham has the strong feeling that the Bible says there are satanic Jews and there's where our problem arises." No such comments about the Bible are found on the tape released Thursday but, because it contains several long deletions, it's believed such remarks were excised.
The Desperation of the GOP & Its Tea Party Zealots to Hang On To Power
It’s all about systemic racism & the willingness to endorse a cultish Mormon bishop over a Christian black: The GOP will do anything to win & so will Billy Graham.
The ugly, greedy motivations behind the Republican Southern Racial Strategy and the power lust of certain Fundamentalist Protestant Religious Leaders is exposed in the promotion of a Mormon Cult Leader for President of the United States over a confessed Christian President who is Black.
Real harm has been committed by the cable pundits in their ignoring the significance of the arm-twisting and the contrivances performed by certain Protestant leaders to “white wash” the challenge that Mormon Cultism raises to Fundamentalist Christian “Truth” and doctrine. These paid religo-politicos, theoloticians, have chosen to ignore their own historic teachings and infallible sacred doctrines in order to defeat America’s first Black President.
These corrupted moralists have allowed and passively augmented the most bigoted and hateful language of Talk Radio and FOX Cable News to falsely portray as Barack Obama as not Christian, a secret Muslim, and Un-American. This Atwater strand, carried and expanded by Rupert Murdock’s faux news combine headed by racist Roger Ailes (cut in the image of Lee Atwood See the film Boogie Man: the Lee Atwater Story ), amoral and cutthroat Karl Rove, and a gaggle of Ol’ South Republicans inhabiting the U.S. Congress [men and women who hold and revere the glory and culture of antebellum Dixie] to undermine and destroy the goodness of our President for the purchase of power and control in pursuit of personal and corporate gain.
Although the Mormon Hierarchy loosened its prohibition on African Americans / Blacks from participating in their ‘preisthood’ nothing in the very explicit and damning writings of Joseph Smith’s other worldly “guides” has been “rewritten” or adjusted by rewrite. The offensive original writings and anti-Black doctrines still stand stating unchanged.
Mormon founder Joseph Smith stated the following:
"For instance, the descendants of Cain cannot cast off their skin of blackness, at once, and immediately, although every soul of them should repent, obey the Gospel, and do right from this day forward. . . . Cain and his posterity must wear the mark, which God put upon them; and his white friends may wash the race of Cain with fuller’s soap every day, they cannot wash away God’s mark; The Lamanites, through transgression, became a loathsome, ignorant and filthy people, and were cursed with a skin of darkness yet, they have the promise, if they will believe, and work righteousness, that not many generations shall pass away before they shall become a white and delightsome people; but it will take some time to accomplish this at best."
Source: The Latter-Day Saints Millennial Star, vol. 14, p. 418
Dr. Richard Land and his promotion of Mormonism as a Fourth Abrahamic Religion
One religious operator, Dr. Richard Land, stands out as a man stained by hereditary SBC racism and years of religious pomposity based in his long control of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
In the very year that a black man was elected the head of the Southern Baptist Convention, Rev. Fred Luter Jr., it was Richard Land that embarrassed and betrayed his denomination with highly controversial racist remarks as reported below by the Baptist Press on June 1, 2012:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- Two reprimands have been issued to Richard Land by the trustee executive committee of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC).The two reprimands given to Richard Land by the ERLC trustee executive committee state:
The ERLC trustee executive committee also is terminating Land's weekly call-in radio show -- the venue where Land made comments about the Trayvon Martin killing that ignited intense controversy, prompting the formation of a trustee ad hoc investigative committee.
The ERLC, led by Land since 1988, must "redouble our efforts … to heal re-opened wounds," the executive committee said of Land's on-air comments about the intrusion of politics into the Trayvon Martin case and his references to President Obama and the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson by name.
At the outset of its reprimands and broadcast termination, the trustee committee stated that Land's statements "were very hurtful and offensive to the Trayvon Martin family and to many in the African-American community, including hundreds of thousands of African-American Southern Baptists. Damage was done to the state of race relations in the Southern Baptist Convention."
"We reprimand Dr. Land for his hurtful, irresponsible, insensitive, and racially charged words on March 31, 2012 regarding the Trayvon Martin tragedy. It was appropriate for Dr. Land to issue the apology he made on May 9, 2012 and we are pleased he did so. We also convey our own deepest sympathies to the family of Trayvon Martin for the loss they have suffered. We, too, express our sorrow, regret, and apologies to them for Dr. Land's remarks. We are particularly disappointed in Dr. Land's words because they do not accurately reflect the body of his work over a long career at the ERLC toward racial reconciliation in the Southern Baptist Convention and American life. We must now redouble our efforts to regain lost ground, to heal re-opened wounds, and to realize the dream of a Southern Baptist Convention that is just as diverse as the population of our great Nation.”Dr. Land was compelled to issue an apology after the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Ethics and Liberty Committee removed him from his daily on-air program which was broadcast on the same “Christian” network which has also long aired the scurrilous and racist rants of one Michael Savage.
Again from the Baptist Press:
In his May 9 apology, Land apologized "for the harm my words of March 31, 2012, have caused to specific individuals, the cause of racial reconciliation, and the gospel of Jesus Christ." The five-part, two-page apology followed a May 2 meeting when Land met with 11 other SBC leaders, including several prominent African American pastors. As a result of the meeting, which lasted nearly five hours, Land said, "I have come to understand in sharper relief how damaging my words were."Mormonism Is A Hoax
On the Basis of textual and historic as well as literary criticism Mormonism is seen as an elaborate, highly creative act of religious and cultish fiction:
Critics reject Smith's explanation of the origin of the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon was originally an ancient native-American record written on golden plates, and that God gave him the power to translate it into English. Critics note that there is no physical proof of the existence of golden plates; Smith said that the angel Moroni reclaimed the plates once he had completed the translation. Smith acquired affidavits from 11 men, known as the Book of Mormon witnesses, claiming that they had been shown the plates; their testimony is typically published at the beginning of the Book of Mormon. While none of these men ever retracted their statement[dubious – discuss], critics nevertheless discount these testimonies for varying reasons, primarily because most of these men were closely interrelated.Source: Criticism of the Book of Mormon on Wiki.
Critics deny that the Book of Mormon is of ancient origin. They assert that portions of the Book of Mormon were plagiarized from modern publications of Smith's time, including the King James Bible, The Wonders of Nature, View of the Hebrews, and an unpublished manuscript written by Solomon Spalding.
Critics have varying theories about the true authorship of the Book of Mormon, but most conclude that Smith fabricated it himself, or possibly with the aid of Oliver Cowdery.
The Alarming Convergence of Mormon Racial Doctrine & Republican Use of Race for Political and Religious Advantage: Winning Elections in the Solid South.
The steady march of the current GOP is deeper and deeper into a revisionist view of slavery, affirmative action, and the meaning of charity and welfare. Numerous Republicans have been caught up in crude racial remarks and published statements/sentiments indicating that slavery was actually advantageous and desirable for African Americans. After all wasn’t their experience in pre-Civil War America far more preferable to living in Africa?
But here is the heart of it from Ron Rosenbaum over at Slate.com on October 8, 2012:
“I’ve spent some time putting “truth” claims and false equivalencies in perspective because I want to test the theory that there is one truth in political discourse that the media has almost entirely failed to recognize or fears to utter, one at the heart of presidential campaign reporting: The Republican Party is an institutionally, structurally racist entity. It’s the veritable elephant in the room of campaign coverage.The Recent Change in the SBC Regarding People of Color Has Raised Old Resentments & Riled Backlash
No, I’m not saying all Republicans are racist. I’m saying that as a party, ever since Goldwater and Nixon concocted the benighted, openly racist “Southern Strategy” in the ’60s, the Republican Party has profited from overt and covert racism.
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Which means in practice that the GOP starts out every presidential election with (depending on census changes in electoral vote numbers) some 100 electoral votes, more than a third of the way to the 270 electoral votes needed for victory.”
Black Protestants have good cause to eye Republicans “warily”. From Southern Baptist Convergence by Molly Worthen in the New York Times on June 18, 2012:
The reasons for their alienation, rooted in history, are still with us today. Black Protestants may affirm Christ’s divinity, the Bible’s literal authority, and the other basic doctrines that white conservatives preach. But a statement of creed is not the same thing as lived religion. In many black churches, the crucible of slavery, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement has forged these doctrines into a theology quite different from the cocktail of personal moralism, prophecy and Christian libertarianism that has come to preoccupy the Christian right.The Heart of the Matter: Mitt Romney was (is) a Mormon Bishop, a high profile cult leader and his beliefs, while not restricted by the U.S. Constitution (guaranteeing freedom of religion and asserting there can be no “religious test” for public office, which includes Romney’s Mormon cult), must be assessed and decided upon by those who hold their historic Christian faith as inviolate, separate from Mormonism with its many pagan and occult practices and deceptions.
If conservative evangelicals are serious about making common political cause with black Protestants, they must revise their expectation that a free market and… a population that obeys their particular reading of scripture will correct the injustices ingrained in American society. They must rethink their approach to America’s history and its modern-day problems.
Black Protestants have good cause to eye Republicans warily and mistrust the label “evangelical”: the Christian right’s concerns do not match their own experience or priorities. Tony Evans, pastor of the Dallas megachurch Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, is as a good candidate as any to represent “black evangelicalism”: he was the first African-American to earn a doctorate from the Dallas Theological Seminary, a bastion of fundamentalism. There he found that he “was getting evangelical training, but on the other hand, I was in this social reality, and I didn’t see them coming together,” he told me when I visited his church a couple of years ago.
At a seminary best known for teaching biblical inerrancy and prophecies of Armageddon, Evans wrote his doctoral thesis on James Cone, the dean of black liberation theology, a school of thought that critiques unjust social and economic conditions through the lens of the gospel. Today Evans spends more time working to keep troubled kids and teenagers in school and drug-free through his ministry, The Urban Alternative, than he does picking fights over classic evangelical obsessions like the theory of evolution. Evans is no liberal — he favors faith-based activism over government intervention and recently criticized President Obama for abandoning the Defense of Marriage Act — but as Evans explains it, “as a black evangelical, I live in two worlds. That’s a tension for me.”
To affirm and accept Mitt Romney as somehow “Christian” as the Latter Day Saints have long attempted to do, is to deny the central divinity of Christ and the literal and binding authority of Christian scripture.
The Fundamentalist Christian community, largely represented by the Southern Baptist Convention’s membership of 16 million, is confronted with an historic and deadly serious challenge.
Leaders like the now reprimanded and disciplined Richard Land have attempted to twist the arms of other leaders to hush their proclamation of the SBC’s coda of teaching: Mormonism is a devilish cult and a direct enemy of Evangelical Christianity, a group that is aggressive and determined to overtake Christianity as the Southern Baptist have loved and enjoyed for hundreds of years... since the Ascension of Christ.
According to Raymond Takashi Swenson, a Mormon USAF veteran in his comments on “Mormons and Evangelicals” on PBS, October 14, 2012:
“The fact is that the Southern Baptists are losing membership consistently by 50,000 to 100,000 a year, while the Mormon membership is growing by about a third of a million every year. Baptists see a direct connection between these numbers. Protestant pastors feel that conversion from their congregations is a direct threat to their incomes. They call it “sheep stealing”. There is confusion between the salvation of congregants and the career of their pastor. When pastors claim that Mormons have a venal motive to add members, they seem to be projecting their own views onto Mormons, because Mormons do not have a career clergy.”What are Evangelical leaders of the movement saying about Romney—the Mormon? The fiery Pentecostal Assemblies of God’s George O. Wood rolls over to smooth over his desire to elect a Republican, Mormon occult and sex cult or not.
The Assemblies of God, a Missouri-based Pentecostal group with more than 12,600 U.S. churches, has launched its first national voter education and registration drive in a presidential-election year. George O. Wood, the denomination's leader, said he was inspired to undertake the project by Champion the Vote, which works to identify and mobilize previously unregistered conservative Christians.
The Assemblies of God voter drive makes no mention of specific candidates or their religion, but the denomination is among the many Christian churches that, in an effort to counter what it considers heretical, has been challenging Mormonism as unbiblical. Pentecostals are known for spirit-filled worship, belief in divine healing and, according to surveys, their social conservatism.Source: “Evangelical leaders worry Romney's Mormonism could suppress conservative turnout” in an AP story published in the New Orleans Times Picayune by October 9, 2012.
"I think our people recognize we live in a pluralistic culture, therefore one has to look at a candidate and see what values and policies they have independent of what their religious association might be and make a determination on that basis," Wood said in a phone interview. "You can form friendships with people even though you don't agree with them doctrinally."
Conservative Christians believe they have a duty to point out false beliefs they fear could lead others astray and risk their eternal salvation.
From “Mormonism, voter enthusiasm concern evangelicals” by Rachel Zoll, AP Religion Writer in the Denver Post, October 9, 2012:
“[Albert] Mohler (a Southern Baptist leader) and other academics took up the issue in a discussion last month at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the flagship training ground for future leaders of the nearly 16 million-member denomination. Called "The Mormon Moment? Religious Conviction and the 2012 Election," the speakers went to great lengths to emphasize that religion should not be a consideration when voting.”This new Far Right Religionists’ tactic is exactly the opposite of the endorsement and support these very Evangelicals gave G.W. Bush as their chosen “Christian-in-Chief.”
This in clear reversal of the Far Right Religionist’s previous bodacious and defiant political promotion of George W. Bush as a born-gain Christian-a Republican who was hailed their “Christian-in-Chief.”
It all boils down to the fact that Mitt the Mormon is not a “Christian” and that inspire of the danger and the challenge to their church membership and sacred “infallible” doctrine, these leaders will support the occult Mormonism over and against the nation’s first Black President whom they falsely and maliciously label a “secret Muslim”.
Endnotes & Follow Up
Here are Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake, on The Fix:
When Romney delivered his “Faith in America” speech in 2007, the Southern Baptist response was to label Mormonism a “theological cult” and “false religion.”Source: “The unexpected evangelical silence on Mitt Romney’s Mormonism” by Jonathan Merritt, Religion News Service in the Washington Post June 12, 2012.
What’s surprising in 2012 is the relative lack of anxiety on the other side, among evangelicals who for years considered Mormonism a “cult” that was to be feared, not embraced.
In fact, the relative ambivalence among prominent evangelicals about this new “Mormon moment” — and the fact that Romney’s campaign could mainstream Mormonism right into the Oval Office — could radically shift the dynamics on America’s political and religious landscape.
“You can already see the change in thinking among many evangelicals who see Mitt Romney more as the Republican candidate for president and less as a Mormon,” said Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, who declined, when asked, to label Mormonism a “cult.”
Matt Viser in “Romney’s run evokes pride, fear in Mormons” in The Boston Globe on May 29, 2012:
“For Mormons, this is a potentially volatile moment. They are deeply proud that their faith’s most prominent adherent, Mitt Romney, is steps away from a presidential nomination and could push the faith further into the mainstream.”
What do the Evangelicals say about the Cult of Mormonism?
Here’s just one example, again returning to the AP story “Mormonism, voter enthusiasm concern evangelicals” by Rachel Zoll on October 9, 2012:
As [Steve] Strang was getting out the vote last month, the news editor of his best-known magazine, Charisma, wrote a column calling Mormonism "bizarre" and a "Christianesque cult." Another columnist called Mormon doctrines "creepy and (with apologies to Mitt Romney) demonic."How Twisted is the “Hour of Decision” for Billy Graham and other ‘Sold out” Evangelicals?
Janet Parshall, a veteran Christian broadcaster now with Moody Radio, invited on her show Tricia Erickson, a former Mormon turned born-again Christian and author of "Can Mitt Romney Serve Two Masters? The Mormon Church Versus the Office of the Presidency of the United States of America."
Parshall effusively praised Mormons for their dedication to family and compassion for others. She spoke fondly about working with Mormons in Washington. "When we would fight for pro-family issues, boy I tell you, we'd be able to do that with our Mormon friends because they shared the same kinds of values that we did," Parshall said. But she said there was a need to point out "what is biblically correct and what is not." In the ensuing interview, Erickson went on to call Mormonism blasphemous and describe rituals inside Mormon temples, which are for Mormons in good standing only, as "silly," "bizarre" and "violent."
These religious ‘operators’ [many owning and controlling multi-million dollar religiously-based empires] have ‘sold out’ to stay in the “faith-based” funding loop. They fear the reversal or end of the G.W. Bush originated larder and spoils in the form of “faith-based funding” which has by now funneled billions of dollars to church groups from federal taxpayer sources.
See Faith-based Funding on Theocracy Watch.
"We want to fund programs that save Americans one soul at a time." -- President George W. Bush, January, 2004, in a speech in New OrleansHow Much Taxpayer Money Has Gone to Religious Purposes via Faith-Based Federal Funding?
“The March, 2004, issue of Church and State reports that the "Faith Czar" Jim Towey announced to reporters that $40 billion dollars was now available to religious charities.Source: “The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party” on Theocracy Watch.
By studying White House press releases and the White House web site, Daniel Zwerdling found that religious groups could apply to more than a hundred federal programs that gave out more than $65 billion. In addition, religious groups could apply for more money through state-administered programs.”
These amounts were reported as allocated prior to 2006. By now additional tens of billions more have been piped into, showered upon receptive sectarian groups and far right religionist schemes. Many Evangelical leaders are caught up and trapped in this ‘bribe’ given in exchange for their efforts to control and maneuver the “values-voter base” so totally necessary to the National Republican and Tea Party Movement (the strongest TP membership of this base is in those Ol’ Southern States, the Confederacy). This year the ‘choice’ is impossible, a Black or a Mormon Cult Leader: Obama or Romney. It is on the basis of the bias and bigotry of this group a totally IMPOSSIBLE choice for this Dixie Base.
Here’s how it comes down to an Evangelical Leader:
"The fact is that Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and many of our people are very, very uncomfortable about voting for a Mormon, as I am. I supported somebody else in the primary. But, hey, we have no option," said Steve Strang, an influential Pentecostal publisher.”Source: "Mormonism, voter enthusiasm concern evangelicals" by Rachel Zoll AP religion writer on October 9, 2012.
How do the Evangelical Republican religious leaders manage this 2012 “no way out” dilemma?
Here’s the magic scenario:
Russell Moore, a theologian and a seminary dean, said a candidate's religious outlook should be examined specifically for "whether or not the person is going to be able to work for the common good." But he and others warned that supporting a candidate for president does not mean accepting his faith. Says Moore: "If a President Romney is elected we're the people who are willing to, if we're invited into the Oval Office, say, 'President Romney, here's where we agree with you, here's what we like about what you're doing, and we sincerely want to plead with you to believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ so you don't perish everlasting.'"Source: “Evangelical leaders worry Romney's Mormonism could suppress conservative turnout” in an AP story published in the New Orleans Times Picayune by October 9, 2012.
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| Oil & Water - Political Pews and Evangelical Page Views: Billy Graham Evangelical Council Political Advertisement supporting Mitt Romney that appeared in full page ads in USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and others publications nationwide. |
Let’s see that again - Evangelicals are Pushing Romney Their rationale… Elect a Mormon, a cult bishop they proclaim; hope Evangelicals are invited to have an open door to the Oval Office, hope Evangelicals have a two-way dialogue, and then tell the Cult Leader:
“We (pandering Evangelical leaders) sincerely want to plead with you to believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ (rather than your occult Book of Mormon) so you don’t perish everlasting (burn eternally in Hell.)”
How, beguiled and diluted is this contrivance? Put Romney in the White House and then try to convert him to ‘true born-again’ salvation? This is absurd and an abomination to the Christian faith.
Billy Graham (on the brink of death) is the nation’s most prominent Evangelical leader. He now leads his followers down the path to perdition and denial of the Gospel and Salvation found in Jesus Christ by endorsing the anti-Evangelical/Christian Mormon Cult via Mitt Romney and therefore grant Protestant approval to the doctrine of Mormonism.
Christianity Claims Only One Way to God: Jesus—There is no salvation by any other.
It was Jesus Christ who proclaimed:
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” -- John 14:6The Book of Acts of the Apostles Makes a Clear Statement of Christ’s Centrality to the Christian Faith at the exclusion of all other religions or cults:
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” -- Acts 4:12Afterthought: Will Mitt Take the Oath of Office on the Book of Mormon?
The most alarming information that the media is not bringing to the American People is the reality that Mitt Romney truly believes that when he dies, if he has kept his symbolic blood oaths and covenants to the Mormon Church, he will become a literal God in his next life. This is extremely important because Mitt Romney absolutely must put the Prophet and the religion of Mormonism first, before his allegiance to our country. His very eternal exaltation to godhood depends on it.
Watch VIDEO “Mitt Romney and the Mormon Church” by Thom Hartmann & Tricia Erickson
As a Mormon "God", Mitt believes that he will be given his very own planet-kingdom in which to call his wife, Ann, into by her secret name, given only to Mitt in the secret Mormon temple ceremony. If Mitt does not call Ann into his kingdom, she will be placed in one of the lower Mormon “kingdoms of glory”, which puts Mitt in charge of Ann’s literal Mormon salvation and eternal life destination. If Mitt does call Ann into his kingdom, he and she will have relations to populate it with spirit children.
Watch a VIDEO of the entire secret Mormon “Endowment” Ceremony.
Description: This is the entire Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony (with movie) that is in every temple in the world except the Manti, Utah and Salt Lake City, Utah temples. (Break) Take special note of the "Law of Consecration" that is at the 58:40 mark. [Mitt Romney has sworn to obey this oath countless times.] Do you really want the President of the United States to be a man who has sworn to "consecrate" all of his "time, talents and everything with which the Lord has blessed him with or with which he will be blessed with" to the Mormon Church?!?!If in fact Mormon religious beliefs, doctrines, and practices are truly genuine Christian, then the greater Christian congregation of the world should be freely admitted to the Mormon Temples and should be allowed to freely observe and partake in its secret rites, oaths, and covenants including their secret ‘endowment ceremony”. Obviously Mormons reject and dispute this claim and with good reason they are not Christian they are an invented religion.
What is at Stake for the Cult of Mormonism with Mitt Romney, candidate for U.S. President? Several observers point out that Romney may be able to do far more for the faith now than he ever has - whether as a missionary in France or a church leader in Massachusetts.
For a faith whose signature work has been going door to door to win converts - and whose adherents cheerfully answer questions by anyone who asks - Romney provides an amplified form of outreach.
“It will be good for the church, because many people around the world have really weird ideas of Mormons,’’ said Bob Bennett, a former US senator, a Mormon, and a Romney supporter, in an interview. “To have someone who is well educated, successful in his career, successful in his family have this high a profile sends the message to the world: The Mormons are not the crazy cult that many of you think we are.’’
Source: “Romney’s run evokes pride, fear in Mormons: Anxious how faith will be perceived on grand political stage”, The Boston Globe May 29, 2012.
The near unreal possibility that Billy Graham would throw over his Fundamentalist beliefs in historic Christianity for Mitt Romney’s Mormon Hoax is earthshaking and will continue to destroy Graham’s own faith and credibility as a honored Protestant leader and the former “Nation’s Pastor.” As for the LDS, it dictates the vote for its members…
That dynamic, of course, should be familiar to Catholics; and Baptists, Muslims, Orthodox Jews, and even Zen Buddhists have also wrestled with ordaining women. But none of those faiths ordain every adult and adolescent male, so that the sacred authority extends so powerfully and thoroughly into the household.The Mormon Church issues orders to members of the cult to vote in specific ways in public elections:
But the question of whether Romney shares the Mormon perspective on women’s proper role should be especially important to voters given the church’s history of political activism. Mormons fought tooth and nail against the Equal Rights Amendment, even excommunicating members of the church who publicly split on the issue.
More recently, the church took what The New York Times called “an extraordinary role” in passing Proposition 8 in California, the successful ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage in the state. Just this month, The Daily Beast’s Jamie Reno reported that David Twede, the managing editor of Mormon Think, said he’d been threatened with excommunication for writing critically about Romney. And the church has interfered in smaller secular matters as well, even reportedly using its religious authority to tell the faithful which side to take in a local zoning fight.
Marion G. Romney—a first cousin of George (Mitt’s father) who was a former member of the First Presidency of the Church, its highest authority - famously related the instructions he’d received from the Mormon prophet: “Always keep your eye on the president of the church, and if he ever tells you to do anything, and it is wrong, and you do it, the Lord will bless you for it.”Source: “Jim Lehrer: Ask Mitt Romney if He Stands By Mormonism’s Views of Women” by Stacey Solie on October 2, 2012.
So the instructions are clear: To the Mormons, do as your church demands, to the evangelicals, ignore your church and support the Mormon.
Billy Graham & Mitt Romney:
“It is wrong, and you do it, and the Lord will bless you for it.”
On the Reader:
“Mormonism & Schism on the Christian Right” by Frederick Clarkson (October 2012) and “Billy Graham Prays With Romney But Mormonism Still a "Cult", Indicates Graham's Website” by TroutFishing (October 2012)
Related Slates:
Southern Baptists in the Political Nutcracker: Vote Occult Leader, Black Man or Neither - The Crushing Blow to Mitt’s Quix-Toxic Quest: ‘Good Samaritan’ or ‘Corporate Bandit’
Reposted with permission of the original author.
