The Republic
Columbus, Indiana
Religion: Mormons' and Baptists' competition fuels tension
By TERRY MATTINGLY - Scripps Howard News Service October 19, 2011
* By TERRY MATTINGLY - Scripps Howard News Service
* First Posted: October 19, 2011
If Southern Baptists gather for a seminar on what Mormons believe, the odds
are good that one of the teachers will be a former member of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Then again, if Mormons gather for a seminar on what Southern Baptists
believe, the odds are good that one of the teachers will be a former Southern
Baptist.
"There's an important word that people forget when they start talking about
Southern Baptists and Mormons and that word is 'competition,' " said the
Rev. Richard Land, one of the most outspoken leaders of America's largest
non-Catholic flock. He leads the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics &
Religious Liberty Commission.
" We are talking about the two most evangelistic churches in North America
and most of the world," he said. "There are lots of Mormons who used to be
Baptists and lots of Baptists who used to be Mormons.
It's natural to see some tensions now and then."
Meanwhile, some Mormons and Baptists keep colliding in the public square
every four years or so -- just about the time White House wannabes butt heads
in Republican debates.
The latest storm centered on remarks by the Rev. Robert Jeffress of the
First Baptist Church of Dallas. A supporter of Rick Perry of Texas, Jeffress
told the recent Values Voters Summit crowd that Mormon Mitt Romney is "not a
real Christian" and later insisted on calling the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints a "theological cult."
Obviously, that language offends Mormons, said Land. Truth is, no one in
today's Southern Baptist leadership believes that modern Mormons should be
described with the word "cult" as most Americans would understand this
hot-button term, defined according to "psychological or sociological" factors.
"Clearly the Mormons are anything but that," he said. "They're the
president of your Rotary Club and the leaders of your local bank. No one
thinks
they're one of the dangerous, separatistic cults that you read about in
headlines -- people like Jim Jones or the Branch Davidians."
However, most Baptists and members of many other Christian churches have
grown up hearing Mormonism described in "theological or doctrinal" terms. A
Southern Baptist website on new religious movements states: "A cult ... is a
group of people polarized around someone's interpretation of the Bible and
is characterized by major deviations from orthodox Christianity relative
to the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith, particularly the fact that
God became man in Jesus Christ."
In recent years, Land has numbered himself among those who describe
Mormonism as a kind of fourth Abrahamic tradition, a new faith that has
reinterpreted the past under the guidance of its own prophet and its own
scriptures.
In this case, he said, "Joseph Smith is like Mohammad and The Book of
Mormon is like the Koran." Mormons believe they have restored true
Christianity,
while Trinitarian churches reject this claim that they have lost the
faith.
Thus, it's not surprising that a new LifeWay Research survey of 1,000
liberal and conservative Protestant clergy in America found that 75 percent
disagreed with this statement: "I personally consider Mormons (Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints) to be Christians." The surprise was that 48
percent of mainline Protestant pastors strongly agreed that Mormons are not
Christians.
Meanwhile, the Vatican in 2001 addressed the issue of "whether the baptism
conferred by the community The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
called Mormons in the vernacular, is valid."
The response from the late Pope John Paul II was blunt: "Negative."
His verdict validated that of scholar Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is now
Pope Benedict XVI.
Of course, the reason these issues are being debated in the first place is
that Romney -- a prominent Mormon leader -- is a Republican frontrunner in
an era in which conservative Catholic and Protestant voters play a
prominent role in Iowa, South Carolina and numerous other primary contests.
Mormons
voters and donors are crucial, as well.
Land, who urged Romney to seek the presidency in 2008, is convinced most
conservative believers will have no trouble backing the former Massachusetts
governor, when push comes to shove.
"Most people know that they're voting for a president, not a Bible-study
leader," he said. "Actually, the problem Romney is having in the primaries is
not that he's a Mormon, but that many GOP voters are not sure that he's
Mormon enough."
--
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