The Pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas, Dr. Robert Jeffress, effusively introduced Rick Perry to the “Values Voter Summit” Friday, departing from his prepared script to add the adjective “genuine” to “follower of Jesus Christ” to describe Perry. Asked afterward if “genuine” was a swipe at Mormon Mitt, Pastor Jeffress, in a a burst of candor, called Mormonism “a cult.”
Let the dialog begin!
Item: First Baptist Dallas’ website features the unattributed quote “I like being part of a church that has stood the test of time.” “The test of time” at First Baptist Dallas is 143 years.
Question: 143 years ago is more or less when Jesus was on earth, right?
Item: Telling of their worship, the First Baptist site boasts “Which stirs your soul more – contemporary praise and worship in a casual setting, or majestic orchestra and choir in our historic sanctuary? Try both and see where you feel most at home.”
Question: Would a first-millennium neutrino Christian, pulled through a worm-hole and dropped in Dallas Sunday morning, “feel at home” anywhere within First Baptist’s consumer-friendly, time-tested, 6-city-block megaplex? Would he even know he was in a Christian Church?
Item: My soul (or something) is stirred by the Doobie Brothers Jesus is Just Alright by Me, by James Taylor’s Steamroller Blues (unexpurgated) and by Jimmy Buffet’s Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw?
Question: What in heaven’s name do you mean by “standing the test of time” when even your worship mutates like mad from applying your toxic Baptist “soul-stirring” test of truthiness to modern consumer preferences?
Political forecast: Another equivocal profession of faith from Romney. But my doppler radar shows zero percent chance of Mormon Mitt engaging 50 million or more self-styled “born again” Christians over ¿que est lo mas auténtico?
Your Humble Servant Tipsy, however, is not running for President.
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Religious freedom is not my sole test for choosing candidates, but as a Christian whose Church our hypothetical time–traveler would instantly recognize, I fear more for my religious freedom from the triumphalist sectarianism of Rick Perry than from Mitt Romney’s equally novel but less triumphalist sect.
“I’d rather be ruled by a wise Turk than a foolish Christian,” is how Martin Luther once put a similar thought.
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Joseph Bottom at CatholicVote.org asks three great questions I didn’t ask, and then “vents.”
- Is Mormonism genuinely a non-Christian religion—more non-Christian, that is, than, say, the evangelical Baptists view Catholicism to be?
- Pastor Jeffress does admit he’d vote for Romney over Obama in a national election, so his mistrust of Mormonism doesn’t run all the way down. But, in general, ought evangelical voters to hold a particular (if prudentially overridable ) political preference for Christians of their own stripe above non-Christians and Christians of other stripes?
- Is my intuition wrong that any such litmus test revived on the political Right will eventually impact Catholic candidates in a negative way? Or is the place (especially intellectual) of Catholics too well established now to be ostracized from Republican politics?
- Is Pastor Jeffress the political idiot he seems? Republicans need this kind of crap aired in public like they need a hole in the head.
[Jeffers’ bigotry consisted in] calling Mormonism a “cult” and saying that all things being equal, Christian voters should prefer a born-again believer (Rick Perry, according to Jeffress, who endorsed him) over someone like Romney, who by definition cannot have the “indwelling spirit of Christ” helping him make big decisions, such as whether or not to go to war. (One would love to ask Pastor Jeffress how much help the indwelling spirit of Christ was in guiding George W. Bush to launching the disastrous war on Iraq.)…Mr. Romney, as a Mormon, may not be a Christian, but his values are deeply rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Christians who judge a candidate’s fitness for the presidency based on his particular profession of faith should reflect on the quality of governance our devoutly evangelical president has provided [2001-2008]. Martin Luther is supposed to have said that he would rather be governed by a wise Muslim than a foolish Christian.Smart man, that Luther. For a heretic.
The complicated truth is that different groups of people use the term “cult” in different ways. Some are using it in a narrow, doctrinal sense, while others are painting with a broad sociological brush.
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 
Good summary, John.
Joseph Bottom, above, wonders if Rev. Jeffress is the political idiot he seems. I would have to say, yes. This isn’t the first time he has stepped in it.
What drives me up the wall is the unctious, sing-songy, BillyGrahamish way he speaks–particularly his use of the word “Christian.”
Perhaps its the lingering influence of H. L. Hunt and his family, but First Baptist Dallas has always been a reactionary group. I drove through downtown Dallas 2 days ago, past the “historic” First Baptist Church (of course in Dallas, anything built prior to the Reagan administration is “historic.”) The pit behind it rivals the size of the World Trade Center site. Apparently, they will maintain the old church in front, but everything behind the facade will be strictly Six Flags over Jesus.
I’ve a lot of experience with Mormons in my life, having spent considerable time in their genealogy microfilm reading rooms, pouring over old deeds or such like. I became such a fixture there, that they were comfortable “talking church” in front of me. I can assure it was all as mundane as anything you would hear in a church hall or kitchen elsewhere. I have found them to be decent, likable folks. So, Rev. Jeffress is wrong. They are not a cult. They are heretics–not the same thing at all.
Good point about Mormons as heretics rather than as a cult – but “cult” is a very equivocal word, and labeling Mormons cultic is common.
I had similar experience living among Mormons in Arizona 30+ years ago. I was in a service business that took me into homes. The worst I saw in Mormon homes was [indiscrete details omitted] pretty tame.