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Bigotry and Mitt Romney: The Cult Problem
When an evangelical or the Family Research Council call Mormonism a cult, isn’t the pot calling the kettle black?
A Texas pastor introduced Rick Perry at a major conference of Christian conservatives here on Friday as “a genuine follower of Jesus Christ” and then walked outside and attacked Mitt Romney’s religion, calling the Mormon Church a cult and stating that Mr. Romney “is not a Christian.”
This is political raw meat in contemporary America. All eyes turn to Rick Perry. The question arises whether he wanted this kind of introduction from the pastor. Kind of looks as though he did.
The Perry campaign sought to put some distance between Mr. Perry and Mr. Jeffress, stating that the governor “does not believe Mormonism is a cult” and that Mr. Jeffress was chosen to speak by the organizers of the event, the Values Voter Summit, which was put on by the Family Research Council, the American Family Association and other evangelical Christian groups.
But in a statement, the Family Research Council president, Tony Perkins, said the Perry campaign had approved using Mr. Jeffress to introduce the governor. “Pastor Jeffress was suggested to us as a possible introductory speaker because he serves as pastor of one of the largest churches in Texas,” Mr. Perkins said. “We sent the request to the Perry campaign which then signed off on the request.” NYT
The cultists — whether they call themselves “genuine followers of Jesus Christ” or “Mormons” — are distinguished by the extent to which the rest of us wish they’d shut up and go away. Jeffress, Perry, Romney, Tony Perkins and people who call themselves “values voters” have shown, over and over again, that they’re the naked emperors of American Christianity. They are in this business for themselves, not for their country.
Cross posted from the blog Prairie Weather.
9 Responses to “Bigotry and Mitt Romney: The Cult Problem”
All religions are cults and the evangelical “Christian” variety is especially nasty ignoring Christ and pushing the tribalism of the old testament. I don’t think this would hurt Romney in the general election but could easily be a road block to getting the Republican nomination.
Agreed, all religions are cults. They all (to varying degrees) are about indoctrination, manipulation, control, and behavior modification.
Actually, I feel this way about organized religion. I do think individual spirituality is a good thing. It’s the “group think” aspect of organized religion that weirds me out.
“They are in this business for themselves, not for their country.”
Therein lies the problem. People need to think for themselves more and allow others to control their conditioning less. A spiritual life is important, but it can’t be shackled by dogma it if is to have any legitimacy.
I suspect that human’s hard wired tribalism makes us susceptible to cultist religions. While it often appears that religion is responsible for so much grief I suspect it may just be our tribal nature and religion is just a tool.
I would tend to agree with that. I do think it’s a much more effective tool than others, because religion deals with intangibles such as heaven & hell, the soul, the afterlife, etc. If religion gets their clutches on someone, it’s far easier to get them to do unethical or self-destructive behavior because “God says it’s OK” rather than simply you’ll get more money, land, sex, etc.
Put another way, Hitler’s methodologies didn’t create suicide bombers, but the Japanese (with their allegiance to the emperor, considered to be godlike) did create kamikaze pilots, and of course we know radical Islam can create them.
Just a thought.
I agree with that Barky. One of the reasons that Catholicism caught on so quickly in central and south America was the promise of life after death, something that was reserved for a few in the native religions.
Okaaaaay. Being very involved in one of those “cults” (by the way folks, that is a loaded word), you make it sound like we’re sitting around in small rooms using sleep deprivation and hiding behind a single lamp to brainwash the unsuspecting. The truth is that many people who find religion do so after trying life without it. Your ordinary street corner church has a lot of hairy stories behind that boring looking group, and they’re all voluntary.
That said, I know of Mormons who have the same turnaround stories. A cult typically centers around one dynamic leader, and dies soon after the leader. The preacher was out of line to call Mormonism a cult.
Mormonism is not a cult and going on about all religions being cults just makes one look ignorant and/or anti religion. As the Prof says it’s generally recognized that cults are centered around one “living” person and/or are widely outside the societal norm. Mormonism is neither of those things currently. The term may have been accurate at the beginning but now they are fairly mainstream except for some paranoia on their end and institutional bigotry thats held over from their more “cult like” past.
As to all religions being cult, by definitions cults are something out of the ordinary. I, as a non religious person, think that religions formed around beliefs held by the people but the “rules” were put together as a blueprint to help people live together. Ascribing religious significance to things so people would be more likely to follow rules that would make a society function better, keep them healthier, etc.
Sadly, we all knew this was coming. I hope the social conservative christian voters do not feel the same way as these christian organizations.
Is Romney really a Christian?
Is Cain really black?
Is this really the world I live in?