Evangelical Christians can sometimes be an unforgiving lot. Take this story from today’s Washington Times, in which prominent evangelicals say they’ll abandon the John McCain ticket should former Massachusetts governor (and Nevada Republican caucus winner) Mitt Romney be on it. Why? Romney just happens to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Some excerpts:
“McCain and Romney would be like oil and water,” said evangelical novelist Tim LaHaye, who supported Mr. [Mike] Huckabee. “We aren’t against Mormonism, but Romney is not a thoroughgoing evangelical and his flip-flopping on issues is understandable in a liberal state like Massachusetts, but our people won’t understand that.”
…
The Rev. Rob McCoy, pastor of Calvary Chapel in Thousand Oaks, Calif., … told The Washington Times, “I will vote for McCain unless he does one thing. You know what that is? If he puts Romney on the ticket as veep.
“It will alienate the entire evangelical community – 62 million self-professing evangelicals in this country, half of them registered to vote, are going to be deeply saddened,” Mr. McCoy added.
…
“In our online poll, Romney won a plurality, and Mike Huckabee ran a strong second,” said Mr. [Gary] Bauer, who also told The Times that he does not think Mr. Romney ought to be a drag on the ticket. “But a lot of the Huckabee supporters said if Romney is McCain’s choice, they would bail out in November.”
Why the hate? It’s because evangelicals don’t think of Mormons as Christians. So what, you ask? We’re electing a president, not a pastor. Why, that’s just what Romney said, so it must be evil!
Now, we have no dog in this fight. Personally, we think both McCain and Romney are nuts, but it has nothing to do with their respective religions. They’re both vapid flip-flopping warmongers who (we think) would say almost anything to gain purchase on the White House, and, as far as we’re concerned, that is neither a very Christian nor a very Mormon thing to do.
But while we’re on the subject of religion, let’s not forget that the evangelicals themselves were (and in many cases, still are) considered to be a splinter cult by members of the Roman Catholic Church, which itself is considered to have fallen away from the true path by the Greek Orthodox Church. The point: There’s always somebody who is more orthodox than thou, and we’re pretty sure that really pisses Jesus off.
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