As an Aussie, I watch the candidates in the run up to the US elections with intrigue. In particular, the debate over Mitt Romney’s faith in Mormonism and Mike Huckabee’s reactions to it.
By now, you would have seen Romney’s "appeal" to the US that his faith will make no difference in how he would run the US if elected. Fair enough. But central in his appeal was the reference to John F Kennedy’s "similar" appeal to run for election as a Catholic. Here are some highlights:
Now let’s make one thing clear here. I am a Protestant Christian with little regard to Catholic doctrine. But much of Catholic doctrine ties in with mainstream Protestant beliefs.
One thing we do share is belief in the divinity of Jesus. Yet Mormonism is Romney’s faith. And Mormonism declares that Jesus and Satan are brothers birthed by our Heavenly Father (and the mother is thrown in for good measure).
So much of Romney’s speech is hidden behind this fact. Of course Mormons could say that Jesus is the Son of God. But they fail to say that Satan is also the "Son of God" - thereby making Jesus and Satan brothers. Good cop, bad cop to the extreme!
Huckabee has raised this issue and has been ridiculed by the Associated Press (AP) where they use the "authoritative Encyclopedia of Mormonism" which doesn’t refer to Jesus and Satan as brothers.
But thanks to Bible Belt Blogger, the Mormon website actually states this belief in very clear terms:
"On first hearing, the doctrine that Lucifer and our Lord, Jesus Christ, are brothers may seem surprising to some—especially to those unacquainted with latter-day revelations. But both the scriptures and the prophets affirm that Jesus Christ and Lucifer are indeed offspring of our Heavenly Father and, therefore, spirit brothers."
OK, so let’s think this thing through. Who cares about the encyclopedia account? AP should have done their research more fully on this topic instead of attempting to make Huckabee look ill informed. A church website has more authority than any encyclopedia.
From a spiritual perspective, this belief is just too bizarre. You see, Mormon’s believe that when they die, each couple will be given a planet to populate and become the Father and Mother of that planet. Their offspring will be the spiritual children of that planet and they will be the "God" of that planet.
God the Father and God the Mother of earth had Jesus and Satan as offspring and one chose good and the other evil. Therefore Romney see’s the battle between Jesus and Satan as a sorry form of sibling rivalry.
What an insult to God. The Trinity is thrown out the window. Jesus’ divinity is reduced to being a sibling of darkness. It makes God look like a horny spirit being spewing forth his spiritual semen into his "glorified wife" and thus "populating" our planet with little critters like you and me.
According to Romney’s faith, when he dies, he and his wife will inherit a planet of their very own and they will become heavenly daddy and mummy and populate their own private planet. Of course none of this was made clear in his speech.
While I respect the right of people to practice whatever religion they choose, what get’s me infuriated is when they try to use aspects of Christian truth to justify completely non-Christian beliefs. Mormonism does this better then any religion.
Romney seems like a great guy and has probably raised his family based on solid principles. And, seriously, I don’t care if he becomes President as there are a lot worse candidates than he. But in his "Faith Speech," he should have elaborated more on Mormon belief as the people deserve to know.
As for me, Jesus is Lord. To equate Him as the brother of Satan is disgusting and is against everything Scripture stands for. But each to their own. God did, after all, invent free will.
What you have said