Romney - Double Speak and Mind

During the recent presidential debates, Gov. Mitt Romney reversed many of the positions he espoused during the primary.  Many Evangelical Christians have endorsed Gov. Romney because he shares their Christian values. 

When candidate Romney was running for Senator of Massachusetts, he said he was going to be to the right of Ted Kennedy on Gay Marriage.   He also stated in the past that he supports a women’s right to choose, a few months ago he said that he would get rid of Roe vs Wade, now he says that he would not support abortion legislation. 

I have many problems with the candidate for President Romney.  He has back tracked, side stepped, lied on most of the important issues.  He would not show his taxes when running in Massachusetts and even though he knew 4 years ago and gave McCain 13 years of taxes he refuses to give the same courtesy to American citizens. 

If he had espoused these views during the primary he never would have been nominated.  It would have most likely been Rick Santorum.

Romney has proven he will say anything to get nominated and anything else to get elected.  The Bible says in James Chapter 1 “a double minded man is unstable in all of his ways”.  Gov. Romney has tried to say one thing and later have his campaign walk it back.  He is a man that says one thing and then says another. 

Christian Compromise Values for Mormons

Last Week on the Billy Graham website, Mormonism was removed as a cult.  Pat Robertson has supported Gov. Mitt Romney as a candidate, because Gov. Romney’s “Christian Values”.  I really applaud the work that Reverends Robertson and Graham have done to let people know the “Good News” of salvation through Jesus Christ.  They have done an outstanding job advancing the teachings of Jesus Christ. I am very hesitant to criticize them because of their tremendous work and I pale in comparison in my commitment and actions for Christ. 

However, in this instance I don’t believe that removing Mormonism as a cult or saying that a Mormon supports our “Christian Values” are the right messages.

Why was Mormonism a cult last week and not this week?  Is it because of the former High Priest of the Mormon faith Gov. Romney is running for President?  Shouldn’t assigning “cult” status be the result of the teachings of the Mormon religion? 

The Book of Mormon says it is “Another Gospel of Jesus Christ”.  In the Bible it specifically states that “if anyone preaches another Gospel let him be accursed.”

How does following Mormonism advance “Christian Values”?  If you make the argument that Gov. Romney believes in “Christian Values” than, if a worshipper of “Satan” says he is against abortion and Gay Marriage it would be OK to vote for him because he shares your “Christian Values”. 

I will not tell any citizen of the USA not to vote for Gov. Romney because of his religion, but when someone implies that Gov. Romney has more “Christian Values” as the reason to vote for him you are compromising those “Christian Values” to vote for someone who believes something the Bible so explicitly states is “Cursed”. 

I think it is a blow to the Gospel of Jesus Christ when we compromise our “Christian Values” to support a candidate that is worshipping “Another Gospel”.   That is a danger and we as Christians should never say that one “sin” is better than another.  

The truth for Christians is that according to the Bible Mormonism is “Sin”, Abortion is “Sin” and Gay Marriage is “Sin” and for followers of Jesus Christ to say anything else; is “Sin” also.

Biden on Gay Marriage/ Richard Grenell dismissal

Last week Richard Grenell a foreign policy and national security spokesperson for the Mitt Romney campaign, resigned.  The Romney campaign was criticized by some conservatives for hiring Grenell, an openly gay staffer.  On Sunday's Meet the Press program VP Biden said that he was ok with gay marriage.  President Obama says he opposes gay marriage, but supports civil unions.

I believe that President Obama's staff wanted to exploit the resignation of Mr Grenell by allowing VP Biden to enthusiastically support Gay marriage on a personal level, to curry favor with the gay community to gain votes.  I believe they were responding to recent polls that a majority of Americans, are not opposed to same sex marriage. The Biden support for same-sex marriage allows a not so subtle nod to the gay community, that the Obama administration also is open to same-sex marriage without supporting it "officially".

My views on gay marriage it that it is wrong for Christians to be in a gay relationship and that churches should not perform or condone gay marriage for their members, and churches should not be forced to perform marriages for same-sex couples who are not members.  As an American, I don't think I have the right to tell consenting adults how they should live as long as they are not hurting anyone else.  Although I would not vote for same-sex marriage, I support same-sex couples their "pursuit of happiness".

One reason that Pres. Obama's staff believes that they can alienate some Christians who are fervent in their opposition to gay marriage, is that these Christians, have demonstrated that in spite of what the Obama administration does these Christians will not  vote for President Obama.

An example of this is that during the healthcare debate, the Senate and House bills had differences. The House bill included the Stupak amendment that, did not allow abortion funding for healthcare participants and the Senate bill made no such provision.  Pro-life Senators could have inserted a similar Stupak-like amendment to their bill, even if they would not vote for it.  The democrats would have taken any amendment to the bill that Republicans proposed, but no Senator made provision halting public funding of abortion.

In the end to reconcile the bills as required the pro-life portion of the House bill was removed, but Stupak, got President Obama to sign an executive order banning public funding of abortions.  Instead of applauding Congressman Stupak for getting the Pro-life issue into the bill, Stupak is not recognized for this accomplishment by many in the Christian community.

I believe that Christians should leverage their power, by not being beholden to any party, but using this leverage to negotiate issues that are important to us   I believe that Pres. Obama's administration would make additional compromises if they could be assured of some support from these Christians.  We risk allowing other legislation that may be harmful to our society, because we don't utilize our voting leverage.