Glenn Beck presents a conundrum for the Christian right. They appreciate his bigotry, but are in turn bigoted against his Mormon faith. Sometimes the politics of hate is complicated.
“Internet evangelist” (no, I don’t know what that means) Bill Keller is no longer willing to compromise his Christian principles though. Keller, who warned 2008 primary voters that a vote for the Mormon Mitt Romney was a vote for Satan, has launched a campaign to warn Christians that Glenn Beck is taking their “ignorant souls to hell.” (via Think Progress.)
Keller states, “Beck likes to call out people for their lies and deception, yet he portrays himself daily as a Christian. The fact is, the beliefs of the satanic Mormon cult are totally inconsistent with Biblical Christianity. He uses the words “god” and “jesus,” yet the god and jesus of the Mormon cult are NOT the God and Jesus of the Bible!”
Keller continues, “The ‘god’ of the Mormon cult used to be a human who rose to god-like status, just like Beck and all Mormons believe they will too after their death. The ‘jesus’ of the Mormon cult is the natural offspring of their ‘god’ Elohim who had sex with Mary, meaning their jesus is a created being and NOT a deity as the Bible teaches, and is the brother of Lucifer.”
Keller concludes, “I could care less what Beck chooses to believe, but I do care that he lies to people by stating he is a Christian when a person who believes in the lies of the Mormon cult is no more a Christian than a Muslim is. Most appalling are prominent Christians who have sold out the faith to associate with Beck, more worried about what financial gain they will get from that association than helping him lead ignorant souls to hell for following his cult’s beliefs.”
This is completely awful, of course. The Church of LDS is not Satanic and it’s not a cult. It’s certainly weird and fucked up, but no more, no less than other Christian denominations that have a conservative bent.
In fact, right-wing Mormons are a perfect ideological match for right-wing Evangelicals, so it’s pretty funny that totally unwarranted bias and mistrust has maintained a rift between the two. And, it’s surprising that this hasn’t been a bigger problem for Beck in the past. Will his Christian listeners be turned off if Keller’s attention-grabbing ploy takes off?
In other Christian Right vs. Mormons News: The Christian right is demonstrating its relevance to young people by attacking the insanely popular young-adult Twilight series, even though the books’ Mormon author has pumped them full of abstinence-only themes that should make anti-sex Christian crusaders pretty happy. The reason? Vampires make bad role models. (h/t Steve Benen)
Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America, which called for a ban on the Potter series, says she’s considering a similar campaign against Twilight because even though it’s pro-abstinence, it’s also pro-vampires.
She says vampires are definitely not good role models, and she blames Hollywood.
“We can let our voices be heard, and anytime you do that you have an effect one way or another,” Combs says. “These Twilight books are very disturbing books for family values. Teen marriage is not the standard, but the part that is more troubling is the vampire. It’s just not normal for young people to idolize a vampire.”
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