POLITICO
By ALEXANDER BURNS
Texas evangelical leader Robert Jeffress, the Baptist megachurch pastor who introduced Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit, said Friday afternoon he does not believe Mitt Romney is a Christian.
Jeffress described Romney's Mormon faith as a “cult,” and said evangelicals had only one real option in the 2012 primaries.
“That is a mainstream view, that Mormonism is a cult,” Jeffress told reporters here. “Every true, born again follower of Christ ought to embrace a Christian over a non-Christian.” Asked by POLITICO if he believed Romney is a Christian, Jeffress answered: “No.”
Jeffress's comments represent the first major attack of the 2012 cycle on Romney over his membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, an issue that some Romney supporters believe cost the former Massachusetts governor in his last presidential run.
The attack on Romney wasn’t just faith-based. Jeffress called the Republican presidential candidate a “conservative out of convenience” who “does not have a consistent track record on the subject of marriage, on the sanctity of life.”
“I just do not believe that we as conservative Christians can expect him to stand strong for the issues that are important to us,” he said.
Jeffress said that he had not spoken with Perry about his views on Romney's faith and was “in no way speaking for him.” In an email, Perry campaign spokesman Robert Black said that the campaign didn’t choose Jeffress to introduce Perry and does not share his view of Mormonism.
The Romney campaign did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the campaign of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, the other Mormon candidate in the Republican presidential race.
Looking ahead to the general election, Jeffress warned that in a race between Romney and Obama, he believes many evangelicals will stay home and leave the GOP nominee without their votes. “I do not think evangelical voters are going to be motivated to go out and vote for Mitt Romney,” he said.
The conservative Christian leader said that he himself would vote for Romney and does not doubt that he is a good man. “I think he’s a fine family person,” Jeffress explained. “It is only faith in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone that qualifies you as a Christian.”
Jeffress said he does not believe that Mormonism is a disqualifier for the presidency, pointing out that constitutionally, the “government can impose no religious test.” “Private citizens can impose all kinds of religious tests,” he added.
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Gretta B3
ReplyDeleteI dont think its such a big deal what his religion is, its his choice. The constitution/ Bill of Rights says that we have the right to believe in whatever we want. So I say we should just forget about the past presidents religions and move on the world is always changing and so are we.
Like Jeffress, I don't think there should be a Mormon president even if the people did elect him to be one of the choices. This land was founded by the Christian founding fathers, and even though Mormonism is believed to be Christian based, it isn't. Nowadays, with people getting confused about religion and stuff, it's hard to tell which is which.
ReplyDeleteoops I forgot to put my name and hour stuff
ReplyDeleteTanoy S3
I agree with Gretta. We can't pick our president for his religion, we have to pick him for his leadership. Here in America, we have religious freedom, meaning anyone living here can be any religion they want. It shouldn't matter what he believes or influence anyone's vote.
ReplyDeleteShannel D 3
No matter who we are we should NOT judge people for what they think or how we look. The stuff that Perry said was rude and against the very first amendment.(Freedom of Press ring a bell?) Oh yeah, and Romney, don't let what Rick said bother you to much.;)
ReplyDeleteEmma B. 2
I also agree with Gretta and Shannel. It doesn't matter which religion our presidents are. We should pick them for what they want to do for us and the economy. I think we should stop worrying so much about religion.
ReplyDeleteSteph C. 3
I full agree with Gretta. Religion is one topic that we have not to judge anybody. Everyone have your opinios and today we live in world that we can belive in whatever we want. Don't have right and wrong religion. If you thing that your is better than other, you are being prejudiced.
ReplyDeleteAlexia M.7
I fully agree with what Gretta said. Everyone has equal rights. Just because our religion is different doesn't mean we shouldn't be able to have the same rights as anyone else.
ReplyDeleteAnita R3
LAST COMMENT
ReplyDeleteI'm personally not a huge supporter of Mr. Perry or Romney, but in this case I fully back them. Jeffress's slanderous attack on Romney is an apalling example of why church and state should be separated. When religion gets into the muck of things, undesirable conflicts occur like this. I think Mr. Jeffress should be ashamed of himself for conduct like this. I'm not suggesting that this is illegal as it's definantely a case that still falls under his rights stated in the first amendment. In the end, people should try to have restraint over their speech. This is just a case where a random pundent went a little overboard.
ReplyDeleteZane H4
I do agree with Gretta when she says his religion is his choice, BUT when he is trying to be elected as something there should definitely be some faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, there is no way I would vote for him when he isn't even Christian. If He did end up getting elected, he would fill our heads with nonsense that he beliefs when the people he is speaking to would go against there very own beliefs and just believe whatever this man tells him. So No! I would not vote for him.
ReplyDeleteSavannah T7
I find religion as a very touchy subject. I think a lot of views taken in by "us" the people who elect are not only what they say, but other things like theri religion and race. we as humans have natural instincts to judge oters in ways tat sometimes get in the way of seeing what we really should be. In saying that i don't think Romney should get the short end of the stick just for being a Morman.
ReplyDeleteKatelyn v.3
I don't understand why this article was written in the first place. For one politician to say that another one isn't a christian is irrelevent to whatever they're running for, whether it be president or another office. What ever happened to the separation of church and state? It sounds to me that they're just trying to dig up dirt on other people to get more votes. Honestly, that turns me against the politician running. If you don't have enough to say and you resort to bashing your opponent then you don't belong there. So what if Romney isn't a christian? That doesn't mean he can't run our country as good as a CHRISTIAN candidate would. If people are voting just on religious views then that bothers me. He could be a fine leader and we can't look past the fact that he's not a christian. Last time I checked, this was the United States of America, the place where we can believe what we want and where we are accepting of religious that differ from our own.
ReplyDeleteKimmy S.3
I agree with Kimmy. Plus it irks me to see pastors of churches, who are supposed to be leaders, do stuff like this. I know everyone makes mistakes, but you're really not supposed to judge people, and NO ONE can judge the status of someone elses soul. Only God knows that.
ReplyDeleteAlex H.3