Friday, December 14, 2007

For the Record

Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee apologized to fellow hopeful Mitt Romney for asking the question "Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?" Now, I don't know the tone in which Huckabee asked the question. In any case, it wasn't a smart question to pose, politically speaking. And for the record, I think Huckabee would be a horrible President.

But what I found most interesting is that everyone is acting like his question is extremely illegitimate. I don't think the question is a worthy question for the context of the Presidential race, but it's certainly a legitimate question for Mormon theology. Though I highly doubt many Mormon's are aware of the foundational teachings of their Church, such doctrines are still a reality.

Here's the facts. In Mormon theology, Satan wanted to be the one to save mankind. "Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind" (Pearl of Great Price, Book of Moses 4:1). But God selected Jesus for that task instead, and so Satan rebelled against God. Brigham Young commentates on this passage: "The appointment of Jesus to be Saviour of the world was contested by one of the other sons of God. He was called Lucifer" (Brigham Young Journal of Discourses 13:282).

6 comments:

Robin said...

Pretty dumb move on Huckabee's part. Interesting theology tho.

What are the Evangelical Replichristians gonna' do if a Mormon become their presidential candidate? Gasp.

Aaron Perry said...

Hey Whitey, is Evangelical Republichristians (?) is a category into which you put all Evangelicals who vote Republican, or just a subset of Evangelicals?

Matt, Biden's record on abortion is about as good as a Democrat can get. He voted for the partial birth abortion ban, but is against undoing Roe v. Wade (which no Republican has pushed for doing either). He has voted for increasing education and contraceptives to eliminate teenage pregnancy. I do not like that he voted NO on notifying parents of teenagers who get out-of-state abortions. He also opposes state funding for abortions as this supports a point-of-view. Biden is also a strong Roman Catholic, believes life begins at conception, and is conflicted about what he thinks is, at times, his political obligation. I recommend checking him out.

matthew said...

I think a decent number of evangelicals would vote for Romney. That he is a mormon doesn't matter much to me for a couple reasons 1) most mormons are somewhat nominal in the sense that they don't actually know the foundational mormon theology (which is absurd). 2) Most 'Protestant' Christian Presidents don't know Protestant theology either.

I believe Romney is a good and moral person, but as is the case with most of the candidates, I don't really like his political record. Nearly all the candidates have 1 big problem in my book, and that is they are all for 'big' government (which makes sense since they are IN the government).

Thanks for the info AP :)

Robin said...

AP -- In case you didn't notice I was being sarcastic. But I was making reference to the fact that in the US there seems to be a frighteningly large number of Evangelicals who think the Republican agenda and God's agenda are one and the same. Maybe I'm exaggerating or generalizing, but you know the type.

Aaron Perry said...

Thanks, Whitey. I didn't mean to put you off; it was a genuine question.

Robin said...

No worries, AP. I wasn't put off. Actually I think I stole the term from Keith Drury anyway.