No, I am not planning on turning this Weblog into a political platform. This particular article is about semantics, not politics. As I was looking up some information on Robert Jeffress calling Mormonism a cult, I saw that there were a couple of things that I thought I should address, especially after writing articles in the "Logic Lessons" series.
First, the logic part. I did a search on Google with the words "Mitt Romney Rick Perry Mormon Cult". The titles of articles and the short previews were rather annoying: "Mitt Romney's Mormon faith attacked by Rick Perry supporters as 'cult'". "Mitt Romney: Perry Must 'Repudiate' Pastor's Anti-Mormon Remarks". "Perry Ally Calls Mormonism 'a Cult'". As Americans, we supposedly believe in freedom of speech, so Jeffress can say what he did, even if people are not happy about it. What really caught my attention was the attempts at hasty generalization, guilt by association, poisoning the well, genetic fallacies and other red herrings.
If we step back and get a bigger picture, we can cut through the attempts to distract and the appeals to emotion and examine the facts:
- Robert Jeffress is not the first person to refer to Mormonism as a cult
- He has a right to express his belief
- Political opponents use loaded emotional terminology implying that all Rick Perry supporters are in agreement on this point, and that Perry's supporters either hate or fear Mormons
- There are supporters of other candidates who also believe that Mormonism is a cult
- It is ridiculous to expect Perry to control his supporters
- Jeffress' comments were somewhat quote mined, and the context clearly shows that he was not engaging in abrasive name-calling
When a Christian uses the word, it is usually in a precise meaning:
By cultism we mean the adherence to doctrines which are pointedly contradictory to orthodox Christianity and which yet claim the distinction of either tracing their origin to orthodox sources or of being in essential harmony with those sources. Cultism, in short, is any major deviation from orthodox Christianity relative to the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith. [1]Another good definition of "cult" can be found here.
Using the standard definitions, theology and terminology, is Mormonism a cult? Yes. Does that mean they are bad people or engage in bizarre conduct? No more than the rest of us. Should we freely call them a cult? I recommend that we use discretion, because some people do not think that word means what we think it does. It may be better to use another term, such as "alternate religious movement", and add that Mormons do not teach things that are established, accepted Christian theology. To use an emotionally-laden pejorative term, no matter how accurate, can be counterproductive in some contexts.
Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason had a monologue on his radio show/podcast that is worth your attention. It begins at about 56 minutes into the broadcast, which you can find here.
J. Warner Wallace of Please Convince Me also had a monologue near the beginning of his podcast, which you can find here.
Aren't you glad that almost everything I come up with to share with you is free? But wait, there's more!
All this talk about Mormonism has to be making people curious as to what it really is. And I am concerned, because (as my regular readers know), too many Christians are not grounded in the faith, or are not actually converted to Jesus Christ in the first place. These people are most vulnerable to deception when "The One True Church" tries to lure you away. Here are some good resources for you:
- CARM has extensive information on Mormonism, and an article on "Politics, Mormonism and Christianity"
- Mormon Missions Midwest Outreach
- Mormonism Research Ministry
- Utah Lighthouse Ministry
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