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Do We Really Want a Mormon Pope? I ask you!

"In This Sign, You will conquer"
Are Mormons christian?

I don't know.  For the most part, people who call themselves christian are christian.  The variety is astounding, ranging from one of the oldest christian churches--the Copts, in Egypt--to the Pope in Rome, or to the Russian Orthodox Archbishop, and to those Get-Rich-With-Jesus charlatans.

A sect is just a new group of christians with a distinctive idea, or practices.  Some of them succeed:  most don't. The first christians were a sect, once.  The establishment usually tries to throw out the fringe groups.  The fringe groups claim to the true believers, or to have a new revelation, or a fierce itch.  I think Joseph Smith had a fierce itch.

Joseph Smith, and many early Mormons, rather liked the idea of polygamy, but the U. S. government said it didn't, so most Mormons said, "O.K.!  Can we have Salt Lake City, instead?"  Some Mormons packed up their itches and moved to dusty towns in Arizona or Texas.

It seems to me that if the Pope, who has all that nastiness with child molestation to deal with, wants to call himself a christian, then some horny Mormon in Moab with four wives ought to be able to call himself a christian, too.  And if they are christians, then Joel Osteen and Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker and Pat Robertson are probably christians, too.  They say so, and I believe them!

But we are in a presidential primary campaign, and--don't you know?--some of the christians are wondering whether the other christians are christians!  First Baptist Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress says Romney is a Mormon, and a Mormon isn't a reg'lar christian.  And Bill Keller says Jeffress is right.  In fact, just to clarify matters for those of us who are slow, Keller said, "a vote for Romney is a vote for Satan!"

I do think that is pretty strong, don't you?

Our Belle, Michele Bachmann, and the Marlboro Man from the Panhandle of Texas, when asked about First Baptist Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress' remarks, said, "Umm, uhh, Oh, gee!, and Leave us out of this:  we aren't making religious judgments, except when we are running for the presidency, when we pray with folks to turn this into a christian nation that prays the gays away and sends the criminals to Texas, where they go away, too."

Mitt Romney isn't a polygamist, and Jon Huntsman isn't a polygamist, either.  Today, most Mormons are't polygamists.  But if they call themselves christians, they are christians, and according to the Bible, they are brothers and sisters with Peter and Paul and the Pope and Pat Robertson and Michele Bachmann and the Marlboro Man.  They shouldn't be bothering us with their family feuds.  And they shouldn't be hypocrites, either, telling their supporters they are going to make this a really honest, truly christians nation, the way our founders intended when they separated church and state, but telling the rest of us that they are completely non-judgmental about other people's religion; especially those damned Mormons.

Please don't read this wrong!  I am completely impartial, so far as this matter is concerned.  Hypocrisy is hypocrisy!  I don't differentiate.

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