Utah Democrats back off religion-based attack on Palin
By Thomas Burr
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 09/03/2008 11:50:46 PM MDT

    ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Utah Democratic Party charged this week that
Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is a "devout member
of an anti-Mormon denomination" and questioned whether LDS faithful
should vote for her.
    But Palin is not a member of the church the Democrats are
referencing, that church denies it is anti-Mormon and there’s no
evidence of any anti-Mormon rhetoric from its pulpit.
    Now, Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Holland is backing off the
statement.
    "We do not plan on making her religion an issue," Holland said
Wednesday afternoon, adding he had not seen the news release, which
includes a quote by him along with several questions.
    The pertinent one: "Will Republicans of the LDS faith vote for
Sarah Palin, a devout member of an anti-Mormon denomination?"
    Palin was a member of the Wasilla Assemblies of God, a
congregation of the umbrella Pentecostal faith with some 12,500
churches in the United States. But that Alaska church says she has not
been a member since 2002.
    And Juleen Turnage, director of communications for the Assemblies
of God, says there’s no official policy of the faith on the Mormon
religion.
    "We do not preach or teach against any denomination," Turnage
said.
    Utah Republican Party Chairman Stan Lockhart called the Democrats’
statement "religion-baiting" and deplorable.
    "It’s just beneath the discourse that needs to be the case in the
state or in our nation," Lockhart said. "It’s just regrettable that
they are stooping so low. It’s got to be a new low" in Utah politics.
    Democratic Party Executive Director Todd Taylor said the party
stands corrected and regrets sending the release. "It should have been
looked into deeper," he said.
    But he noted that Republicans put the issue of religion on the
table in describing Palin’s attributes for the nomination as Sen. John
McCain’s running mate.
    Utah Democrats have made hay over the perceived bias against
Mormons in some wings of the Republican Party that surfaced during
Mitt Romney’s presidential bid. Some pundits have blamed Romney’s
failed campaign on the wariness of Protestant evangelicals to vote for
a Mormon, regarded as cultists by some faiths.
    The campaign for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama,
which is mentioned in the Utah Democratic Party’s statement, did not
return calls for comment.
    There are some published accounts of pastors in Assemblies of God
attacking the Mormon faith, including an article in a January 1999
church newsletter hoping for God’s "forgiving grace [to] turn Mormons
from their destructive teachings to Jesus Christ . . .."
    That piece was written by a pastor in Corvallis, Ore., and is not
connected to the congregation in Alaska that Palin attended.
    Dean Jackson, pastor of the Rock Canyon Church, an Assemblies of
God congregation in Provo, says there are different branches of his
faith that are on the left and right on the political spectrum but
that there is no anti-Mormon belief.
    "There’s nowhere in Assemblies of God doctrinal statement that has
anything to do with Mormonism," he said.
    But, he adds, the disappointing part is how news of religion in
this year’s presidential cycle has been bad news.
    "The thing that always concerns me is that religion gets injected
into the dialogue in a
Is Mormonism Christian?
By James R. Spencer
Notice that the title of this article is not "Are Mormons Christians?"
That is a somewhat different question. No one can see into the human
heart but God. No one but God is qualified to judge hearts. But, does
Mormonism teach a consistent biblical doctrine — a Christian doctrine?
That is an important question because we can judge the teachings of an
organization. And we must do so if we are to faithfully discharge our
responsibilities as Christ’s disciples.
Mormonism, throughout its 170-year history, has always found itself
toe-to-toe with the larger body of Christian believers. Today, the
Mormon Church fields some 60,000 missionaries whose job it is to bring
people into membership — to baptize them not merely into Christ, but
into Mormonism. That is why most evangelical denominations are on
record denouncing the doctrines of Mormonism. The late Walter Martin,
the father of the modern anti-cult movement, called Mormonism a
collection of "garbled doctrines masquerading as Christianity."
Those are strong words. Christians do not make such statements out of
rancor, jealousy or ill will. They are simply facing up to their
responsibility to challenge Mormonism’s erroneous doctrines. They do
so because this religion teaches false ideas about the nature of God
and man and about the way of salvation.
The nature of God vs. the nature of man
The most important, distinctive and defended doctrine of Mormonism can
be summed up by the famous couplet of Mormon President Lorenzo Snow
(president from 1898-1901). This couplet can be recited by every
moderately knowledgeable Latter-day Saint (as Mormons call
themselves): As man now is, God once was; As God now is, Man may
become.
Any Bible-savvy Christian recognizes this statement as patently
unbiblical. Not only is it unbiblical, it is of paramount importance.
Such a teaching blurs the distinction between the almighty, self-
existent God and the creatures He has made. Joseph Smith, the founder
of Mormonism, claimed, "Man is coequal with God himself."1 Smith
taught – and his successors have maintained – that there are many gods
in the universe. He told his congregation: "You have got to learn how
to be Gods yourselves … the same as all Gods have done before you …
until you are able to dwell in everlasting burnings and to sit in
glory."2
Joseph Smith’s most noted successor, Brigham Young, remarked, "Man is
King of Kings and Lord of Lords in embryo."3
This pervasive teaching about the godhood of man is called, in Mormon
theology, the doctrine of eternal progression. Mormon theology says
Mormon men will one day rule over their own worlds as gods. This
doctrine is foreshadowed in Smith’s version of the creation of the
earth: "In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the
Gods; and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world
and people it."4
Man, according to Smith, is himself self-existent with God; man’s
intelligence is coequal with that of God: "The mind or the
intelligence which man possesses is coequal with God himself."5
Whose authority is it?
Mormonism teaches that authority to act for God on the earth is found
only in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Only in the
Mormon Church is the "Priesthood" found.
Mormon doctrine states that Jesus Christ bestowed a priesthood upon
the original 12 apostles, a priesthood that eventually was lost from
the earth. When that happened, Christ’s church supposedly ceased to
exist on the earth. This, of course, is contrary to Jesus’ teaching in
Matthew 16:18: "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and
upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it."
Smith claimed that John the Baptist and the apostles Peter, James and
John visited him and conferred upon him two priesthoods so he could
restore authority to the earth. This was essential, he said, because
without this priesthood man cannot conduct any legitimate ministry.
Neither Protestant nor Catholic clergy can conduct the Lord’s Supper
or Communion. They cannot baptize anyone in a way God will accept,
because they do not hold the Mormon priesthood.
The idea of Mormon priesthood is nowhere found in the New Testament.
The Book of Hebrews goes to great lengths to explain that God’s
priesthood was finalized in Christ. Everyone who is a child of God has
bold access into God’s presence through one Priest, Jesus Christ
(Ephesians 3:11,12).
Every blood-bought child of God is equal in power and authority to
every other in the kingdom of God: "But as many as received him, to
them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12,13).
Heaven and hell
Mormon doctrine teaches that there are at least three heavens.
Everyone (with a few notable exceptions) who lives on the earth will
go to one of these magnificent heavens when they die, regardless of
their faith in Christ or whether they lived godly or evil lives.
On the other hand, the atonement of Christ, in Mormonism, is not
enough in itself to bring men and women into the presence of God.
Mormonism teaches that Christ’s death only bought resurrection for
mankind — for all men and women — but their ultimate destiny in one of
the three heavens is totally dependent upon their obedience to the
laws of Mormonism. And only those who fulfill all of Mormonism’s laws
are able to be in the presence of God the Father.
Mormonism also teaches that people who die without hearing the Mormon
message get another chance to do so in a place called "Spirit Prison."
This is an afterlife realm that is neither heaven nor hell. While they
are imprisoned there, they can receive Mormon missionaries and decide
to accept Mormonism. If they do so, they must wait for someone on
earth to be baptized for them in one of the Mormon temples. Here,
thousands of schoolchildren are baptized repeatedly, "for and on
behalf of" people who are dead. The dead people in Spirit Prison can
accept the baptism and begin their journey toward Mormon heaven.
Proxy baptisms are not the only temple work done for dead people.
Other washings, anointings and ceremonies are done in the temples for
the dead. That is what drives Mormon genealogical research. Names of
dead people are collected from all over the world so that baptisms and
other temple ceremonies can be performed on their behalf.
Grace and works
The Mormon Third Article of Faith states: "We believe that through the
atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the
laws and ordinances of the Gospel." (That is, the Mormon Gospel.)
"Faith without works is dead" (James 2:20) is often quoted by Latter-
day Saints. To Christians this verse means that since good works must
flow out of living faith, a life without obedience demonstrates that a
person does not possess such faith. In Mormonism, however, obedience
to laws and ordinances eventually buys access into the higher kingdoms
of heaven.
Mormon salvation theology, like the Mormon explanation of the nature
of God, clearly contradicts the Bible on every hand. But Mormon
founder Joseph Smith had a solution for that – he produced three new
books of Scripture and disparaged the Bible.
Scripture
"We believe," the Mormon Eighth Article of Faith declares, "the Bible
to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly … ." With
this statement, Mormonism — from its earliest days — undermines the
authority of the Bible. Early Mormon scholars went out of their way to
declare the Bible unfit, damaged, mistranslated and dangerous. The
Book of Mormon, on the other hand, is "the most perfect book on the
face of the earth, singularly without error."
Orson Pratt, the cream of early Mormon scholars, in denigrating the
Bible, asked: "What evidence have [Protestants] that the book of
Matthew was inspired by God, or any other of the books of the New
Testament? … [the books of the Bible] have been mutilated, changed,
and corrupted in … a shameful manner … . Who knows that even one verse
of the whole Bible has escaped pollution?"6
A law unto itself
In the final analysis, Mormonism is an original, invented religion,
born of the mind of Joseph Smith, who is responsible for the spiritual
seduction of millions of people. To the world, Mormonism sells itself
as the friendly Christian church down the street, but in reality it is
no closer to biblical Christianity than Hinduism or Islam.
The goals of Mormonism, however, remain unchanged. It desires to turn
Protestants and Catholics, Evangelicals and Pentecostals, into
Mormons. It seeks to introduce them to what the Bible calls another
gospel, another spirit, and another Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:4).
________________________________________
James R. Spencer is a minister and author of seven books on cults, the
occult and secularism. He lives in Boise, Idaho.
1 History of the Church, vol. 6, pp. 310-312.
2 Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 4.
3 Journal of Discourses, vol. 10, p. 223.
4 Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Section Six, 1843-44, p.349.
5 Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p.6.
6 Orson Pratt’s Works, "The Bible Alone, an Insufficient Guide," pp.
44-47.

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