It seems Mitt Romney is suffering from a case of what I call ‘Not Christian Enough’. At the recent Values Voters Summit, Baptist minister Robert Jeffress took a swipe at Mr. Mittens calling him:
“a good, moral person, but someone who is part of a cult” [Bloomberg.com]
Who better to write about what it’s like to be a Second Class Christian than someone like Yours Truly who walked that stoney path. So let’s talk about cults. Merriam-Webster defines the word “cult” as follows:
- formal religious veneration : worship
- a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents
- a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents
- a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <health cults>
- a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b : the object of such devotion c : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion
That’s a pretty wide net they’re casting there. This definition would seem to apply to all of persons of worship, be the subject of their devotion Jesus or Tori Amos. Let’s face it: fans of both own every word attributed to their object of loyalty. But what I suppose Jeffress was really saying was that Romney wasn’t “one of us.” He’s not good enough, not pure enough, he’s too different.
I’d feel sorry for Romney – at least a little bit – it’s not fun when the other reindeer won’t let you play their games. But Romney isn’t otherwise powerless in this struggle, like all the people effected by the massive amounts of cash the Mormon church poured into funding a ban on Gay Marriage. Romney and his supporters will just have to see how well they can buy their way into this game and out of this mess.
I haven’t conducted any surveys, and have no graphs to go with this, but I’m pretty sure when people hear ‘cult’ they think about doomsday groups like Heavens Gate and Jim Jones. Possibly they think of Scientology or The Moonies. Personally I think of any group that A) wants you to join, B) wants you give it your stuff or money, C) doesn’t want you making decisions on your own and D) doesn’t want you leaving it. I think my definition clearly covers the LDS church and frankly also the Baptist Church. I’ll wager the Baptists are more likely to kick you out than the LDS church is. That, and they don’t keep Membership Record Numbers, Giant Archives in Mountainside Bunkers, and they don’t ask their parishioners to wear Magic Underwear.
I think one of the comments over at chron.com said it best:
Technically, Christianity is the cult and Mormonism, Lutheranism, and Roman Catholicism are the sects of that cult. Similarly, Buddhist is a cult, and Zen, Theravada, and Tibetan are sects of that cult. [JohnD]
