Billy Graham is a man who is admired by all. He has remained untainted by scandal while being spiritual advisor to many presidents and a proponent of the Christian Gospel for his whole life. I am not getting my shirt in a knot about it, but I do find that on occasion he makes a compromise that I find a bit troubling.
He had a meeting with US presidential candidate Mitt Romney this week and was so impressed with Mitt's moral standard and commitment to faith issues that he had a very important page on his website (Billy Graham Evangelistic Society) deleted. The page was the one that described in detail what constitutes a cult, and then listed Mormonism as a cult.
It seems that in his promise to Mitt to do whatever he could to promote him in the coming election, he compromised this evaluation of Mormonism. It would not do to promote a adherent of a cult to be the next POTUS!
The press release from Billy's people reads thus:
"Our primary focus is that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has always been promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ," Ken Barun, chief of staff for the association, told CNN in a statement. "We removed the information from the website because we do not wish to participate in a theological debate about something that has become politicized during this campaign."
I am all for Billy Graham praying for presidents or candidates, as it is a Biblical mandate. What I am not in agreement with is that we change our definitions for the sake of political expediency. It is the 'Association' that has politicized an important issue by removing it from view so as to not offend Mormons and to make a Mormon a good candidate for Christians to vote for.
I don't even care if Romney is a Mormon. I want the president of our powerful neighbour to be honest, moral, intelligent, knowledgeable, capable, and possess the leadership qualities to right the ship of state which is listing badly at the moment. If and when the USA goes under, we will be pulled in by the undertow. We need someone, now, who can patch up the ship and get us away from the icebergs.
However, by the 'Association's' own definition, Mormonism is still a cult.
4 comments:
Why is it that we must always point out our differences, rather than celebrate our commonalities?
Because that must be done in the search for truth.
When the heart of the message is completely different then whatever you have in common really doesn't matter. I personallly don't think Moromism is a cult but it's not Christian either. It's a religion to itself.
As for Billy Graham...he can do what he likes and his advisors can do what they like. They'll answer to God one day.
Depends on your definition of a cult. BGEA definition is:
They do not adhere solely to the sixty-six books of the Bible as the inspired Word of God. They add their “special revelations” to the Bible and view them as equally authoritative.
They do not accept that our relationship to Jesus Christ is a reality “by grace through faith” alone, but promote instead a salvation by works.
They do not give Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, full recognition as the second Person of the Trinity, composed of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
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