I realize that I don't have a dog in this fight, but I'm glad that Joel Osteen is on hand to say he thinks Mormons in general are, and Mitt Romney in particular is, Christian. As the Christian Post reported last week:
"When I hear Mitt Romney say that he believes that Jesus is the Son of God--that he's the Christ, raised from the dead, that he's his Savior--that's good enough for me," said Osteen.
The Texas pastor did say that the Mormon faith was "not traditional Christianity," but that Mormonism still falls under the umbrella of Christian tenets. "Mormonism is a little different, but I still see them as brothers in Christ," said Osteen.
Nor has Osteen, pastor of the most mega megachurch in America, come to this position lately. He's been driving his fellow evangelicals crazy with it at least since 2008. Of course, it all depends on where you sit and when you're sitting there. From where the Jews sit, Mormons look like Christians too. Then again, it's not been very long since evangelicals made a habit of distinguishing Christians (themselves) from Catholics. Now they consider Catholics within the fold. You might say that the Mormons have helped bring them together.
As for Joel the Irenic, he represents a strain of Christianity that just about all contemporary intellectuals, from pedal-to-the-metal Calvinists to secular liberals, regard as bad religion. Here's the Christian Post taxing him with latest such critic, Ross Douthat:
CP: Well it's a new book, released just last week, and there is a chapter called "Pray and Grow Rich"--Chapter 6--and he headlines it with you. He says that you preach an upbeat gospel where "God gives without demanding, forgives without threatening to judge, and hands out His rewards in this life rather than the next. … Osteen embodies the refashioning of Christianity to suit an age of abundance, in which the old war between monotheism and money seems to have ended, for many believers, in a marriage of God and mammon." In short, Douthat is saying you embody the prosperity gospel and promoting Christian heresy. Do you consider yourself a preacher of the prosperity gospel? Is it heresy?
Osteen: You know, I don't consider myself a … I don't really know what the prosperity gospel is. The way I define it is that I believe God wants you to prosper in your health, in your family, in your relationships, in your business, and in your career. So I do … if that is the prosperity gospel, then I do believe that.
Never mind that the most popular preacher of Douthat's Mere Christian Golden Age, Norman Vincent Peale, extolled the power of positive thinking to a postwar public eager for the identical message. Monotheism in the Judeo-Christian tradition pretty much starts off with a gospel of prosperity: God promises the Israelites the good life in a land of milk and honey if they keep their end of the bargain. Is belief in the Covenant now a Christian heresy?
Anselm | Apr 30, 2012 | 9:42pm
I think there is an odd sort of tolerance going on in the current discussion of whether Romney (as a Mormon) is a Christian. To my mind, tolerance means tolerating others who are different from you (a virtue). In this case that would amount to saying something like “Romney and I don’t have the same fundamental beliefes, but that is ok.” The issue at stake seems to be whether various Christians should consider Romney (and Mormons) as part of the fold, that is, to deny any fundamental difference between Mormonism and historic Christianity. I don’t think the real issue is a matter of tolerance, but of definitions. Mormons claim to be Christian and offer a definition of what it means to be Christian. Historic Christianity (Christianity of the major creeds that shaped Christian self-understanding through time) offers a different definition of Christianity which excludes Mormonism (on grounds of denying the trinity as progressively defined in the creeds). I’m not sure it’s honest to resolve the basically political question of Romney’s Christianity (it is his public/political life, not his private life that is stirring the current discussion) without recognizing different understandings of that concept, which is a theological issue.
fwolfe49 | May 3, 2012 | 9:47pm
I do not know how many of you know any Mormons personally, but I do know several. The first Mormon couple my wife and I met were just wonderful, on the surface. As a Christian workman of the Bible, I endeavoured to engage them in biblical conversation; it didn’t go well. He had no interest in anything I had to say. His attitude was so superior to anything I had to say. My wife and I were shocked by his arrogance. I told him that we might have a lot more in common than he thought. His response was, ” I doubt that we have anything in common!”
After them, we never attempted to engage any other Mormons in a biblical conversation. We made more Mormon “friends” who were very generous and likable, but there was always an air of superiority around them. I do no think it is a question of whether they are as Christian as Christian’s, but whether we as “Christian’s” are equal to them. When it comes to the doctrine of the Trinity, there is no way, they would think that any trinitarian had a snowball’s chance in hell of being equal with them. To them, that is Idolatry: worshipping any other god as YHWH.
fwolfe49 | May 3, 2012 | 9:55pm
As far what Joel Osteen said, Muslims believe everything he said Romney said except for the word “the” in reference to Son of God.” If it had said “a” son, Muslims would be in complete agreement.