We Need New Christian Leadership<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
 
"Charitably speaking," quoth Richard Land, "they [Christians] would call [Mormonism] the fourth Abrahamic religion. When they're less charitable, they would call it a cult."
Is that right?
Richard Land, Honcho Maximus of the Southern Baptists, here speaks of his Christian brothers as a group other than the one he is in.  It's a little slip, but its telling.  He is describing the moral majority "they" for a reporter.  He is worried about what "they" think. Not what he thinks.  He's supposed to have the mind of Christ.  But he's casting about for what Christians might think of Mitt Romney.  A man with a long list of theology degrees pretends to be confused about who Jesus would vote for.This quote is the crystallization of all that is wrong with our apostate and adrift national Christian political leadership.  If you want to understand that Godliness has left the helmsman of our Christian ship of state, read on. 

The Holy Scriptures record that one of the fundamental duties of a Christian leader is to be a shepherd of the flock.  That would seem, almost, to be the exclusive defining characteristic.  Of course, there are specific manifestations of that concept – preaching, teaching, rebuking, being a moral guardian – but the core is one who watches over, protects, and leads to safety. Taking sheep to safe pasture is central to the Biblical description of a Christian leader.  And the main dangers to sheep, of course, are wolves.

By that test Richard Land and Gary Bauer are in total breach of their responsibilities and have utterly failed as public Christian leaders.

What does a physical shepherd do?  One of their chief jobs is to look out for the wolves, fight them off, or lead the sheep away from such.  It is definitely not the job of the shepherd to take longing glances at the wolves because the wolves are well funded and then go ponder a soulful consideration of the benefits of wolfishness.
"Sheep! I have just had a heart to heart with the wolf. And I want you to know something.  Deep in his heart, the wolf just wants what we all want.  Green pastures, safety from storms, and  something to eat every day.  I think we can find common ground.  Wolfie likes to be cuddled just like sheep do. So let's give him a chance. I present to you Mr. Wolf.  I know there are lingering prejudices.  But let's not be bound by the past.  Let's not be bigoted, sheep. Wolfishness is istorically misunderstood and his devouring doctrine changed in 1978."

A few sheep join hands and begin to say, "All we are saaaaying, is give wolf a chance!"  (baaaad joke)

When the founder of the Church, St. Peter, was looking around trying to figure out just what in the world to do, Jesus gave him one piece of advice.

"Tend my sheep."

You would think our modern American evangelical leadership would have grasped that.  But they are more clever. They are very wise. They know it takes an organization in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Iowa in addition to 'tend my sheep'.  But I wonder if they can remember this little Biblical requirement for leadership.

"Above reproach."

In the mists of half sleep I heard Gary Bauer talking on SRN news and almost threw up on the clock radio.  I wish I could quote it exactly.  But he said, in effect, that Christians should not consider theology when voting for a candidate for President. Making theology a requirement is a 'slippery slope', said Bauer.

What?

Slippery slope to what, Gary? Holiness? Or a Christian nation? Or a moral nation that we were founded to be and that you, supposedly, defend?

A Christian, who is defined by mere "theology", should not consider a man's relationship to God, when considering entrusting that man with the moral leadership of the free world? Theology doesn't matter, Bauer tells us, to the physical leadership of the most powerful army in the world, and the spiritual mantle of leading the Judeo-Christian 'In God We Trust' Republic?  The superpower currently in conflict with Terrorist-Islamism?  And the guy saying these things is supposed to be a "great Christian leader" ?  I think when it comes to political races, we need to go on the basis of the issues rather than theology." –Gary Bauer.

But what makes the comments even more ridiculous, and totally insidious, is that Bauer was speaking in the context of supporting Mormon theology.  Not lesser and acceptable differences. Not Protestants supporting Catholics, not little tiffs about litany at Christmas. Not Bible-believers supporting even a Bible-believing Jewish candidate.  Bauer's words were about Christians supporting the anti-Christ theology of Mormonism. Earth to Bauer: Mormonism is the ultimate counterfeit-Jesus theology.  It isn't a slight difference.  Mormonism is from the pit of Hell, Gary.  It's official symbols are occultist.  It's oaths are occultic.  It's theology places Satan and Jesus Christ as genetic siblings of near equal power. It's doctrines assert all black-skinned people are accursed of God.  Its founder, Joseph Smith, was a convicted con-man who died in a gun fight, who the cult says is "necessary for salvation".  And, if that's not enough, its defining documents openly and insistently impugn the infallibility of the written Holy Bible. Gary? You're right. That does sounds like a slippery slope to me.

I had seen Gary Bauer totally miss it by claiming Samuel Alito's judicial opinions were "pro-life".  I had read those opinions before making public statements on them.  Gary Bauer hadn't. Nevertheless, he went around cherubically proclaiming Alito's court rulings proved Alito was Pro-Life.  I was disgusted and published the Alito Pro-Life report card which showed that Alito almost never met a Pro-Abortion case-ruling he didn't like.  I was stunned that Bauer could be so glib in his support without, clearly, having read the opinions.  But I guess, even then, the bottom hadn't dropped out on him for me.  Until now.

No Mr. Bauer. You are absolutely and dangerously wrong. Please return to your first love.  I'll take John Jay as my national Christian leadership instead:

Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." –John JayThe context of Mr. Bauer's repeated spokesman-ship, and he is quoted extensively on the website "Evangelicals for Romney", is that somehow Mormonism, (founded in the 1800's by a Free Mason who fled the Governor of Illinois's warrant for insurrection) should not matter to the Christian life in the Judeo-Christian Republic.  Somehow Christians should willingly cast a vote of conscience for an anti-Christ spokesman simply because the anti-Christ priest-man says nice things that he didn't believe way back in 2005.
 
But is it costless for the national Christian leadership to support Mormonism? The supporting of this fake religion, one which most conservative Christian denominations rightly regard as a Satanic cult, is not supposed to confuse the minds of Mr. Bauer and all his hearers?  Please look soberly at what Bauer and Land and their ilk are doing. If we agree with them that Christians should support a Mormon for President, then we are ceding that John Jay is a fool for saying that America should prefer Christians for her leaders.  But more, if we follow Bauer, then the Christians themselves would be saying, "America is no longer a Christian nation and we certainly won't ever regard it as one again."
Bauer and his followers are consequently pushing the idea that religion has no objective, no public, no meaningful consequences at all.  They are riding the secular freight train that says religion is purely subjective, internal, and personal. All that matters is public policy, Gary piously reminds us.  In other words, this is adopting the secularist party religion - where no Biblical conviction is ever taken to mean something real, nor ever allowed to shape the public uniquely.  All through the Clinton era we heard Gary talk about how character matters. But now, when it is advantageous to his public success, we hear that the regenerative work of Jesus Christ inside the character of the President of the United States is without consequence and should be summarily dismissed by all Jesus' tender and vulnerable sheep.In short, Gary Bauer is a sell-out. 
 
He brushes all this off lightly by saying that he often works with people whose theology he doesn't agree with.  Yeah. Well, we sometimes have people at our jobsite who are alcoholics. That doesn't mean we have a couple drinks with them and endorse them for president.  We work around them.  We maybe try to get them some help.  But we sure as heck don't go on national Christian radio to shill for them, put them in the top job.
 
Let me ask you something Gary.  If The Anti-Christ himself was "pro-life", and claimed to be "pro-family", should Christians all over the world vote for him?  Would you reassure us that considering Mr. Anti's theology was a "slippery slope" we shouldn't get into? Maybe if Mere Willard wanted to run…the UN after being President, would you reassure Christians all over again on his behalf?  How's your consulting income?

Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, is a source, of Romney's "Jack Kennedy" strategy.  Land sat down with Romney in late 2006 and advised him to treat Mitt's Mormonism the same was as Kennedy's Catholicism. 
You know, that is priceless, shrewd, and amazingly wise advice. It's like the man has the gifts of God at work in him.

Too bad those gifts were given, by the leader of a born-again denomination, to an anti-Christ cult member trying to usurp the Presidency.  You know, my spellchecker just showed me I misspelled "denomination" as "demonimation".  I believe in the Southern Baptists. I sure don't believe in what Richard Land is doing as a "shepherd" of them.  Word to my Southern Baptist brethren: you are being lead astray into the jaws of a wolf by your leader. Get rid of him. Richard Wolfland is a danger, a disgrace to your institutions, and to the Church of Jesus Christ. 

Or is it meaningless too that the SBC official literature lists the LDS church as a cult?  Give cults inspired Presidential campaign advice?  Is this a new evangelism strategy I haven't read about; the Purpose Driven Cult?  Your Best Cult Now?  I must have missed that page at the Gothard seminar.

How's this for simple Christian American voter theology: I would vote for someone who does not replace the real Jesus with a fake substitute, and who believes the Holy Bible is the exclusive Word of God. I could vote for a God fearing Jew if his statement on Jesus was "I really am not sure" and his position on the Torah was "It is the Word of God."  Friends, Jesus Is The Torah and He had 12 Orthodox followers with him for years before some decided they believed Jesus is Messiah. The real God of America is found in the real Bible; the "In God We Trust" God.  Romans chapters 9, 10, and 11 states what the Christian attitude towards Jewish acceptance should be (to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises)  And, so, before we move on, let us note the Lord's statement about the Jews to the entire world has proven true time and again, "Those who bless you will be blessed, and those who curse you will be cursed."

Conservatism should have the simple limits that God sets in the Bible.  And that's the crux.  Bauer and Land are worshipping social conservatism, adopting modern secular liberalism, being bounded by whatever opinion they can get away with, instead of letting both their conservatism and their liberality be hemmed only by the written Word of God. Mormons will argue that they believe "the same Bible".  It's just that they also believe additional books which say the exact opposite of most major theological facts in the Bible.  Jews don't do that.  Catholics don't do that. But Richard Land and Gary Bauer do that.  Land and Bauer use extra-biblical ideas, the traditions of men, to nullify the Word of God. So? The proper limits of acceptability are pretty obvious if you just think about them a little.
For Christian leaders to support a man who's position on Jesus is "here is my counterfeit replacement Christ!" and "I believe in theology which is the most anti-Christian in history!" is just beyond ridiculous. A leader of the Southern Baptist Convention cannot argue that "Mitt says he believes in Jesus", when that SBC man is surrounded by the best Christian theologians in the world. Those theologians can tell Land frankly that Mormon theology is from Hell.  But don't we often hear about the amazing degrees of scholarship that Mr. Land possesses himself?  I am not sure I have every missed an opportunity to hear Mr. Lands degrees when hearing Mr. Land.  So it's a fair bet he knows this himself?  Gary Bauer, who could also call up any of the best Bible scholars in the world and have their undivided attention for hours, has no right to pretend he thinks Mitt is a Christian.  Catholics, Protestants, Eastern Orthodoxy, can agree on an Apostle's creed core of the Christian faith and American public life tolerates some degree of disagreement on lesser points.  But Jesus Christ didn't retain or endorse those people who were committedly, institutionally, doctrinally opposed to him or who worshipped a counterfeit Messiah.  Jesus certainly didn't tolerate Satan being in any way equal with Jesus. Jesus was kind and uplifting to those who were Biblical, considering, or confused, but he was tough as nails to those who had decided to replace him with something false.And I am zealous for my Father's house.  Get these damnable money changers out of His temple.  For money you will put a wolf in charge of God's sheep!  For prestige and influence you will try to sell the flock a false shepherd!  For the worship of earthly politics, you will install a pagan king instead of a Godly man.  Are there no Godly men in this country who could be President that you have to help a cult leader?  Mr. Land, did you hear there is a Baptist preacher running for the office?There are clear and obvious Biblical limits to what theology is acceptable in leadership.  It's not hard to figure out.  John Jay told us to require Christians.  God entrusted the Jewish people with the entire Old Testament and they are guardians of it to this day. In light of Romans 9, 10, and 11 a worthy discussion can be had according to Scripture about Jewish candidacy.  But Christian leadership has failed to be Christian when it endorses a blatantly anti-Christian cult leader, in the person of America's President.  America is all about the self-evident transcendent Creator, who created all men equal and endowed them with certain unalienable rights.  That's the God of the Jews and the Christians.  It isn't remotely the space-alien god of the Mormons.  Period. To put it more simply, for complicated Mr. Bauer and sophisticated Mr. Land, shepherds don't help sheep accept wolves.
 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
-- 2nd Cor 11:4
 
Willard Romney's religion is based on anti-biblical books which completely supplant the doctrines and meanings of the Old and New Testaments, and they change the person of Jesus Christ. The godhead, the virgin birth, the status as only-begotten, the eternal preexistence, the omnipotence, are all trashed by LDS "theology".  On and on, Mormonism supplants everything core and fundamental to Christianity with a substitute-Christ doctrine about our real Jesus.  Mormon "holy scripture" openly degrades the humanity of blacks, the equality of women, and the sanctity of one-man one-woman marriage. According to Mormons, salvation only happens when you believe in Joseph Smith.
 
Every single President of the United States until present has had a public Christian confession of faith.  Mitt Romney only gained 3rd in the polls when (some unnamed) Christian leaders flirted with endorsing him.  And now, with the help of sell-outs like Land and Bauer, Mere Willard is polling strongly in Iowa and New Hampshire.  The only way America will vote the spirit of anti-Christ into power is if Christians are hoodwinked by their leadership.  Woe to those who lead one of these little ones astray!

Sorry Gary.  Sorry Richard. There is no surrender to you or anyone on the exclusive importance of the real King Jesus in public life.  I won't surrender one objective fact about my King as irrelevant.  I won't give up one detail of his person as described by the real Bible in acquiesce to the Mormon description. The Torah became flesh and dwelt among us! He is the Only Begotten Son of God!  And, as George Washington said, "it is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible."
Or have you forgotten that Jesus is a political King who has a coming Kingdom?  How will you explain that you encouraged his followers to cast a vote for a Luciferian governor?  When the blazing fire in His eyes meets you, will you dare to tell him "theology doesn't matter"?
If you, therefore, think the real description of the real Jesus doesn't matter to the American Presidency, the most powerful office in the free world, capable of wiping out hundreds of millions of lives with a single command, then you are nuts. You are worse than nuts.  And it is totally obvious that anyone who thinks that way is totally unfit to be a Christian's leader. I say to Mr. Land and to Mr. Bauer, for all evangelical Christian America: Step Down!
 
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:  Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men?
            
 If a demon were running for office, do you think The Apostle Paul would want us to consider the demon's theology? Or just the demon's positions on the issues?  More than asking you to step down Mr. Bauer, Mr. Land, I would like to inform you that you have been stepped down already.You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, for now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. "But now your kingdom shall not endure The LORD has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you." But theology doesn't matter any longer, so Mr. Land and Mr. Bauer may ignore this Scripture as it pertains to them.  God has exposed the hearts of many, and the outcome shall be a marvelous surprise.On that thread, if theology no longer matters, we really ought to be practical don't you think?  Let's elect an Islamist! He will know how to conduct the War on Terror better – right? How about a Satanist? He will know how to direct the FBI to investigate crime.  I for one can't wait until we have broadened our theology-doesn't-matter concept until Mullah Omar of the Taliban presides over the prayer service at the National Cathedral.
 We here in fly-over country read, in the scholarly examination of New Testament Greek, that "anti-Christ" means "against and in place of".  It is not merely "opposes Christ" but it is a substitutionary Christ, a plastic Christ, a drop-in replacement part, one which masquerades as the Messiah but which is not, in fact, him.  And that, my friends, is the core of what Mormonism is all about.  It's a bait and switch game. It snookers the properties and history and facts about the real Jesus...in order to way-lay Christians.  It is a carefully constructed and totally divergent organized blasphemy which aims to undermine the soul salvation of culturally Christian people .  You know, people who look like Baptists but aren't.  People who dress like young Republicans.  Tell me again why you aren't endangering your sheep Mr. Land?  Repeat for me Mr. Bauer why the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution, is more important than the third chapter of John?

Gentlemen, you have totally lost your bearings. 
These pretenders have been removed from leadership for the intolerable offense of consciously and deliberately persuading Christians that Mormonism is acceptable to vote into office. Oh, they will caterwaul and argue how sophisticated and nuanced their position was.  To which I cry out:  It is not fitting for you to help the Mormon church's media elite to normalize a cult.  Let us roar with the Prophet Jehosephat when he said to Ahab:

"Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord?"
--2 Chronicles 19:2
 
And so, in conclusion, the Rev. Al Sharpton was right.  People who really believe in the true God would cause Mere Willard to be a non-factor in a short time. If the Godly just stuck to their guns, truth would reign.  Sharpton intuited that a good quick test about true religion is whether it believes in the equality of God's love for all men. Mormonism regards blacks as cursed. But people who have built careers, reputations, and power, in Jesus Christ and on the contributions of the Saints, are now leading the flock directly to the wolves, entering negotiations with the destroyer, and trying to reassure the defenseless that it's all just a secular matter so that the flock will go back to sleep and leave the wolves in charge.  Rev. Sharpton, for all the Romney people accused you, they never renounced their blasphemous writings that curse blacks, did they?
 Life and death are inextricably secular matters and unavoidably spiritual ones.  There can be no ultimate separation of religion from public life.  If so, we must demand the best spiritual character in our leadership.  Wasn't there something about being wary of "hirelings" who don't love the flock in those parables? Who love money more than souls?
 
On September 11th …1857…the Mormon church, under the leadership of Brigham Young's son, massacred scores of settler men, women, and children just for being non-Mormon.  First, the same Mormons had worked out a treaty with those Christians to get the Christians to accept them, to lay down their arms.  Then, in order to "keep the peace", the Mormons confiscated those arms.  The foolish Christians, following their useless leadership, willingly obeyed. Then, on the secret code word of their leader, the wolves spun around and committed genocide, wiping them all out when they were least suspecting, unarmed.  Little girls Christian murdered by Mormons on the prairie.
Haven't we learned yet, from September 11th , that theology really does matter?
Bauer's and Land's effort to normalize the Mormonizing and make it acceptable for Christians to vote for it is professional, public, and religious treason.  Far from making America a more wholesome nation, they are using their positions to hugely assist the movement separating religion from public life, separating Christianity from American institutions, separating theology from public consequence, and separating the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit from the concept of character. They do this to the detriment of Christians, as Christians, using Christian money. Their actions are repeated, and they are public, and they are vile. 
 It should also be highlighted that the tithes and offerings, presented on the altar of Jesus Christ for use in spreading the Gospel…are paying Bauer's and Land's salary.  I think the grandmothers who sacrifice their limited incomes for King Jesus (the Real One) should be aware that Bauer and Land are helping push a high-ranking cult member into the Presidency.
 Bauer, Land. You are deposed.  Your ministries are gone.  Go find secular work and seek the Lord's forgiveness.  You are not Christian leadership any more.Mormonism is a danger that educated theologians and paid leaders are supposed to protect the babes in Christ from. What absolute peril these men have done to the souls of the innocent!
 Our days should be informed by our history, so in closing here is what George Washington said to the Delaware Indian chief who wanted to send little Delaware to American schools.
 "You do well to wish to learn our arts and our ways of life and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are."
Funny. It's like Washington didn't get the Bauer memo. Washington seditiously thought it wasn't just issues that mattered. Didn't he understand how enlightened people would later become about Jesus Christ in public life? If only we could send Gary Bauer back in time to straighten out Washington.The people and institutions of our Christian public life are become weak and sallow, and they need to be refreshed. Thomas Paine, in Common Sense, said "We have it in our power to begin the world over again.", which sounds almost too Mormon to me. But thankfully, we know we can at least begin the national evangelical leadership over again.  Sadly, when the Gary Bauers and Richard Lands of the world hold the position that Jesus Christ Himself no longer matters in electing the President, it is actually the opposite which stands true: that Jesus Christ holds that neither Bauer nor Land any longer matter in electing the President.  They thought they knew the President; they forgot who was KingAnd so, to my Christian brethren across the amber waves of grain I say: Vote for character, vote above reproach, vote for theology, prefer a real Christian, uphold someone who does not alter the Bible, someone who believes in it. There are many such men who are running.  We, the Christians, shall vote for the guy who is true in his heart, actions, Bible, and life.  We don't care who has more money.  We don't ask who's ahead in the polls. We ask God who's in ahead in His heart.  We ask what our conscience and our Bible can support on judgment day, when you look King Jesus in the eye. Because every last one of us, small or great, will be there; every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess.
 In closing, here was Richard Land's careless advice to his sheep"Southern Baptists understand they are voting for a commander in chief, not a theologian in chief."

Oh really?

Here's the Bible's advice to the Southern Baptists.  Go with this instead!
 
"Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! The sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened." Zechariah 11:17