Mike Huckabee, the former fatso, former Baptist preacher, and former governor of Arkansas who will likely win Iowa's Republican presidential caucus on January 3, has ascended to the top tier of candidates by stressing his Christian bona fides. So why, since the circulation of his Christian resume has boosted him in the standings, will he not release the sermons he preached before switching to politics? Mitt Romney, too, in delivering a long speech on his Mormon faith, failed to say much of anything about what, as a Mormon, he believes. It seems these guys want to be religious in a general sort of way, which, as Susan Sontag once argued, is like "speaking language" instead of English, German, or French.
One comes slowly to the conclusion that, while it's very important to "be religious," the inevitable details are potentially harmful. Huckabee indicated in an early debate that he doesn't believe in evolution, and, in a sermon of his that some journalists have managed to uncover, he declared, "It doesn't embarrass me one bit to let you know that I believe Adam and Eve were real people." Inasmuch as a significant minority of the voting population expects the president to possess ordinary adult sophistication, this could hurt. It helps to be religious but having particular religious beliefs is dangerous.
The case of Mitt Romney is more interesting. Huckabee believes absurd things that are believed by roughly half the population, and by a majority of Republican voters. Romney is a member of a comparatively small faith community whose beliefs are arguably even more outlandish. Huckabee recently caused a small ruckus by wondering aloud whether Mormons believe that Jesus Christ is a blood relative of Satan. Apparently there is something to be said on various sides of this question, and it will not help Romney if Christian Republicans warm to the debate.
Then there is the fact that, if an American knows one thing about the Mormons, it is that their church compiles and archives extensive genealogical records frequently used by harmless drudges researching their family trees. It's less known that these genealogical records serve a theolgical function: the Mormons believe that, if dead non-Mormons can be identified, they might yet be prayed for and baptized as Mormons, and that they may thereby be delivered into paradise from "spirit prison." I know, because I read about it at a Catholic website, and I received the distinct impression that the author regards with disdain the prospect of heroes of his faith being suddenly invaded in their heavenly home by some real riffraff.
If Huckabee, having risen from the political dead on account of his piety, now seems less willing to talk about Adam and Eve, you can be sure that Romney feels even less inclined to discuss his church's doctrine concerning the baptism of the dead. That God should leave to the officiousness of the Mormons the fate of everlasting souls is an unusual point of view not likely to serve the presidential ambition of a latter day saint.
The Mormon concept of Baptism for the Dead isn't really anything sinister.
They believe that Scripture teaches that baptism is essential. Since many who have lived have not had opportunity to be baptized, they perform proxy baptisms for the dead (also Biblical).
It is in no way an effort to force dead people into the Mormon church against their will. It's just looked at as doing what a just God wants them to do.
Posted by: Craig | December 15, 2007 at 08:06 PM