Mitt & the Evangelical Vote:

More harsh criticisms of Mormon doctrines from Frank Pastore here. He writes:

Hugh says bigotry is exposed by simply inserting the word “Jew” for “Mormon” in suspect statements. This seems to imply that both stand in the same relationship to Christianity. This is not so. Jews and Christians worship the same God, Mormons worship different gods. And Jews don’t insist they are the restoration of Christianity after eighteen centuries of apostasy.

This is completely unconvincing. Judaism, Mormonism and Islam all three stand in the same relationship with Frank Pastore's fundamentalist Trinitarian Christianity, which makes an exclusivist claim about God. Pastore believes God is Truine in nature, and the Jews, Muslims and Mormons don't. Period. Either they all worship the same God -- the God of Abraham -- or they all worship different Gods.

Check out, also, this article by

Robert Millet, professor of ancient Christian Scriptures at Brigham Young University, and Gerald McDermott, professor of religion at Roanoke College...co-authors of Claiming Christ: A Mormon-Evangelical Debate, to be published in September by Brazos Press.

They note:

Evangelicals accuse Mormons of adding new revelation (the Book of Mormon) to the Bible. They think Mormons teach that humans are saved by good works rather than by Jesus Christ, and that humans are of the same species as Jesus and can someday attain his status. In addition, evangelicals say, Mormons reject key Christian doctrines such as the Trinity and creatio ex nihilo (God creating the world out of nothing).

Yet America has a history of electing presidents with religious beliefs outside the orbit of traditional Christianity. George Washington was a deist who usually referred to the deity in vague and impersonal terms. Thomas Jefferson believed the doctrines of the Trinity, atonement, and original sin were essentially pagan and rejected the possibility of miracles or resurrection. John Adams also denied the Trinity, along with most orthodox Christian doctrine, while holding to a Stoic-like resignation to fate. Abraham Lincoln and his wife attended séances, and William Howard Taft was a Unitarian—which means he rejected the deity of Christ.

This is exactly the point I made in this post entitled Christianist, Mormons, and Early Presidents. Perhaps some in the Romney camp will follow my advice?

If more folks understood these early Presidents and Founders, like the Mormons, were of what folks like Pastore consider "a faith other than Christianity," perhaps the Romney campaign can spin this "challenge" or "problem" into a talking points solution.