Carissa's Letter to Liberty

My daughter Carissa is planning to attend Liberty University next fall as a junior transfer student. Last week, the university announced that it is having Mitt Romney come address its graduates in the commencement. Here is her open letter to the school (which has not yet responded to her three days after she originally sent this).

To whom it may concern:


I will be transferring to Liberty University as a junior in the fall of 2012, and I respect the school and its foundation on the Word of God. However, I have just learned that Republican candidate Mitt Romney will be delivering the commencement speech at this year’s graduation ceremony, and I am concerned about this decision from my future college for a number of reasons, all stemming from the fact that, in case you didn’t read all of the man’s Wikipedia page, Mitt Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In other words, he is a Mormon. He served a mission for his church, tithes regularly to the church, and even served as a bishop over a ward.

The first reason why I am upset about this decision is that it gives the university the appearance of acceptance of the man’s ideologies. Granted, the university may align with his political views and his presidency campaign is currently in the media spotlight; however, I would expect that there are many other conservative Republican men who could have been chosen by the school to speak at such a prestigious event. By allowing an actively practicing Mormon man onto the Christian school’s stage, it would seem that the school has given the man its approval, thus giving his religion approval on the school’s campus.

Even if this is not the university’s intention, as Christians we are to abstain from all appearances of evil (1 Thes. 5:22), and the appearance by allowing this man to speak at the ceremony is that the LDS religion is acceptable and tolerated on the campus. I pray that this is not the truth. To help you understand why I am so vehement regarding this subject, allow me to explain. My family lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, where my father serves as a missionary to these very people with whom Romney associates. My family’s lives, as well as our partners and Christian friends in Utah, are devoted to helping Mormons see the darkness and lies in this religion and show them the truth of the Gospel. I would grieve for any of that work to be damaged as a result of such a prominent Christian university blurring the lines between evangelical Christianity and Mormonism any further than has already been done.


The second reason why I do not approve of Gov. Romney’s invitation to speak is more out of concern for the students. I think that it is important for the speaker at a commencement ceremony to enforce what students have been learning for the past four years of their lives, to encourage them in their faith, and to commission them to go impact the world. I do not believe that Gov. Romney is in any position to offer students encouragement to go live as “Champions for Christ” if he himself is not a champion for Christ at all. He is a champion for a false gospel and a god who is, according to his Scriptures, not the only God nor has he always been a god at all. I am uncomfortable with a man like him addressing so many Christian young people who are so capable of impacting the world for Christ. Why not have a man such as Billy Graham, Ravi Zacharias, or John Piper – men who have impacted the world with their leadership and are truly champions for Christ – encourage the young people of this school and set a Godly example for what they may someday become?


I understand that, with planning so far underway for this ceremony, it is a difficult decision to reverse. However, I would implore you to reconsider Mitt Romney’s invitation to speak at the 2012 commencement ceremony. I believe it will do more harm than good for the Christian community, especially for those of us who are deep in the trenches of spiritual warfare here in Utah and strive to be a set-apart light to the followers of this religion which is void of hope and truth.


Thank you for reading and considering my request.


Carissa Johnson

LU Class of 2014

GOP candidate is drawing a varied Christian response

With a Mormon candidate having a good chance to garner enough electoral votes to earn the GOP nomination, we at Mormonism Research Ministry are starting to get used to the question, “Should (or Could) a Christian vote for a Mormon presidential candidate?”

In March, Bill McKeever posted an article on our website talking about this very issue. (See http://www.mrm.org/vote)  We also produced a short video, using the article as our script. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4Gte7A23RE) Without saying “yes” or “no” to the question, Bill discussed the issues that a Christian voter needs to consider when determining whether or not to vote for a Mormon candidate. For example, he explained how those of us in Utah would never be able to vote if voting for Mormons was inherently wrong. After all, most candidates for public office in this state are Latter-day Saints.

While voting is an important right, there are many things to consider in determining the right candidate for such an important office as president. We must consider the candidates’ world views as well as how determining how they will handle topics that are important to us (i.e. abortion, finances, health care, foreign policy, etc.). While there are no perfect candidates, we must determine who would be the person most likely to lead the people in a way that aligns with a biblical perspective.

There are, Bill said, three possibilities if a person decided not to vote for the Mormon candidate: Abstain from voting, write in another candidate, or vote for the incumbent. We encourage Christians to pray on their knees for God’s will in this coming election. However, because MRM is a 501c3 nonprofit organization, we’re not allowed to tell people how to vote.

There are typically two responses to our position. One side says that we are not being forceful enough because they feel that  it’s mortally wrong to ever vote for a Mormon candidate, regardless of the choices.  (I wonder, What if a candidate is secular humanist? Shouldn’t that be an automatic disqualifier too?) One responder to the video even took us to task, accusing us of being in cahoots with the LDS Church, exclaiming that “this is a sneaky mormon video pretending to be a christian (sic) made video but yet a mormon made video!!! mormons are evil !!!!!” Another side feels that because we run a ministry showing how Mormonism is not Christianity, we are somehow automatically opposed to any LDS candidate.  As one man told us recently as a public meeting held at a church, our opposition to Mormonism may cause what he felt was a good candidate from winning the election.

This is not an easy issue, and no matter where we try to land, we’re bound  to get criticized. Pray for us at MRM as we have opportunities to not be political but rather deal with the Mormon issue that is now a current topic and being discussed in many different places.

Blacks and the LDS Church

Before June 8, 1978, LDS males with black skin were not allowed to obtain the priesthood necessary to qualify for the Celestial Kingdom, a place where Mormons believe people will be able to progress to godhood. The very best they could hope for before this time was the bottom level of the Celestial Kingdom, where they could be servants for those on the top level.

After the First Presidency received a revelation from God, this changed. Today those with African ancestry can receive the priesthood. However, there was no repudiation of the belief that blacks were not as valiant in premortality, which was the cause for their "mark."

The issue came to the forefront at the end of February 2012 when a religion professor from BYU gave a two-hour interview with the Washington Post, verifying the racist nature of this belief. When the church heard about it, they released a speculation disagreeing with the church religion professor and saying that this was only "speculation." However, as I have demonstrated in the following two videos, this is not the case. I realize that the two videos (one 8 minutes, the other 10) contains many, many quotes from LDS leaders and teachers. This was done on purpose. But if you can invest 20 minutes, you will clearly see how this teaching was not just mere opinion, speculation, or folklore. It was really taught. This cannot be denied. Or, at least, it shouldn't be denied.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2Ed4Ox6m1U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCOEXVAhexo