A new Hollywood movie retelling the true story of a band of Mormons who brutally murdered more than 100 pioneers passing through the Utah territory in 1857 may hurt the image of presidential hopeful and professed Mormon follower Mitt Romney.
The movie September Dawn, which opened in U.S theaters last Friday, stars Academy Award winner Jon Voight as Mormon bishop Jacob Samuelson, whose son falls in love with one of the girls on the wagon-train party heading for California from Arkansas.
The younger Samuelson’s attraction to the settler girl combined with the Mormon’s prior intention to harm the wagon party leads to the massacre on Sept. 11, 1857 of about 120 settlers by Mormons and their Indian mercenaries.
Dr. Ted Baehr, chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission, believes the film will be harmful to Mitt Romney’s campaign.
“What [the character of] Brigham Young does in the movie is talk about…that you have to have blood atonement, you have to kill the Gentiles; then he declares himself a modern Mohammad,” said Baehr, according to OneNewsNow. “This is going to be an issue [for Romney]. It’s going to be an issue that will dog him. I think he’s got tremendous problems to overcome, and the movie will aggravate those problems.”
Many Christian voters have already voiced concerns over voting for a Mormon for president of the United States. Some Christians are uncertain if Mormons can be considered Christians, while many view the Mormon church as a cult.
Recently, prominent theologian Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, stated conclusively that Mormons believe in a false gospel and are not Christians after a month-long online debate with a well-known Mormon science-fiction writer.
“Here is the bottom line. As an Evangelical Christian – a Christian who holds to the ‘traditional Christian orthodoxy’ of the Church – I do not believe that Mormonism leads to salvation,” wrote Mohler on July 25 in his last set of comments on the online debate hosted by Beliefnet.com.
“To the contrary, I believe that it is a false gospel that, however sincere and kind its adherents may be, leads to eternal death rather than to eternal life,” he stated.
Aside from criticism of Mormon theology, the newly released film, which revisits the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre, is also “pretty condemning of Mormonism,” said Baehr. The entertainment expert does not recommend Christians watch the movie due to the level of violence.
September Dawn is rated R for violence.
Comments
RBB - Thans for the objectivity. It's amazing how such honesty in dialog has a exponential impact on our discourse. In other words, you fairly listen to my opinion and I do the same to you and rather than excalate the vitriol we are able to come to some understanding. Thanks.
I have a good friend at work who is an active member of a local Evangelical congregation. I'll admit that I viewed him suspiciously when we met. But I am slowly becoming convinced that he has good intentions and a kind heart. Maybe that friendship will be the spark to eliminate my prejudices I have developed.
Thanks PASTOR for the same.
And RBB, don't count Romney out. Michigan is slated to have one of the first primaries after Iowa and N.H. Mitt is a hometown boy in Michigan and his Dad is a former Governor who was well liked. Mitt seems to have tied up NH and Iowa (which are admittedly a long way off) so if you really think he has no chance to win the nomination you'd better get working :-)
pastor~ I would not want to be in your congregation and listen to the milktoast, watered down message you must preach if this is a sample. You seem to mistake being non-resistant to error as the "Christian" thing to do, however, the Lord Jesus said that if someone would not receive the message of His gospel, to shake the dust off your feet and go on to someone else who might receive it. We are to correct error and give the truth of the Gospel. Our founding Fathers came to this country because they were escaping religious tyranny...so should they have remained there and sat around a camp fire and sang "cum ba yu my Lord" together with their erring counterparts they finally escaped from to start Biblical Christianity here?! I respect that we do have religious freedom in our country and thank God for it, however when someone comes to my door peddling a false doctrine, I have every right to give them what the Bible says contrary to what they are trying to convince me with and with as much fervor as they give me their learned rhetoric. If you don't stand for something with conviction resolutely, you will fall for anything, pastor. I respect every person, but will not tolerate their fake religions, especially those who blaspheme and "use" the Name of my Savior and His Book. "I even I am God and beside Me there is no other." We are told by Him that if we add to His Word or omit from it we are anathama...so what do you say about that one, pastor? "you cannot serve two masters."
I don't know why people are concerned that this movie from Hollywood would bother Mitt Romney...as I said earlier, it should have nothing to do with him. It's like the firestorm that we Christians went through when DaVinci Code came out. People were all concerned that this would cause Christians to lose their faith over the misrepresentations and lies that Mr. Brown portrayed as truth. Anyone really grounded in their faith and who knows the truth will not be moved by an attempt such as this. I am sure that Mr. Romney will shake this off as nothing.~
ep1433 - I can absolutely see from your experience why you feel the way you do. I'm sorry that you have had these experiences, and I do know that there are, shall we say charitably, zealots out there. You seem to have encountered an overly large share. I do wish that you could have had the experiences I've had since leaving my church of origin. These are people who are simply spending their whole life worshipping, and doing what they can to spread the word of God, but not in that crazy "Baptist church in Kansas" kind of way that you seem to have encountered.
I do know that there are those in my own church who would tell you that my parents are now in hell, because they didn't believe in the Trinity. (They remained Christadelphians until their deaths) On the other hand I grew up and into my forties with the Christadelphians telling me that Evangelicals, Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, LDS....OK you get the idea, that everyone was damned but them. So I no longer feel that I have the right to judge anyone, and don't want to hear it done around me, so maybe in a way I've also placed myself in a position where I don't hear the kind of things you've gone through.
How about we put it this way. There are some evangelicals who are licking their chops about the movie and it's impact on Mitt Romney's campaign. But they are people that neither you nor I would want to be around. There are also evangelicals you might like to spend the evening having dinner with, and discussing both their and your beliefs. I hope you meet only those kind from now on.
These people are not "Christians". "Christians" do not behave negatively as these folks are. Sincerely, I would suggest just going away and just ignoring them. Let them continue to talk to themselves. I would be very upset to have them in my congregation. You are a Mormon, and I respect your right to practice your religion as we are all entitled to in the U.S. This is what the founding parents of our nation expected of us as well. Over the past few years, we've seen what anger does to people when they are raging like this, such as at Virginia Tech. Best just let them alone so they can sit and smolder. It saddens me deeply, but I believe each person is going to be accountable for their own behavior. I feel you've been more than understanding and patient. Truly time to move on.
So now I am not a full-time missionary and as a result not the lightning rod I may have been. Has this diminished the harangues and harassment from Evangelicals? Hardly. Often when I attend a church event, groups of Evangelicals (sometimes quite large) are waiting in the crowd to be spoilers of an otherwise fun event (I'm talking about pageants and conferences). They shout damnation and seem to be full of anything but the Spirit of God. These are people who have come from far and wide, spending their own money and vacation time to tell me that I'm going to hell. Now you can claim that they are just concerned for my spiritual wellbeing. But you can't say they "don't give Mormons a second thought".
More recently, I have been interested to hear the reactions of friends and acquaintances to the campaign of Mitt Romney. Most are supportive. But some I have spoken with (Evangelicals) say they would never vote for a Mormon because it might give support to our cause (again, disinterested? I think not). One comment from a young friend attending a Christian college was instructive. She said her father taught her never to vote for a Mormon because we were "trying to take over the world". Hardly seems like the feelings of someone who is disinterested in my faith.
Ultimately I realize that my experiences are hardly a fair cross section of all members of group. And too often the vocal minority tend to speak for a group. But to ignore ones own experience is to never grow and learn. So now, I've put my hand in the mousetrap too often to expect anything other than a painful snap.
RBB - Is it possible I am exaggerating the interest in all things Mormons (especially the negative) on the part of Evangelicals? Sure, I'll concede that. But then, to be fair, allow me to offer you my perspective. Prior to my service as a full-time missionary for my church in Southern California I had assumed, that while we had definite differences, most Christians viewed the LDS with the disinterest you speak of.
However, while on my mission I seemed to consistently find Evangelicals trying to thwart the work I was engaged in via all manner of silliness. They would lie and tell me they would ‘love to have me teach them about my faith’, only to later bring in friends and pastors in an effort to gang up on me and deny me any opportunity to teach them as they had said I could. While I don't mind a spirited debate they had used deception to trick me into a fight. But I'm a big boy. No serious harm done. Some would also try to intercede with those were teaching by piling on them with stacks of books and tracts and videos that were what I would term "anti-Mormon". Again, I can take the harassment but the stacks of literature and media about Mormons that Evangelicals seem to have at their fingertips via church libraries doesn't indicate a faith that view the LDS with disinterest. But I tried to keep an objective, fair minded view of Evangelicals.
I realize these experiences represent a drop in a bucket but after many years, a preponderance of the evidence will tend to persuade even the most objective mind.
to be con't
Christians who hold tightly to the Bible with God's absolutes, are called bigots lots, CQUIRK, so this does not bother me. God is a God of absolutes...absolutely that He loves us, absolutely that He sent His only begotten Son to pay the world's debt of sin that we cannot even begin to pay, and absolutely that He has prepared a place with him in heaven when we leave our bodies in death. Scripture says that the way to life is narrow "and few there be that find it" , and "broad is the way to death because it the easy way without God". There is only One God in the Persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and there is only one book from God, the Bible. There is only one way to heaven believing and receiving as Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, God the Son. It's a life of love, worship and devotion to Him and also making disicples His way...to take as many as possible to heaven, because God "does not want any to perish, but to come to the knowledge of the TRUTH and be saved." So, there are many false and deceptive ways to make your conscience feel good, but they are wrong. I have not said this, God Himself says so. Unfortunately as messengers of His message, we do get "shot" at, but if just one soul finds the truth and becomes saved with Christ as his savior, then it's worth it. So, call us bigots if you enjoy that, but we will continue to declare the REAL TRUTH of God's Word, the Bible, and refute the false ways that the devil rises up to draw people away from the truth laid out in God's Word. The line was drawn by God Himself and like it or not, this is "the way the truth and the life", there is no other way to God or heaven.
Mormonism is at best Pagan with a mixture of borrowed masonic rituals. They believe in three gods and they eventually seek to become god. The Mormon god is flesh and bone. On the other hand, the Christ in the Bible took on human flesh, in order to condemn sin in the flesh. The God of the Bible is Spirit (period).
A former mormon archaeologist has even confirmed that there was NO trace of jewish blood among the American indians in both north and south America which discredits the enitire storyline of the book of mormon rendering it to fantasy not reality.
In 1977, hundreds of thousands of mormons left mormonism after the original manuscript of the book of Abraham which Joseph Smith wrote was examined by an egyptologist who shockingly announced that the images on the clothe manuscript was NOT a translation from Eygtian at all. What was it? It was egytian pornography between Orisis and the snake-god Isis.
FEEL free to Download a free tract about the Truth about the JW's and MORMON's on the right-hand side bar of ==== >> http://evolutionfacts.blogspot.com
I also have a web site to prescribe....Google....UTAH LIGHTHOUSE MINISTRY...this will tell you what Mormon doctrine is all about in truth and will reveal the things they don't want you to know about Mr. Smith, and his phoney "gospel"...I highly recommend it...even to you LDS!
sorry....continued....then you are not HIS CHILD. Only those who come God's Way through Christ...not another manmade story, or some "other gospel" can be HIS...it's HIS way because He is the only true Creator God..."God is SPIRIT and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth" ...God is not flesh and blood with a wife! Lucifer is a CREATED ANGEL who rebelled against God and fell...Lucifer is NOT Jesus' spirit brother...sheesh! Man CANNOT BECOME A GOD...hello! We are man, HE is God. We are created beings, God has always existed. We come and WORSHIP God, not become a god. [Mr. Smith came up with "Plural marriage" and he had several wives! As did Brigham Young...about 20-ish or so. But God says, marriage is between ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN. AND...marriage is not carried on in heaven as Scripture says. Marriage is only for procreation on EARTH. Nope, Mormonism is nothing but a hatched lie in the mind of it's true author, Lucifer and he used Mr. Smith to peddle it.
ep1433 - Let's start with "speculation from prominent Evangelicals on the Christian Post ." While there is comment from one person, a man who from his bio appears to be an Episcopalian, not an Evangelical, who's job it is to review movies for a living, among other media, that's still only one man. There are no other prominent evangelicals in this article except for a quote from Dr. R. Albert Mohler, but his is a quote from a debate he had recently on Beliefnet concerning whether Mormonism is Christianity, not a quote in reference to this movie, or about Mitt Romney.
Being the mother of one, and the grandmother of two "drama queens" who are the masters of "a tempest in a teapot" I tend to be able to spot one when I see it. On the one hand you are saying it's not a vast number of evangelicals that are giddy about this silly movie, and it's possible impact on a man who will most certainly not be the Republican presidential candidate. Then you act as though all evangelicals are somehow getting a charge out of all this. I have news........they don't care. For the most part they don't give Mormons a second though, unless one is knocking at their door and they're trying to think of a way to get rid of them so they can go on with their life. It seems from all of this that you are indeed the one who is creating a tempest in a teapot.
Having grown up in a Christian cult such as the Mormons, I have a bit of experience with the Us vs Them attitude and the feeling that mainstream Christianity is somehow out to get you. What I found out after leaving, to my great surprise, was........they don't care. They don't give you a second though. They have their own lives to lead and are just trying to serve and worship God. I'm not telling you this to make you unhappy. I'm telling you this to try to make you understand that you can stop worrying that somehow the Evangelicals are out to get you, and you can go on with your life. Of course if what makes you happy is to think that there is someone trying to get you.... mazel tov.
And yes, CQUIRK...my name is written down in the Lamb's Book of Life...32 years now, by God's mercy , truth and grace. I have found by faith and also by experience that the Bible, God's almighty's ONLY Words to Mankind, that He is a faithful and just Creator God. He loves everyone on earth, however, if you don't belong to Him through Christ...NOT MORMONISM...then you are not HI
By the way....HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT NOT ONE OF THESE LDS's ADDRESSES THE DOCTRINAL ISSUES I NAMED? THAT'S BECAUSE THEY KNOW IT'S BUNK...PURE BUNK. Mr. Smith didn't want to be accountable to the true God, so he decided to become one himself...in his own mind! Then he came up with the fabrication telling others that if they embrace his new " new and improved true faith" that they would join this god-club and become one as well! The thing is, if you are not in God's Lamb's Book of Life, then you won't be spending eternity with Him, instead you will find yourself living separated from God, His mercy and His Savior Son, the REAL Lord Jesus Christ........and in hell with the TRUE AUTHOR OF MORMONISM...LUCIFER HIMSELF!
It's evident that Pastor is not a Bible believing Christian for sure! And this has turned out to be a "he said, she said" conversation. I will agree that this movie, though I have not seen it will most likely have little or nothing to do with Mitt Romney. Hollywood has a reputation on making loads of crapola movies. My issue is with the devilish DOCTRINE that the Mormons peddle. It is totally contrary to Holy Scripture in the Bible, God's infallible Word. Every point they preach is nothing but made up stories by a nut-case, Joseph Smith who was steeped in several forms of the occult...I mean what is the "stone" and those "glasses" he came up with...that is laughable to say the least!!! He was also into Free Masonry which is also Luciferic so, please don't even bring Mr. Smith's fabrications to the same table of discussion about the one true God, and the Lord Jesus Christ of Scripture! FYI...Mr. Smith plagerized large portions of the Book of Isaiah and renamed it..."Nephi" Yeah, he can't even be original in his fairytales. People are looking for genuine truth and the real God...but sometimes they get caught up in the muck and mire of a crafted counterfeit, such as Mormonism. Mormons work on 'good works'...becoming gods themselves they have been told...right...you bet they work with fervor! Heck, if I thought I might become a god and populate my own planet I'd go door to door too. Moromonism is error pure and simple.