The Scandal Here, The Revival Over There

Published on August 30, 2010

Not all Christians are down with Beck's interpretation of the bible and their purpose for America.  Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, gets some Mormon-bashing on in his recent denunciation of Beck, delivered via an article at the American Family Association's onenewsnow.  Writes Moore: Mormonism and Mammonism are contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They offer another Lord Jesus than the One offered in the Scriptures and Christian tradition, and another way to approach him. An embrace of these tragic new vehicles for the old Gnostic heresy is unloving to our Mormon friends and secularist neighbors, and to the rest of the watching world.

Not all Christians are down with Beck’s interpretation of the bible and their purpose for America.  Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, gets some Mormon-bashing on in his recent denunciation of Beck, delivered via an article at the American Family Association’s onenewsnow.  Writes Moore:

Mormonism and Mammonism are contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They offer another Lord Jesus than the One offered in the Scriptures and Christian tradition, and another way to approach him. An embrace of these tragic new vehicles for the old Gnostic heresy is unloving to our Mormon friends and secularist neighbors, and to the rest of the watching world.

Unloving how?  By accepting these belief systems, Americans fail to teach their believers the right path (Moore’s).  His denunciation sounds more like simple disparagement of “inauthentic” Christianity — Mormonism — than a criticism of Beck’s means or intentions… and therefor a little bit like sour grapes.  “The answer to this scandal isn’t a retreat, as some would have it, to an allegedly apolitical isolation,” he writes.

So if the answer isn’t “Fox News at prayer” á la Beck, not necessarily a surprising sentiment on Moore’s part, where does Moore see the bright future of his own version of faith?  “Vibrant, loving, orthodox Christianity will flourish, perhaps among the poor of Haiti or the persecuted of Sudan or the outlawed of China, but it will flourish.”

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