Rett Hatcher & Company

A few days ago I wrote a letter in response to Mark Demoss’ enorsement of Mitt Romney for President.  Since that time, Bob Jones III has also come out and endorsed Romney as well.  Though written with Demoss’ comments in view, the response bellow is equally applicable to both men.  Bob Jones III has said that he is voting for a “President not a Pastor”.  Demoss has said that he is considering Romney’s, “values not his theology.”  Both men could not be more sadly misguided in their endorsements.  I hope the following words will go a long way in explaining why.    Please read thoughtfully and prayerfully.

Dear Evangelical Brothers and Sisters,

This morning I checked my email and received a message from a friend with a link to a letter by Mark Demoss endorsing and urging evangelicals to support Mitt Romney for president.  This long time highly esteemed Evangelical Christian made a thoughtful case about how critical this election is, especially regarding the likelihood of future Supreme Court vacancies.   Vacancies that pro-lifers realize when filled, will either lead to the overturn of Roe v Wade or go in the other direction and galvanize the court back toward a progressive pro-abortion position for many more years.   It is agree, that this election could not be more critical. 

However, that is where the agreement stops.  In the letter, Mark Demoss goes on to explain why he has been working harder for Mitt Romney than any candidate he ever has before in previous elections.  He states that he believes that Romney is sincere in his conversion to the pro-life cause and states that this is what the movement is about.  He does not mention that Romney changed his mind only around two years ago on abortion, and gay marriage, and gun control.  The gay marriage and gun control flip flops were never mentioned.  Perhaps still Demoss is right about Mitt Romney’s sincerity on abortion.  It is a chance he is willing to take.  We can agree that a chance with Romney on this issue is a better bet than with Hillary or Rudy.  But don’t be fooled, Evangelicals who support Mitt are still taking a chance with Mitt.  He is by no means a sure bet on these issues even though the case can be made that he would likely be obligated to please the constituency who voted for him.   

But my greatest disagreement with Mark Demoss’ letter came after reading the quote bellow.  After reading what he said next, I found myself very angry and frustrated with my Christian brother.  I feel that it is righteous indignation over what I feel is a godless compromise.  Here is what Mark Demoss said…

Now, I fully recognize some evangelicals take issue with me for supporting a Mormon for the office of president, and I respect their concerns. Indeed, I had to deal with the same concerns in my own heart before offering to help Gov. Romney. But I concluded that I am more concerned that a candidate shares my values than he shares my theology. (If I believed similar theology was paramount in a president, I would be writing this memo urging support of Mike Huckabee.)

I couldn’t believe my eyes.  Demoss goes on to suggest that the late Dr. Jerry Falwell was of the same mind set and that we all need to look past Romney’s Mormonism and rally around him as the candidate that can raise the money and win.  It is as if there is no God in heaven and that Romney is the only one who get elected because he is the only who has any money, has any chance, and has any hope as a pro-lifer.  So let’s all pitch in and support him. 

But I say, NOT SO FAST!  As I respond now I am absolutely amazed, deeply saddened, and in fact angry and outraged at what my Christian brother is actually advocated.  In a five page letter, he has glossed over with a mere two words what amounts to a discounting of the most salient issue regarding Mitt Romney.  He said, “But I concluded that I am more concerned that a candidate shares my values than he shares my theology.”  Two words, “values” and “theology”.  As if it were a minor insignificant point of theology that is at stake.  As if the difference is over baptism by sprinkling or immersion.  As if the difference is over a pre-tribulation rapture or post-tribulation rapture.  Mark Demoss wiped the whole issue away of Mormonism by saying that “But I concluded that I am more concerned that a candidate shares my values than he shares my theology.”  I am deeply grieved at this casual gloss over the matter with these two words, “values” and “theology” as if that explained it all and should satisfy everyone and it should move Evangelicals in unison to support Romney for President. 

I want you to consider the implications and consequences of what Demoss advocates in his letter with these two mere words, “values” and “theology”.  With two mere words he glibly glosses over what a damnable heresy and dreadful lie Mormonism is.   With two mere words he would have us choose as our wise and discerning leader a man to be President who has no more spiritual discernment than to fall for all of the fanciful lies taught by the infamous cult leader Joseph Smith.   With two mere words he would have us elevate a man to President who believes that Jesus is Satan’s brother and are equals, and that God the Father had sex with Mary to impregnate her with the baby Jesus.  With two mere words he would want us to elevate a man to be President who actually believes one day he will become God.  With two mere words he undercuts Christian pastors, missionaries, and apologist, and others on the front line who tirelessly defend the Christian faith against the cult of Mormonism.  With two mere words he in effect makes a mockery of those who have come out of Mormonism and have come to repudiate it as a false cult as they have come to have a true saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  With two mere words he would elevate to the prominence of the Presidency, someone that Mormon missionaries can use as an object lesson to propagate their lie that the Mormon faith is simply another valid expression of Christianity.  With two mere words he would see the sure and inevitable increased credibility of Mormonism and its further advance in status as an acceptable religion.  With two mere words he would have us look the other way as countless more Americans fall prey to the dark deceptions of the Mormon cult.  With two mere words, Mark Demoss would have us in effect, sell out Christianity and sell out our Savior for political pragmatism.  With two mere words, he would have us put our love of country over our love of God.  I am afraid, in the sight of heaven, with two mere words, God must see it, he abandons his highest allegiance to Christ and ask us to do the same.  

And God as my help I AM NOT GOING TO DO IT, I AM NOT GOING TO SELL OUT AND COMPROMISE MY FAITH and you shouldn’t either.  Where is the discernment?  Where is the discernment that Mormonism is a CULT and not a minor difference on a relatively minor inconsequential point of theology?  Where is the conviction?  Where is the conviction that we don’t give in to what might work, rather than stand up for what is right even if it fails?  Where is the loyalty to the eternal cause of Christ and His kingdom?  How is Christ magnified and God glorified when Christians support someone that will be used by other Mormons to promote their twisted view of Christ who is not the same Jesus at all?  Again I ask where is the loyalty to Jesus Christ and the God of the Bible?  Where is the concern for the eternal souls of countless Americans and others worldwide who are and would increasingly be duped by this damnable cult of Mormonism?  I say where is the concern for the eternal souls of men?  Where is the faith?  Where is the faith that God is sovereign and in control and that we can still pray and work for another candidate if we repent of our compromise and pragmatism?  Where is the faith when one capitulates and says that the man with the most money will be the winner?  By the way I wonder how much of Romney’s money has come from fellow Mormons absolutely jubilant about the idea of having a Mormon President.  But where is the faith that should say with God as our helper there is still the possibility of a dark horse like Gov. Huckabee or someone else who could still win?  Why the early surrender?  Where is the hope?

I might add here that if Mark Demoss had spent his energy earlier for someone like Mike Huckabee or Sam, Duncan, or Tom, and not in compromise with Romney, one of these guys may have had more money and poll numbers already.  I am frankly a little outraged right now over Demoss’ letter and at any other Christians who are quick to compromise and sell out and just don’t have the discernment to see that that is what they are doing.  I might loose with Huckabee, but I would rather loose with my principles than win without them and I am going to fight to the finish trusting God until I loose.

This nation, America, which I love, has almost my very highest allegiance.  Almost!  It would be hard for me to be more patriotic and more committed to my country and to its future and improvement.  I am a true committed conservative socially and economically.  I am deeply, deeply, pro-life.  I preach on it.  I mean I devote a whole sermon to the subject almost annually and especially around election time.  I mention it in other sermons often.  I have marched in pro-life marches and attended area pro-life rallies.  I am adamantly pro-life and I am keenly aware of what the stakes are this election, and I believe that we in America must repent of the sin of abortion.  But listen, I have no desire to compound our sins upon one another.  It would be a grievous offence to the TRUE God of heaven, in my estimation, to in the name of getting a pro-life president, sin against Christ and elect a Mormon one.  I fear the wrath of God for that too!  If Christians forsake their principles and vote and elect a Mormon to be President, I feel we will have condemned ourselves in our compromise and justly so. 

The unborn is paramount, but I sincerely believe they go to heaven after they die.  That is not to excuse abortion.  I do not wish to be inflammatory but speak the truth.  But let us be frank here and not cloud the issue.  Make no mistake about it, Mitt Romney is not a brother in Christ unless he has been recently delivered from the deceptions of the cult of Mormonism and and has yet to tell anyone about it.  We should pray for Romney because is lost and unsaved.  He does not even worship the same God but rather the false god of Mormonism.  They are not the same.  And if Romney never gets saved, he will die and go to hell and we should continue to pray for him with real compasion and love.  But I am concerned that Romney will be inadvertently used by other Mormons to help persuade countless more to embrace the deceptions of Mormonism which will inevitably lead to their damnaton for eternity in hell unless they get truly saved.  Mormonism is a very dangerous false cult masquerading as another more complete form of Christianity.  It is not Christian at all and the difference with Romney’s Mormonism is not a minor issue of theology.  How absolutely absurd it is for Demoss to characterize the matter as a simple difference in theology so he prefers Romney’s values over his theology.  Friend, what is at stake with Romney’s theology is the difference between light and darkness, truth and error, in heaven and hell!  I hope you have enough biblical discernment to know this.

Finally, I realize that Evangelical Christians have long struggled with how and to what degree we should cooperate with other groups in the political process.  It has been said that politics make strange bed fellows.  As Demoss points out, Evangelicals have worked together in the political process with Mormons, Catholics, and secularist before.  I acknowledge that.  I also acknowledge that ecclesiastical separation is the most important line of distinction and that Demoss does not advocate compromise there at all.  But I cannot help but ask if we Evangelicals have been too accommodating and too compromising all along in our politics.  That may even explain why we have not had the victories that by now we thought we might have.  We have often trusted in our strength and our flesh and compromised with our pragmatic deals and we so often like Joshua at Ai we have been defeated.  Could it be that God is waiting until we stop compromising and trusting in man, man’s worldly wisdom, man’s methods, man’s fleshly attempts, man’s pragmatic plans, -could it be that God is waiting until we trust in HIM so that HE and HE alone will get the glory.  If we win with our devices, we get the glory.  If Romney wins, honestly, do you think God will get the glory?  Do you really believe that the true God of the Bible will get the glory if we succeed as it is suggested with the election of someone who will be surely used by the Devil to bring about much more spiritual confusion through the witness of countless Mormon missionaries worldwide?  Do you honestly really believe God will get the glory through that? 

Perhaps Evangelicals should reevaluate the movement of the Religious Right again.  The strategy of compromise gets us nowhere in the end.  God is and always has been our only hope.  Consider the following points from Scripture. 

·         We are taught to trust in God not man.

 Psalms 118:8

(8)  It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. 

·         David reminds of the fact the battle is not our but the Lords when he stood courageously against Goliath. 

 1 Samuel 17:47

(47)  And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give you into our hands. 

·         We are furthermore told that the Christian’s weapons are not carnal, (fleshly of man) but (spiritual from God). 

 2 Corinthians 10:4

(4)  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 

·         And we are finally told to faithfully trust in the Lord and not lean upon our own understanding.

 Proverbs 3:5

(5)  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 

The call to support Mitt Romney by Mark Demoss, is a call to put our confidence in man not God.  It is a call to forget that this battle of America is the Lord’s not ours.  It is a call to use carnal fleshly weapons in our fight, not that which is spiritual.  And it is a call to lean upon our own understanding and not trust the Lord.  It is a call to pragmatism and compromise.  It is a call for Christian Evangelicals to act like practical atheist and forget there is a God in heaven who we are to trust, who fights our battles, who provides our weapons, and who alone has the real wisdom and understanding for the battle, not we in our own understanding.  I ask my fellow Christians, where is our faith?  Where is our fidelity to Christ? 

Maybe Evangelicals who wish to compromise even more and support Romney should read their Bibles again.  Mormonism is the doctrines of demons.  It based on the first lie in the garden when the Serpent said “You shall be as gods”.  It is the same lie, and it is demonic.  Maybe Christians willing to vote for Romney should ask themselves if they think he believes the doctrines of demons?  Maybe those who support him and who are working with him should ask themselves if they believe that they are supporting a man who follows and adheres to the doctrines of demons?  Maybe Christians like Demoss who work closely alongside Gov. Romney should consider the fact that they may be in fellowship with someone who has been blinded by the god of this world, who has embraced the doctrine of demons, and who himself one day may be susceptible to demonic possession after being elected President?  Mark Demoss, dear brother have you ever thought of that? 

Some would react to my statements I am sure as if they are out of line or way over the top.  I am not an alarmist or a wild eyed charismatic who believes that demon possession is real prevalent and that we need to do exorcisms all the time.  But I do believe in demon possession as taught in the Bible.  I believe in the world of the supernatural and I like many conservative Evangelicals believe that demonic influence surrounds the false cults.  I sincerely believe that Joseph Smith was partially influenced by Masonry, and partially by his own sinful lust and desires, and very likely partially influenced by demons or even was demon possessed.  If I were to have to guess where much of the fruit of the work of the demonic world has been in the last two centuries, I would say look at the cults and false religions of our day.  That is the work of the Devil and his demons alongside the labors of blinded sinful men.  I would say look at Mormonism, the fastest growing cult if you want to find where there is likely a lot of demonic activity.  So I ask you, have any of you who wish to support Romney ever given any thought to that?  I am not trying to spread fear and suggest Romney would be the Antichrist or anything like that.  I don’t have any real reason to believe that Romney would become demon possessed and I don’t wish to over state the matter at all.  But I am trying to get you to think.  I am trying to show you how ridiculously understated Mark Demoss’ words are in his letter when he said, “But I concluded that I am more concerned that a candidate shares my values than he shares my theology.”  How dramatically understated could you get!  We are not talking about minor theology.  We are talking about doctrines of demons here and the implications are not inconsequential. 

As evangelicals reevaluate and struggle with what level of cooperation we can have with Mormons, we should take a look at just how the Scripture warns Christians about partnership with children of darkness in any realm.  Consider the following passages. 

 2 Corinthians 6:14-18

(14)  Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?(15)  And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?(16)  And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.(17)  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,(18)  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. 

1 Corinthians 10:20-22

(20)  But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.(21)  Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.(22)  Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he? 

Ephesians 5:11

(11)  And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 

Again, these verses eliminate compromise within the arena of the church for sure.  As we reflect on the strength of the tone of these verses, we might reconsider how close we can work with others for spiritual causes in the political realm as well.  This one is a little tougher to work through for some.  I don’t believe though we will accomplish our ultimate goals by compromising over the issue of supporting a Mormon for President.    I would recommend rereading the preceding verses before you sign up with the Romney for President campaign.  

I know that right now not all Evangelicals will agree with me here.  But for me it is completely unconscionable.  When it comes to supporting Mitt Romney, I CANNOT DO IT.  If my position fragments the party so be it.  If we lose the election to Hillary, (I have to gulp here to say it) but so be it.  I am going to pray, give, and work hard so that that won’t happen, but I will NEVER, NEVER, vote for Mitt Romney.  For me it just WILL NOT happen! I must be true to my God and my Savior even if it may in the short term be worse for my country. 

Again I say I WILL NOT support nor vote for Mitt Romney and I respectfully but honestly say I am offended at any true Christian who will.  I am sorry that I feel that way but I truly do.  I am grieved and actually angered over what I have read by our dear friend and brother Mark Demoss.  I fear that his words will embolden many other Evangelicals to abandon their principles and compromise for political expediency and I grieve over that.  I am not mad at Demoss personally, I feel he is sadly mistaken and short sided about the matter.  I also understand in part that his confusion is likely fueled by our deeply shared heartfelt passion for the pro-life cause and the obvious high stakes that this election beears on that issue.  However, I respectfully disagree with his conclusions.   

I CAN NOT under ANY circumstances in this election support or vote for Mitt Romney.  I will say it again, IT WILL NOT HAPPEN.  I WILL NOT VOTE FOR HIM even if I vote for a third party candidate and in effect give the election to Hillary.  I plead with Republican primary voters, especially Evangelicals, to reconsider the matter.  I plead with all Christians to affirm their love for their Savior even over the love of their country.  I call upon my brothers and sisters to abandon any thoughts of supporting Mitt Romney for President but instead support and vote for someone other than a Mormon as your alternative for a pro-life President.

Most sincerely and earnestly,

your fellow bond-servant in Christ,

Sherwood E. Haisty, Jr.

                                          Pastor of First Baptist Church of Fillmore, CA

                                          10-11-07

The views expressed in this letter are personal opinions and free speech of Sherwood Haisty, Jr. as private citizen and do not reflect, nor is intended to speak for, or represent the views, of the First Baptist Church of Fillmore, CA in any way.