"Mormon beliefs are not as un-evangelical as most evangelicals think." This is according to BYU Professor Robert Millet and Professor and Pastor Gerald McDermott. The main point of their recent article on Christianity Today's website (Mitt's Mormonism and the 'Evangelical Vote') is that Christians should not exclude Mitt Romney from their consideration for President simply based on his religious beliefs. I agree with that. The problem is that in the process Millet (and possibly McDermott) is deceitful about the differences between Mormonism and Evangelical Christianity. James White has written a couple of great posts responding to the deceitful points of the article (Post 1 and Post 2). Unfortunately, it appears that this article is something of a preview of a forthcoming book co-authored by Millet and McDermott, published by Brazos Press (a branch of Baker Books). Our friend John Divito has the scoop on that.

The quote which I used to title this post is utterly false if we consider Evangelicalism a current manifestation of historic orthodox Christianity as taught in the Bible- believing in things such as monotheistic trinitarianism, salvation by grace alone by the gift of faith alone on account of Christ alone, etc. However, I'm afraid that contemporary Evangelicalism may be so far adrift from and/or ignorant of historic Christianity such that the quote has a ring of truth to it. "Mormon beliefs are not as un-evangelical" as we might think because Evangelicalism is not what it used to be. The more things such as the "New Perspective on Paul" are popularized the more Evangelicalism looks like a sect of Roman Catholicism, and as this occurs the message of the Good News as taught in the Bible is compromised.

There is too much ecumenism today at the expense of clear understanding of differences in fundamental beliefs. If we as Christians are not explicitly clear to our non-Christian Roman Catholic and Mormon friends that what their churches teach is a false gospel, then we are not truly their friends and are simply condemning them with a smile (as Piper puts it). If we are to be faithful to our call as Christ's followers and ambassadors to this world, we must live with a renewed boldness and submission to God's Word. And the fewer differences we see between Mormon beliefs, the Roman Catholic Church and Evangelicalism, the more fervently we should reject Evangelicalism as an abomination.

UPDATE: Our friend Keith Walker over at Evidence Ministries has been corresponding with Associate Editor Madison Trammel of Christianity Today regarding the article. Today he received a positive response affirming most of his criticisms and promising a future article outlining the differences between Christianity and Mormonism,