Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Mitt Romney Advisor Mark DeMoss Believes Rick Perry Is Promoting Anti-Mormon Message

Mark DeMoss, a well known evangelical works as an unpaid consultant to Mitt Romney believes the Rick Perry campaign is intentionally encouraging anti-Mormon messages to be promoted on behalf of his campaign to attract Evangelical voters:
A top evangelical Christian adviser to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said on Monday he believes Texas Gov. Rick Perry's campaign may be intentionally injecting the issue of Romney's Mormon faith into the Republican presidential primary.
"A week ago I would have said there's no way, I can't conceive of a major candidate's campaign intentionally using such tactics," said Mark DeMoss, an Atlanta-based public relations executive who works primarily with evangelical leaders and is an unpaid adviser to Romney. "It was inconceivable to me that that could be the case, just because I think it's not smart politically."
But Demoss told The Huffington Post that the actions of Texan Baptist Pastor Robert Jefress -- who first thrust the Mormonism issue into the campaign 10 days ago -- have given him "doubt" about whether the Perry campaign is as removed from attacks on Romney's faith as it has tried to appear.
"I would have bet money when Robert Jeffress surfaced there in Washington and then started going on TV programs that somebody would have gotten him to stop doing interviews. And he did them for a couple days," DeMoss said. "That's what made me question it whether they wanted him doing it or not. If they didn't want him doing it, I think they could have stopped him from doing it. I think they would have asked him and said, 'This isn't helping us.'"
In addition, new information came to light Sunday that suggests the Perry campaign has at least been in touch with operatives who are actively promoting the anti-Mormon narrative among voters. David Lane, a Perry backer and political organizer who moves in evangelical circles, wrote an associate in an email that was published by The Daily Beast that "getting out Dr. Jeffress [sic] message, juxtaposing traditional Christianity to the false god of Mormonism, is very important in the larger scheme of things." 
Some people are promoting Rick Perry as the man who can save the soul of the country. However, Mark DeMoss disputes that claim: 
"The president cannot 'save the soul of America' -- whatever that even means. No president is capable of saving the soul of America," DeMoss said. "I would argue that only God could save the soul of America. That's not showing any disrespect to Gov. Perry. Billy Graham can't save the soul of America. It's not the president's role or job and no president could do it if it was their job."
When Mark DeMoss was asked whether or not he thinks Mormonism is a form of Christianity, DeMoss explains that that he has theological differences with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints but those differences are not relevant in a secular and political matter such as elections:
"I don't care in the context of a presidential election," DeMoss said. "It's a theological distinction and I'm not making a theological decision in the general or primary election. So I don't engage in discussions or debates about Mormon theology or Christian theology in this context, other than to say that what Gov. Romney would say himself, which is that we have different theology in many points, but beyond that it's an unnecessary and, frankly, an unfair distraction. So I don't get into that."

3 comments:

  1. Great post, but a fairly important correction: Governor Romney is not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as this article implies. That organization only has about 250 members, virtually all of whom live in the vicinity of church headquarters in Beloit, Wisconsin. Governor Romney is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has over 14,000,000 members around the world and has long been the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the USA.

    It’s crazy that such a distinction would have to be made, but it does. If you could please fix the spelling in your post, it would be greatly appreciated. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Even though I am LDS myself, I thought it was pretty clear that I was referring to the Mormon Church which has its headquarters in SLC.

    Moreover, I was not aware that there is a small church consisting of 250 members who have a similar name based in Beloit, Wisconsin.

    Thanks for the correction.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Founded by Mark DeMoss in 1991, The DeMoss Group is the nation’s first and largest public relations agency. His take on things sounds like a vapid marketing viewpoint. No doubt DeMoss would have denounced Christ for turning over the moneychangers' tables at the Temple. After all, wasn't that mean and intolerant?

    No president is capable of saving the soul of America," DeMoss said. Seeing how Muslim Soetoro has starved the soul of America, feeding racism and class warfare, perhaps DeMoss should consider that a president can feed or starve what makes a country great, instead of going for absolutes.

    ReplyDelete