Prominent Pastor Calls Romney’s Church a Cult
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and ERIK ECKHOLM
NYT News Service

WASHINGTON — A Texas pastor, a Baptist, introduced Rick Perry at a major
conference of Christian conservatives here on Friday as “a genuine
follower of Jesus Christ” and then walked outside and attacked Mitt
Romney’s religion, calling the Mormon Church a cult and stating that Mr.
Romney “is not a Christian.”

The comments by the pastor, Robert Jeffress of Dallas, injected a
potentially explosive issue into the presidential campaign: the belief
held by many evangelicals that Mormons are not Christians.

And it raised immediate suspicions that the attack might have been a way
for surrogates or supporters of Mr. Perry, the Texas governor, who has
stumbled in recent weeks, to gain ground by raising religious concerns
about Mr. Romney. Mr. Jeffress similarly attacked Mr. Romney and his
faith during the 2008 campaign.
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This is funny stuff. A Baptist preacher whose flocks worship a Jew but
mostly follow the teachings of a bunch of guys who put together a book
hundreds of years after that Jew died calls those who follow the
teachings of their guy and another guy a "cult," and, of course, many of
that Baptist preacher's flock also believe Roman Catholics aren't
Christians, either.

snerk