Dennis Prager: Judge a man by his values, not his theology

Dennis Prager has posted today an interesting article confronting the issue of Mitt Romney's mormonism as an issue for Christians. He does a good job of laying out why some mainline or Evangelical Christians have a hard time voting for him - the first fair laying out of the argument I have seen - but argues that a man's theology means far less to his value as a public servant than his VALUES.

The reason is -- and I have come to this conclusion after a lifetime of interaction with people of almost all faiths and writing about and studying religion -- theology does not appear to have much impact on people's values. Liberal Christians and Jews share virtually no theological beliefs yet think alike about virtually every important social value. So, too, conservative Christians and conservative Jews share virtually no theological beliefs, yet they think alike about virtually every important social value.

Meanwhile liberal and conservative Protestants are in agreement on theological matters -- both believe in the Trinity, in the Messiahship of Jesus, on Jesus being the Son of God, on salvation through faith rather than through works, and more -- yet they differ about virtually every social value. Obviously, shared theology doesn't create shared moral or social values.

The article is worth a read for anyone who either is undecided about Mitt Romney, or who wants to understand those who are. I myself sometimes wonder about this, since mainline Christianity considers Mormonism to be a CULT on the order of ancient Gnosticism. Can one trust the judgement of a man who embraces these beliefs? I think Prager lays out the clearest argument for why one could vote for anyone whose beliefs differ from our own, but whose values we can respect.