Huckabee Questions Mormons' Belief

Huckabee Questions Mormons' Belief

By LIBBY QUAID – 18 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, an
ordained Southern Baptist minister, asks in an upcoming article,
"Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?"

The article, to be published in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, says
Huckabee asked the question after saying he believes Mormonism is a
religion but doesn't know much about it. His rival Mitt Romney, the
former Massachusetts governor, is a member of the Mormon church, which
is known officially as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.

The authoritative Encyclopedia of Mormonism, published in 1992, does
not refer to Jesus and Satan as brothers. It speaks of Jesus as the
son of God and of Satan as a fallen angel, which is a Biblical
account.

A spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said
Huckabee's question is usually raised by those who wish to smear the
Mormon faith rather than clarify doctrine.

"We believe, as other Christians believe and as Paul wrote, that God
is the father of all," said the spokeswoman, Kim Farah. "That means
that all beings were created by God and are his spirit children.
Christ, on the other hand, was the only begotten in the flesh and we
worship him as the son of God and the savior of mankind. Satan is the
exact opposite of who Christ is and what he stands for."

Romney did not respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this month in Iowa, Huckabee wouldn't say whether he thought
Mormonism — rival Romney's religion — was a cult.

"I'm just not going to go off into evaluating other people's doctrines
and faiths. I think that is absolutely not a role for a president,"
the former Arkansas governor said.

While he said he respects "anybody who practices his faith," Huckabee
said that what other people believe — he named Republican rivals
Romney, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton
— "is theirs to explain, not mine, and I'm not going to."

He also resisted wading into theology when pressed to explain why some
evangelicals don't view the Mormon faith as a Christian denomination.