Politics

Christian author: ‘An indoctrinated Mormon should never be elected as president’

Alec Jacobs Contributor
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In an interview with CNN published Thursday, Christian author Tricia Erickson says “an indoctrinated Mormon should never be elected as President.”

Erickson is the author of new book: Can Mitt Romney Serve Two Masters? The Mormon Church Versus The Office Of The Presidency of the United States of America.”

In the interview, Erickson comes out with a number of inflammatory statements about Mitt Romney and Mormonism. At one point, she says his tenure as Massachusetts’ governor helped him become a “shining example” of the religion which “served to normalize the Church and its bizarre secret ceremonies, rituals and beliefs” to the American people.

Despite having never met Romney, Ericson says Romney is “certainly deeply entrenched in the Mormon doctrine” and that he and his wife, Ann, participated in “secret endowment ceremonies.” Erickson, who herself was once married in the Mormon Temple, tells CNN the ceremonies are “completely violent, mind controlling and alarming.”

Erickson was born a Mormon, and her father was a Mormon bishop. She insists that, despite the book’s premise, she is anything but anti-Mormon. “My heart aches for the Mormon people … It is a loving thing to lead people out of deception and in to the truth. If I did not love them, I would not try to save them.”

In a particularly self-righteous portion of the interview, Erickson says she didn’t write the book because she wanted to. No, she wrote it “because I had to. I kept waiting for someone else to do it. (Romney: I would fire Obama aide)

“It just amazed me, knowing what I know, that no one else would expose what has to be brought to light to the American people about this candidate, both from a bizarre belief standpoint and also regarding his political record.”

Erickson concludes: “It is my opinion that an indoctrinated Mormon should never be elected as President of the United States of America. Indoctrinated temple Mormons (as Romney is) have experienced years of brainwashing and indoctrination and also have made covenants and oaths that they plainly cannot disobey.”

CNN asked Ruchard Bushman for a reaction. Bushman is a former Mormon missionary and a professor of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University. He sent a short statement, concluding simply: “Is there a single instance where [a Mormon has] succumbed to Church direction against [his] own consciences. I do not know of one myself.”