Way back in 2012, I was excoriated by my fellow evangelicals for refusing to support Mitt Romney’s candidacy for the presidency. While I would never have suggested that any believer in Christ cast his or her ballot for Romney’s opponent, President Barack Obama, I did counsel my fellow Christians not to undermine the Gospel by going to the polls and voting for a cultist to be their president. According to 2 John 1:10-11, cultists are not to be welcomed into our houses, lest we encourage them in the propagation of their false faith and lend credence to their false gospel. How much more, I argued back in 2012, would electing a Mormon to the White House have given credence to Romney’s Mormonism and encouraged Mormons to propagate their false teachings throughout America. Alas, my counsel was rejected, I was crucified, and Christians lined up at the polls to vote for a cultist to be their president.

We all know now what the results were in 2012. First, Barack Obama was easily reelected. Second, Mormons became more popular in America than at any other time in our country’s history. Third, the majority of Americans, because of the overwhelming evangelical support of Romney for president, came to believe that Mormonism and Christianity are synonymous. And finally, adding insult to injury, many prominent evangelical organizations at the time, like the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, took Mormons off their warning list of cults. All told, the church of Jesus Christ helped catapult the church of Latter Day Saints into national prominence by compromising the Gospel to vote for a cultist.

At the same time I vehemently protested against Christians going to the polls to vote for a cultist, I also opposed Romney’s presidential candidacy because of his “Etch A Sketch” conservatism. In an attempt to explain Mr. Romney's straddling of both sides of political issues and profession of personal principals from both sides of his mouth, Eric Fehrnstorm, a senior political adviser to Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, explained how candidate Romney was like a “Etch A Sketch.” He etched out conservative stands on political issues in order to win over conservative voters during the Republican primaries, but he would "shake it up" and start etching out more moderate stands on political issues in order to win over moderate voters during the general election. 

Now, these “Etch A Sketch” candidates are nothing new from the Republican party. The GOP (Grand Old Party) has been turning the knobs and etching out picture-perfect conservative candidates for years, only to "shake them up" and redraw them once in office. Still, in spite of being incessantly snookered, Christians in this country continue to go to the polls and mark their ballots for etched out nominees who inevitably shake themselves up after elections into blank slates.

Well, maybe you needed Harry Reid’s endorsement of Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nominee in 2020 to finally prove to you how big a mistake it was to have voted for Romney for president back in 2012. I didn’t. I was on to Romney way back then; and I tried to tell you so, but then, as now, hardly anybody was listening!