As the resident expert in Mormon theology around these parts, I’ll jump in and clarify a few things. Mormons do believe Jesus and Satan were brothers. Then again, they believe everybody is a child of God and as such we’re all brothers and sisters. Which is why the Mormon tradition is to refer to fellow Mormons in a religious context as “brother” and “sister.” Fellow congregants at the church Romney attends likely don’t call him “Mitt” but rather “Brother Romney” and Romney in turn would call them “Brother Jones” or “Sister Smith” etc.

A lot of this comes from Mormons unique beliefs about the struggle between good an evil in what they call the “pre-existence.” Obviously, this is a sharp departure from traditional Christianity which believes that Satan is a fallen angel and that Jesus Christ, per the Nicene Creed, is “the only begotten son of God.”

But without digging into the theological nitty gritty here, the bottom line is that however different the theology may be, Mormon morality is very much the same manichean, good vs. evil outlook as traditional Christianity. Just because Jesus and Satan are believed to be brothers does not mean that there is not a stark contrast portrayed between the two in Mormon theology. Huckabee’s non sequitur that the two are brothers without the proper context is patently unfair and seems to suggest that Mormon’s regard good and evil as some sort of yin-yang thing, and as such don’t take evil as seriously.

Also, his defense that the remark was taken out of context seems pretty bogus as Rich pointed out. Further, Southern Baptists have a history of going after Mormons. Not that I necessarily have a problem with that — if a church wants to call out another church for teaching false theology that’s totally within their rights. But given that Southern Baptists have a much larger emphasis on American apologetics than most every other American church body, I have a hard time swallowing Huckabee’s claim that “I really don’t know much” about Mormons. But in any event, misrepresenting what they believe is not ok.

I’ll tell you what, I’m becoming VERY alarmed about one of the candidate’s views on religion — at least insofar as it relates to the political realm — and it’s not Romney.

UPDATE #1: Just a clarification here — when I said previously that the Christian worldview was “manichean” I meant that in an idiomatic sense referring to a dualistic notion of good vs. evil. I did not mean to invoke and or reference the specific manichean heresies in the early Christian church. Sorry if the language was confusing.

UPDATE #2: Ok, obviously good vs. evil is more complicated theological question than I’m making it out to be. All I’m trying to say here is that Mormons have a well-defined sense of morality that distinguishes good from bad. I’m aware that the metaphysical questions are much deeper and much more complicated, and my use of “manichean” — totally forgetting the origins of the word — was unfortunate, as explained here.