After igniting a firestorm over his arguments on why he won’t vote for a Mormon for U.S. president, evangelical journalist Warren Cole Smith is responding to criticism, including claims of bigotry.

“First of all, the word ‘bigot’ is an ideologically charged word,” he said on Patheos.com on Thursday. “I have trouble taking the charge seriously, and little motivation to defend against it. If my ideas are false, then expose the falsehood.”

In a three-page posting last month on Patheos.com, Smith made the case that “a vote for [Mitt] Romney is a vote for the LDS Church.” While evangelicals and Mormons may have similar stances on social issues, Smith disagreed with the notion that religious beliefs don’t matter in a presidential candidate.

“His religious worldview will be vital to his governing philosophy, and will ultimately be the issue that undermines his candidacy,” he wrote. And Mormons hold to false teachings, he noted.

“[C]ertain qualifications make a candidate unfit to serve. I believe a candidate who either by intent or effect promotes a false and dangerous religion is unfit to serve,” he added. Plus, placing a Mormon in the White House “would serve to normalize the false teachings of Mormonism the world over.”

Smith’s posting drew critics, including the head of public affairs for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Michael Otterson called Smith’s logic “unreasonable, un-Christian and untrue to American ideals.”

In response, Smith reiterated his position that electing a Mormon president would be “a tremendous step toward normalizing Mormon beliefs.”

Read More