Bill Keller thinks so.
Florida evangelist Bill Keller says he was making a spiritual -- not political -- statement when he warned the 2.4 million subscribers to his Internet prayer ministry that ``if you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for Satan!''
But the Washington-based advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State says the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should revoke the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status of Bill Keller Ministries, nonetheless.Keller, 49, who has a call-in show on a Tampa television station and a Web site called Liveprayer.com, on May 11 sent out a ``daily devotional'' that called Romney ``an unabashed and proud member of the Mormon cult founded by a murdering polygamist pedophile named Joseph Smith nearly 200 years ago.''
If the former Massachusetts governor wins the GOP nomination and the presidency, Keller's message added, it will ``ultimately lead millions of souls to the eternal flames of hell.''
In a letter to the IRS on Thursday, Americans United called Keller's message a violation of the ban on partisan politicking by tax-exempt religious groups.
Keller, in a telephone interview, laughed off the controversy. ``Let them come after me for making a spiritual statement about Mitt Romney. I would love that,'' he said. ``Bring it on.''
If a vote for Romney is a vote for Satan, then what was a vote for Bill Clinton? I don't have a guy in the GOP primary (assuming I am still a Republican at primary time), it's Romney's flip-flopping on social issues that bothers me (the 1994 debate with Senator Ted is illuminating) than his Mormonism.
Romney will no more lead souls to hell as president than Bill Clinton led souls to strip joints during the 1990's. If your faith is so weak that a government official can undermine it, then you have bigger problems than who will be the next president.
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