~”No objection to Jewish candidates here.
Hindu? Fine. Buddhist, Rastafarian, Atheist? Fine.
Muslim? No way.”~
The funny thing about this is that we Mormons are a lot closer in our beliefs to Orthodox Christianity than, say, Jews.
And yet, evidently, we are barred by some from the highest office of the land on religious grounds that Jews, Buddhists, etc. pass.
This speaks to a specific intolerance of Mormons that has little to do with rational thought.
False. Jews in no way blaspheme the Father as you Mormons do.
> The funny thing about this is that we Mormons are a lot closer in our beliefs to Orthodox Christianity than, say, Jews.
It’s true — your beliefs are much closer to Orthodox Christianity than is Judaism.
> And yet, evidently, we are barred by some from the highest office of the land on religious grounds that Jews, Buddhists, etc. pass.
That is because Mormons get tarred with the same brush as, say, Jehovah Witnesses. There were a whole bunch of “christian” religions that sprouted up in the mid-1800’s in America and most of them lack credibility for some reason.
> This speaks to a specific intolerance of Mormons that has little to do with rational thought.
I have read the Book of Mormon, cover to cover (I used to date a RLDS when I was a much younger man) and to my view it reads like a comic-book rather than as a holy word of God. Even the names — like “Mosiah” for instance — sound like something someone made up: a cut-and-paste between Moses and Isaiah. And the premise of “lost tribes of Israel” finding their way to America beggars my belief. No matter — I guess that is why I never became a Mormon.
That said, there is no denying the fact that many Mormons believe in Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and they follow their teachings. And those teachings tend towards people living decent, law-abiding and moral lives. And the Mormons that I do know (there are alot of them here DownUnder) tend toward doing good works for the Community and are highly visible, contributing members of Society.
Full marks, 100%.
So the mere fact that I cannot buy into the religion does not give me license to bad-mouth it. We are not judged by what we believe. We will instead be judged on what we do with our belief.
To my experience, Mormons are nett-contributors. They tend to do good things, just like buddhists and Seventh Day Adventists do.
If Religion is a gauge of Character (it isn’t) then Mormonism gets a tick in the box from me.
*DieHard*