Do you think thread discussions like this one are going to help or hurt Mitt’s run for the White House? I don’t think it helps and in fact reveals just how divisive his candidacy will become in conservative cirlces. You would not stop claiming to be a Christian sect, yet your religion has at its heart the assumption that all other Christian sects are apostate and only Mormonism restores the Apostolic aAuthority. THAT will be magnified like you cannot even imagine when Romney comes up against the “D” candidate.
I really don’t think these threads have any impack on Mitt run and anyone who thinks it does has a big ego!
“Do you think thread discussions like this one are going to help or hurt Mitt’s run for the White House?”
I don’t think it’ll matter one way or the other. The issue on these threads has only rarely been Romney at all. The issue has been Mormonism.
Frankly, the vast, vast majority of people are apathetic about Romney’s religion; the only people I have personally interacted with or heard outside of FR do not consider Romney’s faith to be a deal-breaker.
As I’ve said many times, religious bigotry against Mormons is pretty isolated. There was a time in the history of the LDS Church when Mormons were genuine victims; thankfully, that time has long passed. Since I glory in Jesus, I’m happy to defend my faith in Him. It would just be nice, though, if the conversations here went as they would in person - that is, people actually listen to one another.
“THAT will be magnified like you cannot even imagine when Romney comes up against the “D” candidate.”
I don’t think so. First, in this regard, we don’t claim anything not claimed by many other denominations. People will say, well, I think my church is the only right one out there; why shouldn’t he think the same about his own? Second, I imagine the interaction would go something like this:
Detractor: “You don’t know the Lord. You are a Mormon.”
Crowd: “Boo!”
Romney: “One of the great things about America is that we have many different religions. A lot of us think that the president should be a man of faith. But we don’t choose our presidents based on what church they go to.”
Joe Six-Pack at home: “Hey, this guy handled that pretty well. He looked pretty presidential.”
End of controversy.
Feel free to substitute any statement against the LDS Church that you want from the detractor. Romney’s heard it ALL before, and will recover equally gracefully EVERY time.
Should he be the nominee? I’m still reserving judgment. But, then, that hasn’t been the main topic of these threads, has it?
“You would not stop claiming to be a Christian sect, yet your religion has at its heart the assumption that all other Christian sects are apostate and only Mormonism restores the Apostolic aAuthority. THAT will be magnified like you cannot even imagine when Romney comes up against the “D” candidate.”
Here’s the remarkable thing, the apologists here are claiming to be no different than any other Christian church. If that were true, then they would believe it possible for Orthodox Christians to go to heaven. In turn, if you could get to heaven without Joseph Smith and the BOM, then those concepts could be ejected from the Mormon religion and no soul would be lost.
The fact that the Apologists are completely unwilling to give up Joseph Smith thus signifies they believe all other Christians are damned to hell. So it is a bit disingenuous to suggest we cool down our opposition, because they define themselves (when they are truthful) as above and apart from the rest of us.
If the Mormons were worthy of their roots, they’d just quit monkeying around and tell us straight to our faces that we are damned in their eyes. Instead, this will be hidden until the nomination is obtained, at which point Romney will be skewered by the Dems as the Bishop who believes most of America’s voters are an abomination (unless he is a Jack Mormon and just hasn’t told anyone).