[tantiboh]

I agree with you, but let me draw this comparison.

Bush is a Methodist. Has he done anything in his public life to help the Methodist denomination? I don’t think so. He doesn’t inject Methodism into his public life, though he does pray for guidance in his actions.

That’s the kind of attitude I think Romney takes. It’s irrational to hear the word “Mormon” and automatically think that he’ll be any different than a “Methodist” with regards to his public life.

Some, unfortunately, hear the M-word and cringe; they jump to just those conclusions because of their perceptions of the LDS Church. My thesis is that this kind of assumption is morally wrong.

[FastCoyote]

[Bush is a Methodist. Has he done anything in his public life to help the Methodist denomination? I don’t think so. He doesn’t inject Methodism into his public life, though he does pray for guidance in his actions.

That’s the kind of attitude I think Romney takes. It’s irrational to hear the word “Mormon” and automatically think that he’ll be any different than a “Methodist” with regards to his public life.]

I will give a counter example. I helped start a Spanish language TV station with a Mormon general partner. He immediately began shoving Mormon Public Service Announcements on the air, though it was detrimental to the image of the station (in a catholic community) and cost us money. I just don’t care to take the similar chance of promoting a presidential candidate who believes the rest of us are not “True” Christians or Jews. That also puts Romney in the position of having to negate his religion in order to run for presidency - I would think less of him if he became a hypocrite and did so.

Get ready for ten years of this debate.

[George W. Bush]

Bush is a Methodist. Has he done anything in his public life to help the Methodist denomination? I don’t think so. He doesn’t inject Methodism into his public life, though he does pray for guidance in his actions.

Ah, but there is one small advantage to having a Mormon president for SLC. When you send your missionaries overseas and they ask you what a Mormon is or who is a Mormon, you would be able to point at the U.S. president, the most powerful individual in the world and the most famous international figure globally.

Not that we Baptists are worried. But we do observe your missions activity, a natural given our own historic focus on missions. You are no doubt aware how we move into an area quite often after Mormon missionaries have been there.

Well, we Baptists are never afraid of any fight over scripture. Given we have nothing else to offer, we have little choice anyway.

I just thought I'd point out the one benefit that a Romney presidency might bring to Salt Lake's proselytization efforts, particularly overseas.

The advantage is quite minor. I doubt the Methodists have benefited much from Bush. I don't think it has made much difference to us Baptists to have had the names Carter and Clinton to bandy about (and those two were an embarassment to us domestically anyway). Still, it probably doesn't hurt. Well, unless your president happens to start bombing their country.