Posted on 01/08/2008 4:09:13 PM PST by tantiboh
Mitt Romney is facing an unexpected challenge in Iowa from rival Mike Huckabee, who has enjoyed a groundswell of support from religious voters, particularly evangelical Christians wary of the clean-cut former Massachusetts governor because of his Mormon religion.
The common worry among evangelicals is that if Romney were to capture the White House, his presidency would give legitimacy to a religion they believe is a cult. Since the LDS church places heavy emphasis on proselytizing -- there are 53,000 LDS missionaries worldwide -- many mainstream Christians are afraid that Mormon recruiting efforts would increase and that LDS membership rolls would swell.
...
THE ONLY PROBLEM with those fears is that they don't add up. Evangelicals may be surprised to learn that the growth of church membership in Massachusetts slowed substantially during Romney's tenure as governor. In fact, one could make the absurdly simplistic argument that Romney was bad for Mormonism.
...
ONE WAY TO GAUGE what might happen under a President Romney would be to look at what happened during the period of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Held in Salt Lake City, they were dubbed the "Mormon Olympics."
...
Despite all the increased attention, worldwide the Church grew only slightly, and in fact in the year leading up to the games the total number of congregations fell. Overall, from 2000 to 2004, there was a 10.9 percent increase in memberships and a 3.6 percent increase in congregations.
...
The LDS church is likely to continue its current modest-but-impressive growth whether or not Romney wins the White House. Perhaps the only real worry for evangelicals is that, if elected, the former Massachusetts governor will demonstrate to Americans that Mormons don't have horns.
Carrie Sheffield, a member of the LDS Church, is a writer living in Washington, D.C.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
~”My point is that nobody really cares about Mormonism enough to discriminate against it.”~
Some of the Evangelicals certainly do.
Oh, they’ll just love an Obama presidency.
I am not Mormon, and I never intend to be a Mormon, but I would vote for him over Barak Obama. Obama certainly belongs to one very very racist church, and I feel he would be a divider of this country, a divide that would not heal.
Tant,
Thanks for the ping.
I disagree with the article. I think it sets up a straw
man and then tries to refute it.
Since you stated your position and identity, let me do the
same, though you know it yourself.
I’m a Christian. An evangelical. Former missionary. Seminary
graduate. Committed to my faith. A conservative. Beyond that,
a capablist.
I’m not a Mitt fan for many reasons. I could list them as
I have on other threads. Suffice it to say I find him
both liberal and fake. He could also use a personality
transfusion.
I have no fear that mormonism would grow more rapidly
in conjunction with a Mitt Presidency. It may or may not.
That isn’t my personal concern.
Assuming he wasn’t a fake and a liberal though, I
still cannot vote for him.
My concern has only to do with my personal conscience.
I cannot cast my personal vote to elect a follower of
a cult to the Presidency. I’ve really searched my
conscience and cannot.
I do know other Christians who have no problem with
voting for Mitt. Others can. I cannot.
It won’t matter. If Obama goes on to win - and the odds
are increasing, it won’t matter who is nominated on
our side. We don’t have a legitimate candidate who can
credibly argue they are for change. And change is what
people are looking for.
In other words, if Mitt threads the needle and succeeds
in fulfilling his strategic plan, Operation Kindle,
he will lose. First mormon to capture the Republican
nomination for President. Landslide for Obama. I’m
wondering how that would feel to you?
Best,
ampu
PS - so here is the test again tant: Float trip down the
Arkansas River for the day. Cooler of beer. Lazy day off.
Who would the average American rather spend the day with,
Mitt or Obama??
Clearly, Obama.
Perhaps the LDS hierarchy are counting on Romney to stench the flow. Even the 50,000 world wide missionaries are having abysmal results.
Wouldn't it be much simpler if Mormonism gave up their secret oaths, covenants, clothing, ordinances and reliance upon works of the flesh and simply came to Christ for redemption. It seems the only way.
My aunt, who generally votes Democratic, isn’t happy with the Democratic candidates. She asked me who I was backing and I said Romney. She thought about it for a bit and then said that a Mormon in the White House was an attractive idea, particularly because he doesn’t drink or smoke and because of his apparently strong family life. I think she would be quite willing to vote for Romney. And she’s a Methodist, not a Mormon. I think a majority of church going people like my aunt probably think the same way.
“Some of the Evangelicals certainly do.”
Some Mormons also support abortions for all and special rights for sodomotes (Harry Reid currently and, until recently, Mitt Romney).
Don’t confuse the actions of a few for a movement.
Tant,
I think you know most people who should be pinged.
I’m not completely sure I’d classify some of those you
pinged as “polite”.
:-)
I agree. I’m a Catholic, and a solid conservative candidate will allow us to practice our faith as we see fit—regardless of his religion. Kerry and Kennedy are Catholic, but there is no way that I would ever vote for either one.
Interesting. It’s a thesis of mine that a great strength of Romney’s in a general election would be the crossover generated by his impeccable and demonstrable family values.
I stuck with the nice ones. Any others who show up found their own way. :-)
You must be some young whipper-snapper!
That was back in 1968.
Jean Dixon was a self styled “prophet” who made lots of prophecies that supposedly came true. She was always on the cover of Enquirer and Star magazines.
She she was a fraud and anyone who traces out hr “prophecies” will find find it so.
She predicted on the cover of STAR magazine (in HUGE letters) that Nixon would NOT resign the presidency. It hit the news stands the very day Nixon resigned.
Ten years later she claimed to have predicted his resignation. I wrote a HOT letter to the editor over that one.
I would be hard to convince of that, given that he was a lifelong cold-warrior. He also thought that the aggressive, anarchic, chaotic and strident anti-Americanism of the left was a serious threat to our national survival. That's not really a liberal outlook at all. Yes, he did the unexpected, after listening to Kissinger, I suspect, the inveterate jet-setter, was central to that; but he was closer to being a right-wing gangster than a liberal (IMHO).
(Oh, yeah, that's it...haven't we heard all those commercials that say, "Yeah, when I grow up, I want to be a governor of Massachusetts just like Michael Dukakis and Mitt Romney"?)
From the article: ...ONE WAY TO GAUGE what might happen under a President Romney would be to look at what happened during the period of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Held in Salt Lake City, they were dubbed the "Mormon Olympics." ... Despite all the increased attention, worldwide the Church grew only slightly, and in fact in the year leading up to the games the total number of congregations fell. Overall, from 2000 to 2004, there was a 10.9 percent increase in memberships and a 3.6 percent increase in congregations.
(Oh, yeah, I'm sure there's been even more commercials with kids & teens saying, "Yup...forget about being an Olympic athlete. Running the Olympics administratively is where the action is really at!")
My point: HUGE difference between being a guv & being THE POTUS; HUGE difference between being a Mormon senator from Nevada (Reid) or Utah (Hatch) & being the leader of the free world in terms of being the "exemplar" to emulate for all impressionable folks, especially the young.
Bill Clinton was a presidential role-model disaster for our young generation re: the scandal. Any president the voting block elevates to the highest role model position in our land accords the highest vote of respectability to the public aspects of what that person stands for. Romney is the LDS HQ ticket to mainstream acceptance.
Illustration: If a POTUS candidate was a neatly tucked-away communist who's adopted a mask of "family values," & we elect him president, we are telling our kids that communism is OK to emulate. Furthermore, we are handing proselytizing fuel to communists everywhere. It would fuel their door-to-door boldness and other aggressive campaigns to be able to say, "See. Our respectable Communist leader holds the highest office in the land. Come study what helped make the man he is today!"
"See, our respectable POTUS thinks that all the Christian sects are abominable, corrupt apostates! You, too, can see the religious world anew thru his eyes. Come study the First Vision of Joseph Smith!"
The LDS PR monster machine will kick every pro-Mormon dimension you can think of into the highest gear ever come the election of a Mormon POTUS. It wouldn't even matter what Mitt himself would initiate (or not) from the White House; the Salt Lake City HQ would push having a titled Mormon President into overdrive. Capitalization would be the operative word; in fact, w/their deep pockets, they would "redefine" "capitalization" for the Commercial PR world.
This is one evangelical who’d support Romney before I’d vote for Schmuckabee.
Where oh where do you get your ridiculous data re Mormons leaving the Church in droves? It’s simply not true. Abysmal results by 50 K Missionaries? What do you call abysmal? Once again, you are wrong.
I think Mormons, overall in general have excellent family values and moral character.
I really don't care if the president was, for instance, a Muslim.....IF it were possible for that Muslim to leave his cultural bias and prejudice out of his decision making process.
I do believe certain cultures/religions carry different degrees of innate commitment of allegiance to their own kind than other cultural/religious groups and that concerns me too
Why is it an issue then for you.
This issue will stay just under the surface. I doubt if most people in politics really understand how it is frothing and fomenting and ready to undermine Romney’s election.
Guess there are a bunch of bigots and haters somewhere then.
Some of us are trying to stop the Republican party from committing suicide on the alter of Mitt Romney.
But you aren't a bigot or anything...
It takes bravery and committment to do so.
Well, bless my soul...mommy's little Cusader. By the way there, Richard the LionHearted, what do you think about Romney's economic plan?
Certainly not from the Church. Have you ever seen them release data on how many member quit? There are members who quit you know. A great many. Some estimate the number around 100,000 per year. But you will never know. Your Church has deemed you too weak to know.
Doesn't that disturb you?
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