Very interesting. I used to babysit for a Mormon couple. They were very nice to me. Additionally, I know a Mormon man who comes to our Support the Troops rally. There are people here who are claiming to understand Mormonism, because they read about it on the net.
I keep pointing out that Mormonism isn’t running for president. Mitt Romney is. The Founding Fathers said we should never have a faith test for a presidential candidate. If you are in disagreement, then who else should be on that list? Catholics, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, traditional American Indians, etc?
Again, I deeply disappointed in you. Here, you have served our country and are such an advocate for others to do the same. And yet you flunk Constitutional history by misapplying it?
Point 1- RELIGION: Religion IS NOT a qualification or disqualification for public office; but it's certainly one quality of voter discernment among many others...namely, voting record, present position statements & rampant inconsistency of past position statements, social issues' stances, character, viability, scandal-free past, etc.
Article VI, section 3 of the Constitution is aimed at the…
(a) …candidate (must be of a certain age and must have resided in our country for a certain number of years)…
and (b) …the government so that religion does not become a disqualification to keep somebody otherwise eligible for running for public office.
Q Who is Article VI, section 3, not aimed at?
A The voter. Otherwise, voters would have to 100% disregard character, beliefs, other-dimensionly commitments, and spiritual discernment in weighing candidates. (And then posters like you might demand “proof” that voters didn’t militate vs. your constitutional interpretation and mandate/impose that voters always vote for a “minority-religion” candidate when up against a “majority-religion” candidate!]
POINT 2 – ELIGIBILITY: Newsflash!! Every person on the ballot (well, we’re still not sure about Obama), & even most write-in candidates, have proper "qualifications" to not be excluded from office consideration (based upon religious grounds). Of course, millions of us have the "qualifications" to be considered a potential POTUS & shouldn't be excluded outright from a ballot because of the religion we hold! Nobody has a "Religious Ineligibility" tattoo on their forehead!
POINT 3- BOTTOM LINE: People confuse "qualifications" (language within the Constitution) with "qualities" (language that’s NOT in the Constitution). I focus on what voters base their votes on in the "real world": Qualities
Otherwise, Article VI says absolutely nothing...nada...zero...about how voters must weigh--or not weigh--the "qualities" of a candidate...So, nowhere does Article VI say that voters MUST 100% disregard character, beliefs, other-dimensionly commitments, and spiritual discernment in weighing candidates!
"Qualifications" have to do with what gets a man on a ballot. "Qualities" has to do with who gets elected.
There are MORMONs here that seem to have NO idea what is taught in their church!
The Founding Fathers said we should never have a faith test for a presidential candidate. If you are in disagreement, then who else should be on that list? Catholics, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, traditional American Indians, etc?
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Actually the Founding Fathers believed there should not be a GOVERNMENT test of religion, many did believe in a personal test.
And it always comes back to the accusation that if we oppose Romney on Mormonism we would oppose other Christian denominations.
In short, Catholics, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, are all Christians, Mormons are not. I will not vote for a non-Christian EVER. That does include Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Scientists and Universalists.
There is a lot of good accurate info online about Mormons, again check those sites I listed above. Just because something is online doesn’t make it suspect and jsut because it is hard printed doesn’t make it true. Check out the sites I listed, they are all well sourced and those here like ELSIE, use LDS SOURCES that are found online, or are those suspect too?
This country cannot be turned around by NON-Christians and if you don’t think Mormonism through Romney isn’t running for POTUS you don’t know Mormonism at all.