Reagan simply didn't detest the Mormons enough for some of y'all. I'm sorry, but you're going to have to live with that fact.
“If President Reagan was merely campaigning on his stop at the Welfare Centers in Utah, then he certainly said some empty words. I respect President Reagan too much to think that lowly of him.”
If you do not think Reagan made campaign appearances in states and said kind things about the local area and leaders, you are detached from what happens on every Presidential campaign. It happens in every kind of factory, including mormon “food factories.”
Reagan, despite being willing to employ mormons, never became a mormon, recommended anyone become a mormon, and never ceased being a Christian.
Did he know the whacky things mormons believe? Who knows?
Did he know mormons believe in an infinite number of gods, unlike Reagan himself, who believed in ONE GOD? Who knows?
Did Reagan know the mormon cult teaches there are Heavenly Mother Gods who BREED in heaven to populate worlds? Who knows?
Did Reagan know any of the other comdemned, heretical, anti-Christian things mormonism teaches? Probably not.
He had enough on his plate saving the USA and the world from Communism. We can’t hold that against him.
He simply toured a food warehouse that provides food [mainly] to mormon members. He said some nice things to his hosts, knowing there are lots of mormons who vote.
I still don’t understand why you’re trying to make this a political expediency issue. Utah had 5 electoral votes during the Reagan years.
In 1980, 72.8 percent of the population voted for Reagan.
In 1984, 74.5 percent of the population voted for him.
http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/e/ELECTIONS.html
Surely you can come up with a better reason to brush off Reagan’s praise of the LDS welfare system.
Reagan simply didn't detest the Mormons enough for some of y'all. I'm sorry, but you're going to have to live with that fact.
For the record like myself and many others here we grew up in a time where knowledge of the LDS was limited and almost exclusively based on their propaganda. Yes they were a success financially, yes they appeared to be very upright and they were very good at planning and such, had what appeared to be good families and were the poster children for conservative living. Their politicians were honest and hard working (pretty much) and they were trustworthy to have in a cabinet because again the propaganda painted a picture of almost stepford like perfection.
The quaint little antidotes about Jesus talking to Indians and the like were idiosecrenciies and at the time just background noise verses the PR.
Their political power was well known and exceeded their numbers mainly do to the money they could bring to bear. They worked hard to elect Reagan for several reasons including what Nana mentions about Carter and the 1978 “revelation”. Their influence was discussed in the backrooms of the day, but not often and not to the point of being more than a interesting side note. They weren't pushing their "we are Christians too" but, indeed that was still at the time they were rather satisfied with being about from Christianity, before their overseas pushes where the brand name was needed.
Needless to say Reagan was thankful.
Oh what little did many of us know.