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Mormonism and Mitt Romney’s “Weirdness”
New York Times ^ | Aug. 9, 2011 | Ross Douthat

Posted on 08/11/2011 4:29:28 AM PDT by Colofornian

...we pretty much know what kind of re-election campaign Barack Obama is going to wage: A relentlessly negative one, which...will focus almost exclusively on making the challenger seem unacceptable rather than defending the sitting president’s accomplishments. Thanks to Ben Smith at Politico, we also know roughly how the White House plans to “destroy Mitt Romney,”...By “attacking him as inauthentic, unprincipled and, in a word used repeatedly by Obama’s advisers in about a dozen interviews, ‘weird.’”

Weird how, you ask? Here’s Smith:

The character attacks on Romney will focus on what critics view as a makeover, both personal (skinny jeans) and political (abortion) … Democrats also plan to amplify what Obama strategists described as the “weirdness” quotient, the sum of awkward public encounters and famous off-kilter anecdotes, first among them the tale of Romney having strapped his dog to the roof of his car.

SNIP

...The crucial thing to understand here is that Romney’s Latter Day Saint affiliation isn’t just a potential liability among evangelical voters in Republican primaries. It’s a potential general election liability as well. In a recent Gallup poll, 18 percent of Republicans described themselves as unwilling to vote for a Mormon candidate — but that number actually climbed to 19 percent among Independents, and 27 percent among Democrats.

Who are these non-conservative Mormon skeptics?... theologically conservative/politically liberal Christians (mainly African American and Hispanic) who regard Mormonism as a dangerous heresy...secular liberals...who dislike L.D.S...positions...people who don’t have a particular theological or political ax to grind, who know Mormonism primarily through pop culture (from “Big Love” and “Sister Wives” to “South Park” and “The Book of Mormon”) and the occasional encounter with bicycling missionaries, and who have a vague sense of the L.D.S. church as little bit cultish, a little bit outside-the-mainstream, and a little bit, well, weird...

(Excerpt) Read more at douthat.blogs.nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Current Events; Moral Issues; Other Christian; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: andtimormonfatwa; antiamericanism; antimormonjihad; antimormonrant; bitterformermormon; blackliberation; blah; blahblah; blahblahblah; blahblahblahblah; inman; lds; liberationtheology; mormoaner; mormon; mormoncard; mormonexcuses; religiousbigot; religiouszealotry; romney; weirdness; whiningmormons
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To: GunRunner
You're free to believe as you wish, but understand that you do not speak for all Christians even though you say you do.

DAng!

I miss ALL the good stuff!!

221 posted on 08/14/2011 4:52:30 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: GunRunner
... all Christians I've known my whole life who I've discussed this with do not use it as you and the others on this thread do.

Dang!

Who you been hangin' wid?

222 posted on 08/14/2011 4:53:37 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: GunRunner
Exact quote:
"One kills the body and spirit....the other kills the spirit and the mind. Both are equally evil and bad for our country.
So if it's the lesser of two evils as choices I will vote for neither. Third party will be my choice. And if the country falls it falls....rather than a long drawn out death."

NOT an 'exact' quote:

"to foment hatred towards other people, or in caww's case, billions of people. "

223 posted on 08/14/2011 5:04:15 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: GunRunner

Declare victory and leave the battlefield...


224 posted on 08/14/2011 5:05:35 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: caww
Which states then that some are evil, so by what standard do you determine "some" of them are evil...
how do you differentiate some from the all?


225 posted on 08/14/2011 5:08:11 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Elsie; Tennessee Nana
1/3 Beast


226 posted on 08/14/2011 5:10:18 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: GunRunner

All Christians who believe the Bible to be the Word of God are in agreement with the definition of Evil, and it isn’t your liberal definition either.


227 posted on 08/14/2011 9:07:19 AM PDT by reaganaut (Ex-Mormon, now Christian - "I once was lost, but now am found; was blind but now I see")
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To: GunRunner; Religion Moderator; caww

So one Freeper calling a Mormon Freeper “evil” and “bad for the country” is not making it personal?!

- - - - - - -

CAWW did not call a mormon freeper or any individual Mormon ‘bad for the country’.


228 posted on 08/14/2011 9:38:30 AM PDT by reaganaut (Ex-Mormon, now Christian - "I once was lost, but now am found; was blind but now I see")
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To: GunRunner; Religion Moderator
Wow for someone who had no interest in this subject you posted a lot, and seemed a bit miffed that things are not to your liking...
229 posted on 08/14/2011 2:20:00 PM PDT by ejonesie22 (8/30/10, the day Truth won.)
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To: GunRunner; reaganaut; Californian; Elsie

“The question of evil....... it is more complex than they some think it is. Why?.... Because one must question the questioner.

If there’s such a thing as evil, you assume there’s such a thing as good.... If you assume there’s such a thing as good, you assume there’s such a thing as a moral law on the basis of which ..”to differentiate between good and evil”.

If you assume there’s such a thing as a moral law, you must posit a moral law giver,... but that’s whom they are trying to disprove and not prove....... Because if there’s not a moral law giver, there’s no moral law.... If there’s no moral law, there’s no good...... If there’s no good, there’s no evil..... What is their question?

Now you may question the last jump:

..... why do you actually need a moral law giver if you have a moral law?...... The answer is because the questioner and the issue he or she questions always involve the essential value of a person....... That is, you can never talk of morality in abstraction....... Persons are implicit to the question and the object of the question.

In a nutshell, positing a moral law without a moral law giver would be equivalent to raising the question of evil without a questioner..... So you cannot have a moral law unless the moral law itself is intrinsically woven into personhood,.... which means it demands an intrinsically worthy person if the moral law itself is valued...... And that person can only be God.

Apologetist: Ravi Zacharias


230 posted on 08/14/2011 7:25:39 PM PDT by caww
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To: ejonesie22

I thought that as well...but ok with that...the dialogue on the thread was very insightful and interesting.

BTW I intended pinging you with the others to Ravi’s statement on evil but couldn’t remember how to spell your Freep-name! Tom would be good or Carol....LOL!


231 posted on 08/14/2011 7:31:55 PM PDT by caww
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To: caww

It’s all good I caught it...


232 posted on 08/14/2011 8:21:56 PM PDT by ejonesie22 (8/30/10, the day Truth won.)
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To: ejonesie22

Good..and thanks.


233 posted on 08/14/2011 8:33:07 PM PDT by caww
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To: caww
"Did GOD really say..."

(somewhere in the Bible; I think...)

234 posted on 08/15/2011 4:31:58 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Elsie
"Did GOD really say..." (somewhere in the Bible; I think...)

I think that the latest revelations by the god in the mirror trump the Bible, do they not? I'm sure that the Bible says nothing about lesbian priestesses or pederast pastors...

I'm sure that belief in God is considered an optional extra and a distasteful one at that. And this 'evil' thing is just a hateful legacy. Why can't we all just get along?

235 posted on 08/15/2011 5:35:27 PM PDT by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel, if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so.)
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To: reaganaut

In secret societies the member doesn’t know the entire story until he gets into the top echelon. The same is true of Mormonism. And Mitt Romney is an elite Mormon. The Mormon people are misled by their church as a means of control. It tells them if they obey the church they will become as gods when they die. That is Satanic.

As the Muslims still do, in early days Mormons practiced polygamy in order to have as many children as possible, because, as his church tells them, when each Mormon man dies he will receives his own planet. The more children he had here, the more power they will wield there.

The Muslims mean to take over the world just as the Mormons do. Satan is evil. God is good. Satan is doing his level best to gain complete control today, but, in the end. God will prevail! Hallelujah!


236 posted on 08/26/2011 3:13:30 PM PDT by Paperdoll (NO MORE RINOS!)
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