Posted on 02/04/2012 6:53:17 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Very, very good e-mail lists — and an internal debate over whether to use them. “I'm getting really tired of the ads for Romney campaign trips coming from this list serve,” writes one young Mormon.
LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- At Mitt Romney’s first rally here earlier this week, there were plenty of hints that the enthusiastic crowd of 1,000 was stacked with Mormons. Kids walked around in BYU sweatshirts, moms chatted about LDS youth groups, and at least one supporter was overheard talking about making phone calls for the candidate as part of "family home evening" -- a weekly family night the church encourages its members to hold.
But while it's no secret that Romney's coreligionists have swelled the ranks at campaign stops from Des Moines to Reno, one question about the Mormon vote has gone largely unanswered this primary season: How, exactly, have they gotten so organized?
"We heard about it from some friends in our [LDS] ward," said one woman standing outside a rally held in a Las Vegas hotel supply warehouse. "We're so glad we could make it." Another Mormon standing nearby chimed in, "Everyone we know is voting for Mitt!"
The secret to the grassroots success lies, in part, in the unique national structure and scrupulous record-keeping of the Utah-headquartered Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While the church itself is politically neutral, it contains the structural groundwork for one of the most organized and effective voting blocs in the country—something Romney is poised to capitalize on.
Here’s how it works
In contrast with most other religions in the country, the Mormon Church is nationally organized in a strict, top-down fashion, like a corporation. Every congregation in the U.S. reports back to church headquarters in Salt Lake. Whenever an individual is baptized -- either as a child or as a convert -- local ministers take down the person’s name, address, phone number, and e-mail address, and feed the information into a national database maintained by officials in Salt Lake (and only accessible to certain church leaders).
From there, the individuals are assigned to geographically-determined congregations -- or “wards” -- of about 200-300, which they attend on Sundays. Their contact information is filtered into a local “ward list,” which is distributed to all local congregants for planning purposes--from coordinating Sunday school, to working out the logistics for church barbeques.
For decades, these ward lists were printed out and distributed after Sunday services, but in recent years the system has migrated online to LDS.org, where Mormons create logins to access the contact information for every fellow believer in the area.
For active Mormons, wards often become the center of their social universe: it’s not uncommon for members to visit their local chapels three or four times a week for various activities and meetings. Additionally, Mormons participate in “home and visiting teaching” programs, which require them to visit certain ward members on a monthly basis. In this context, ward lists become invaluable tools for Mormons’ daily life—inevitably finding their way into Google groups, listservs, and cell phones.
They also frequently become political tools.
Working the wards
The church expressly forbids using these directories for non-religious purposes, but that doesn’t deter many politically active Mormons from working their ward lists to get out the vote. Reports abound of members blasting out congregational e-mails soliciting support for partisan causes and candidates. One Southern California ward received several e-mails urging congregants to vote for an LDS politician running for local office. And in nastier example of the practice, ward lists in Alpine, Utah were used to spread an anonymous smear campaign against a candidate on the eve of a local election.
Several Mormons told BuzzFeed that as the 2012 primaries heated up, they started to see their fellow congregants use ward lists to organize local efforts for Romney.
Here in Nevada, Ryan Erwin, a consultant for the Romney campaign, acknowledged that the candidate has benefitted from grassroots efforts by Latter-day Saints, and said the campaign is proud of their support. But he also thinks the Mormon factor has been overstated.
“Mormons make up seven percent of the population here,” Erwin said. “If you read some of the reports in the media, you’d think it was 90 percent… it’s a little aggravating when you’ve worked for months to build up an organization and then they say, ‘Well, he just won it because he’s a Mormon.’”
That said, exit polls in 2008 showed that about 25 percent of Nevada caucus-goers self-identified as Mormon -- and Romney won that primary handily. This time around, polling indicates that he’s headed for a similarly dominant victory, and if it happens, local Latter-day Saints will no doubt deserve a chunk of the credit.
Much like how Iowa’s Christian home-school vote advanced its own grassroots efforts for Mike Huckabee largely independently of his campaign, there’s no evidence that Team Romney is officially coordinating with Mormon congregations. But anecdotal evidence suggests that a highly motivated base of Mormon supporters has effectively taken advantage of the LDS infrastructure to help Romney.
The Colonial First Ward listserv
One of the most illustrative examples is the Colonial First Ward listserv, which consists of more than 3,500 D.C.-area Mormons, many of them young and single.
E-mails obtained by BuzzFeed show the listserv being used frequently as a recruiting tool for Romney supporters -- gathering signatures to get the candidate on the Delaware ballot, requesting volunteers to aid the campaign’s Illinois operation, and organizing a get-out-the-vote trip to South Carolina on the weekend of the primary.
The fruits of that last effort were obvious on the ground in Columbia, S.C., where dozens of young Mormon students from Virginia and D.C. were found rallying for Romney at various campaign stops.
But not everyone on the listserv has looked kindly upon efforts to transform the network into a booster club for Romney, and a number of members have e-mailed complaints.
Matt Larsen, a member of the listserv, wrote last October: “I know I’m probably going to make enemies here, but I’m getting really tired of the ads for Romney campaign trips coming from this list serve. The disclaimer at the bottom of every list serve email states very clearly: ‘Items that will not be posted/that will be removed include: promoting your business, promoting political ideologies, and inflammatory comments and rhetoric.’”
The protests appear to have been ignored though, with members continuing to send out e-mails as recently as last month that requested volunteer help for Romney.
“The Colonial First Ward listserv seems to be a miraculous pro-Romney organizing tool,” grumbled one D.C.-area Mormon, who is a Democrat. “Whenever you get the contact information for 3,540 young Mormons in one place, I guess it has to be.”
You sir haven’t a clue and you seem to be full of hate.
Jesus taught that we should “Love one another” Go thou and do likewise.
You sir haven’t a clue and you seem to be full of hate.
Jesus taught that we should “Love one another” Go thou and do likewise.
And until 1978 these mormon troops denied black boys the opportunity to hold positions of patrol leader, senior patrol leader etc. So tell me - was racism a Scout principle or a whim of the prophet?
Where were all of The Christians in the south when blacks were tortured and murdered?????
By comparison, blacks could be members of the LDS Church, they could drink and eat wherever they chose. They were never slaves or brutalized.
Do you see a difference there??
The Mormon 12th Article Of Faith reads: We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers and magistrates, in obeying, honoring and sustaining th law.
The 13 Article reads: We believe in being honest,true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul_we believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things an hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after those things.
I guess that means I am disobedient for reading your drivel
God bless you and yours.
Working to reverse segregation which finally occured
By comparison, blacks could be members of the LDS Church, they could drink and eat wherever they chose.
As second class "members", denied temple ordinances and priesthood, destined to be the servants of the 'gods' if they were good enough. You have a short memory.
“Negroes in this life are denied the priesthood; under no circumstances can they hold this delegation of authority from the Almighty. The gospel message of salvation is not carried affirmatively to them.... Negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned...”
- Apostle Bruce R. McConkie
“I think the Lord segregated the Negro and who is man to change that segregation?”
- Apostle Mark E. Peterson
“You must not think, from what I say, that I am opposed to slavery. No! The negro is damned, and is to serve his master till God chooses to remove the curse of Ham.”
- Prophet Brigham Young
Do you see a difference there??
I see the deliberate obfuscation of a key point - mormon Boy Scout troops denied black boys the opportunity to be leaders. That never was a principle of Boy Scouting - deliberate racism. Your non-response just reinforces the fact that mormonism has never repented of its racism.
Good job, law.
Answering questions not asked but should have been asked. Your response to my post makes no sense, as it has nothing to do with with what I said. You get an A+.
(pssst #12, then how do you explain SLC lds and their love of illegals)
Folks may wonder why that was...well, the Boy leaders in mormon troops are typically the youth leaders of the individual quoroms (deacons, teachers, priests). By default, they are the SPL's, Crew Leaders, etc by virtue of the office they hold in the quorom.
So, if a black mormon couldn't hold the priesthood (quorom), he couldn't be a quorom leader. Not a quorom leader? Not a Scout leader.
“A 12-year-old boy scout has been denied a senior patrol leadership in his troop because he is black, Don L. Cope, black ombudsman for the state, said Wednesday.... The ombudsman said Mormon ‘troop policy is that in order to become a patrol leader, he must be a deacon’s quorum president in the LDS church. Since the boy cannot hold the priesthood, he cannot become a patrol leader.” Salt Lake Tribune, July 18, 1974
http://www.mormonthink.com/blackweb.htm
How many blacks were members of the LDS Church prior to 1978?
Let’s see how long it will take you to come up with a figure, and I’ll bet it was less than 100 world wide. It was so nice to let them eat and drink with you.
Denying anything to Blacks does not compare to burning, hanging, and murdering. Never a peep out of southern Christians until The Federal government moved in. There was never a white man accused of a crime against a black man in THE ENTIRE SOUTH until the Lyndon Johnson presidency.
Of course southern Christians never served on juries or were part of the legal system. They just NEVER KEPT RECORDS
ABOUT THIS PART OF THEIR HISTORY.
Hate is mentioned only 17 times in the New Testament. Hate seems common here on Free Republic!!!
Denying anything to Blacks does not compare to burning, hanging, and murdering. Never a peep out of southern Christians until The Federal government moved in. There was never a white man accused of a crime against a black man in THE ENTIRE SOUTH until the Lyndon Johnson presidency.
Of course southern Christians never served on juries or were part of the legal system. They just NEVER KEPT RECORDS
ABOUT THIS PART OF THEIR HISTORY.
Hate is mentioned only 17 times in the New Testament. Hate seems common here on Free Republic!!!
Denying anything to Blacks does not compare to burning, hanging, and murdering. Never a peep out of southern Christians until The Federal government moved in. There was never a white man accused of a crime against a black man in THE ENTIRE SOUTH until the Lyndon Johnson presidency.
Of course southern Christians never served on juries or were part of the legal system. They just NEVER KEPT RECORDS
ABOUT THIS PART OF THEIR HISTORY.
Hate is mentioned only 17 times in the New Testament. Hate seems common here on Free Republic!!!
The 13 Article reads: We believe in being honest,true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men;
____________________________________________
Written and signed by Joey Smith, liar, unfaithful, sexual deviant, greedy, thief, murderer, lustful, polygamist, adulterer and abuser of women...
Green flake was a blave slave owned by Brigham Young...
he drove the fancy carriage that Young went to the Utah Territory in...
]but he was never a member of the Mormon religion...
He or another of the black slaves who were forcably taken to Utah was sold as a tithe or offering to the Mormon temple...
A black woman who was also a lifelong slave in Utah was granted by her “master” the privilege of being a future family slave in the Mormon afterlife because of her uncomplaining unpaid servitude....
How benevolent...
So - because racists who abused the name of Christianity killed blacks, mormons are/were justified denying black boys the privilege of being a patrol leader in a Boy Scout Troop. Wow, I can see how mormons redefined the principles of Boy Scouting in this case.
Btw - it was also Christians who lead the fight to end slavery as well as repudiate racism. Where were mormons? AWOL.
White and delightsome BYU, only about 3% black membership in the US, only ONE black in lds leadership - a member of the 50 - thats only 2% of church leadership (underepresenting the population).
Jesus taught that we should “Love one another”
______________________________________
Yes but Jesus is God and was a Jew when He said that...
He started the Christian Church...
Jesus has nothing to do with Mormonism the members of which have been taught to hate anyone not also a member...
I am 85 years old and have been a Mormon for 57 years.
__________________________________________
Your age explains a lot...
The fact that your were a Mormon before 1978 explains a lot
The fact that you were a convert and not BIC explains a lot..
Mostly converts are assigned to attack Christians in the FRee Republic threads as a “calling” of the Mormon religion...
The Church is non political
______________________________________
When did that happen ???
The Mormon religion started out as a political institution with Joey Smith making himself Mayor of Nauvoo and passing laws and petitioning Congress for favors like a 100,000 man private army funded by the American taxpayers...
and in 1844 Joey Smith ran for POTUS ...
and then there were the years Brigham Young was Gov of Utah Territory...
and then there were those “divine everlasting doctrines” that were influenced by political ambition...
In 2008 95% of Utah (w3hich is heavily Mormo0n) voted for Mormon bishop and high priest Willard Mitt Romney..
No kid...
Mormonism is extremely political...
most members vote Republican because of conservative principals
___________________________________________
No most members voted in 1980 because of Jimmy Cater...
Jimmy Carter was a favorite of the Mormon leadership until 1978 when Jimmy pressured and threatened the Mormons into changing their unConstitutional and unAmerican racism against black men...
The Mormons are still racist against black women but then all Mormon women are 2nd class citizens to the Mormon males...
and are placed in importance after 12 year old boys..
The Mormons hated Carter after that and swore revenge...
Their obsession was so great they voted for the also much hated Ronald Reagan...
Talk about sick puppies..
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