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Marco Rubio Used to Be a Mormon
New York mag ^ | 2/23/12 at 12:24 PM | Noreen Malone

Posted on 06/29/2012 10:02:42 PM PDT by RnMomof7

Is America ready for its first all-Mormon-raised ticket? We're not talking Romney-Huntsman; we're talking Romney-Rubio. Buzzfeed reports that Marco Rubio, the GOP star senator from Florida, was baptized into the Church of the Latter-Day Saints when he was 8, and remained "active in the faith for a number of years during his early youth," according to family members, and confirmed by the Rubio camp. The family converted after moving near close relatives, the Denises, who had joined the church in the seventies. But Rubio's father, a bartender also named Marco, never converted himself; he "had little use for a religion that promoted a strict code of moral conduct that seemed at odds with the way he made a living."

The conversion didn't take for the whole family, ultimately, and Marco Jr. was supposedly a big part of that. He'd been the most enthusiastic convert to Mormonism, but then, according to his cousins, was also behind the family's return to their Catholic roots. Rubio, the likely favorite for the vice-presidential slot, received his Catholic First Communion at the age of 13. So what's the big deal? Take it away, Buzzfeed:

The revelation adds a new dimension to Rubio's already-nuanced religious history — and could complicate his political future at a time when many Republicans see him as the odds-on favorite for the 2012 vice presidential nod. Vice presidential candidates are traditionally chosen to provide ethnic and religious balance to a ticket. Mitt Romney's Mormonism and Rubio's Catholic faith would already mean the first two members of minority traditions on a Republican ticket in American history. Rubio's Mormon roots could further complicate that calculation.

A sign that Rubio's aides see the story as potentially damaging: BuzzFeed's inquiries appear to have sent them into frantic damage-control mode, and after email inquiries from BuzzFeed — but minutes before Conant responded with a phone call this morning — a brief item appeared on the blog of the Miami Herald mentioning the Senator's religious past.

So the question now looks something like this: Would "secret Mormon" be as politically damaging as "secret Muslim"? Probably not: First of all, it's no longer secret, and even if the fact that Rubio selectively edited his biography to leave that chapter out raises some eyebrows and suggests it's something he finds politically damaging, it's harder for fringe conspiracy theorists (and scruple-free campaign operatives) to really do their thing with something that's out in the open as a fact. And Romney's rise to prominence within the GOP, though not without its bumps, proves that prejudice against Mormons isn't as intractable as prejudice against Muslims. Besides, even in Rubio's enthusiastic Mormon moment, when, as his cousin Michelle said, he was "totally into it," he was someone the GOP base could love. "He's always been into religion. Football and religion. Those were his things."


TOPICS: Religion & Politics; Theology
KEYWORDS: heresy; lds; rc; whocares
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Isn't this special???
1 posted on 06/29/2012 10:02:49 PM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: RnMomof7

It’s especially silly if you ask me.


2 posted on 06/29/2012 10:07:48 PM PDT by Ronin (Dumb, dependent and Democrat is no way to go through life - Rep. L. Gohmert, Tex)
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To: RnMomof7

Repost from February?


3 posted on 06/29/2012 10:12:40 PM PDT by Wayne07
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To: RnMomof7

Since he isn’t constitutionally eligible I don’t see how this matters.


4 posted on 06/29/2012 10:13:03 PM PDT by Aria ( 2008 wasn't an election - it was a coup d'etat.)
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To: RnMomof7

5 posted on 06/29/2012 10:19:02 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas exercitus gerit ;-{)
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To: RnMomof7

Rubio is a Catholic.


6 posted on 06/29/2012 10:23:06 PM PDT by NoLibZone (We must get down on our knees each day and thank God that McCain/Palin didn't win in '08.)
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To: NoLibZone

Yea a catholic still on the rolls of the LDS


7 posted on 06/29/2012 10:35:19 PM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: Aria

Well I would not vote for one Mormon.. certainly not


8 posted on 06/29/2012 10:37:42 PM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: Aria

Well I would not vote for one Mormon.. certainly not 2


9 posted on 06/29/2012 10:37:57 PM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: RnMomof7

and so it begins....the dims are the lowest of the low.

Remember folks few in Germany wanted to defend or protect the Jews ( or true Christians for that matter)......and when they came for me no one was left....


10 posted on 06/29/2012 10:42:33 PM PDT by Nifster
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To: RnMomof7

Is America ready for its first all-Mormon-raised ticket?

Better then the Mulsim/Moron ticket the Democrats put up!


11 posted on 06/29/2012 10:47:45 PM PDT by SECURE AMERICA (Where can I sign up for the New American Revolution and the Crusades 2012?)
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To: RnMomof7

What a foolish stretch.

So he was LDS when he was a little kid for 3 or 4 years. Apparently even when young he decided that his family needed to be united in their faith and so they returned to Catholicism and he took communion at 13 years.

Anyone wanting to make an issue out of this, especially to try and indicate he is somehow “bad” becasue as a child he was LDS, is simply playing a biogot card and it will backfire badly on them.

Most Americans are a whole lot more reasobnable than that, and well they should be.


12 posted on 06/29/2012 10:47:53 PM PDT by Jeff Head (Freedom is not free, never has been, never will be (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: SECURE AMERICA
Better then the Mulsim/Moron ticket the Democrats put up!

Your so right! AMEN!

13 posted on 06/29/2012 10:59:36 PM PDT by Isabel2010
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To: Jeff Head

I agree with you Jeff. This entire thread is foolish.


14 posted on 06/29/2012 11:11:57 PM PDT by South40 ("Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance." Hussein Obama, Cairo, Egypt, June 4, 2009)
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To: RnMomof7

From age 8 to 12 he was a mormon.

At 13 he went back to Catholicism.

Which choice do you dispute , his choice as a child or as an adult?


15 posted on 06/29/2012 11:26:11 PM PDT by NoLibZone (We must get down on our knees each day and thank God that McCain/Palin didn't win in '08.)
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To: RnMomof7

Some times I think Obama could be the first Pentecostal President because he speaks in tongues.

Ummm...Errr.. Ahhh..


16 posted on 06/29/2012 11:29:01 PM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: RnMomof7

So the current occupant of the White House used to be a Muslim and then converted to an antisemitic, Black racist “church”.


17 posted on 06/29/2012 11:40:37 PM PDT by The Great RJ
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To: RnMomof7

This is the kind of thing written by people who neither know or care about religion.


18 posted on 06/29/2012 11:51:07 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: RnMomof7

Oh, come on! We’ve all dabbled in Mormon membership at some time or other, haven’t we?


19 posted on 06/30/2012 12:12:07 AM PDT by dagogo redux (A whiff of primitive spirits in the air, harbingers of an impending descent into the feral.)
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To: dagogo redux

Elementary school kids don’t dabble in religions. I was baptized Catholic but from 8-12, I attended the local Presbyterian church because my parents were not married in the Church at the time. When they did, I became Catholic.


20 posted on 06/30/2012 12:25:23 AM PDT by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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