Posted on 01/11/2010 8:04:06 PM PST by delacoert
The staff of a popular Mormon blog announced Monday it has chosen embattled Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as the 2009 Mormon of the Year, even as several top Republicans called for his resignation.
During the past year, Reid was the "most visible and influential Mormon politician in the world," Kent Larsen III, organizer of the annual conference at timesandseasons.org, said in a phone interview. "What most made Harry Reid Mormon of the Year was his overall presence in the news and issues that affect peoples lives."
While Reid's faith is not always discussed as much as that of other Mormon politicians, he remains an active member of his LDS congregation, Larsen noted. In recent years Reid has helped The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on some crucial issues, including helping broker a compromise between the church and the BLM over access to Martin's Cove. A fixture in Nevada politics who has dedicated his life to public service for decades, Reid has long advocated that one can consistently be a Democrat and a Mormon.
A firestorm erupted in recent weeks, however, over Reid's 2008 description of then-candidate Barack Obama as a "light-skinned" African-American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."
Reid, D-Nev., apologized to Obama on Saturday, the Associated Press reported, and the president issued a statement accepting the apology and saying the matter was closed. That didn't stop GOP Chairman Michael Steele and other Republicans from demanding that Reid step down as majority leader.
Nor did it alter the outcome of timesandseasons' choice.
"The Mormon of the Year designation is a recognition of the effect that the person or group of persons has had during the past year. It is not a prize or award, so nothing of value is being given to anyone as a result of this designation," Larsen said. He did caution, however, that "this recognition should not be seen as an endorsement of his political positions or aspirations."
As in previous years, the blog's 12 staff members made the selection, though they did invite readers to offer their own opinions. This year's contest attracted nearly 2,000 votes, Larsen said, with the top slots going to Fox talk show host Glenn Beck, former Utah governor and now U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman Jr., and Reed Cowen, a filmmaker who documented the LDS Church's involvement in California's Proposition 8, which defined marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman.
"Reed [Cowen] won the popular vote, but we didn't choose him because his film is just getting out," said Larsen, a New York City book publisher and one of a dozen timesandseasons permabloggers. "It has not had much of an effect yet."
Other nominees included: Twilight author Stephenie Meyer, songwriting Sen. Orrin Hatch, kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart, and frontman for the rock band The Killers, Brandon Flowers,
The contest rules purposely excluded the LDS Church's First Presidency (including the prophet) and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles because, Larsen said, "their overwhelming influence would guarantee their selection every year."
For complete contest results, go to http://timesandseasons.org
They must have screwed up the initials.
But the LDS on here keep saying he is a MINO. How can he be a MINO AND the Mormon of the year?
Ole Harry is a real credit to his race ain’t he?
According to lds doctrine satan and Harry Reid are brothers.
Wait till Mormons find out what an absolute crook Reid is. It will shock you.
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I know we have our vast differences, but I would have thought this was a doctrine even all you guys could get behind!!
As an active Mormon, I vote him the worst Mormon since way back when.
I read as many as I could stand, thank you.
I guess even bloggers have a sense of humor.
Silly: Harry Reid is a “good mormon”, just as Joseph Smith is a good husband, honest story teller and trustworthy leader.
It’s only a blog site.
YE GODS! Harry Reid is a BAD MORMON. Period. He’s a racist to his nasty, crooked, racist toes. Ugh. Repulsive.
MONK I saw Harry Reid on Casino this weekend
HBO 2 had marthon of that Mormon show BIG LOVE then they show Casino after that
Now question how right or wrong is that ROFL
They asked them if they were conservative and they placed all Protestants together against tight categories like Catholic, Mormon, Muslim.
They did not separate out for instance, the second largest church in America, the Southern Baptists, I would like to see how conservative they are as Evangelicals.
I guess that facial rehab job was a good thing for Dirty Harry.
Utah was the only state in the nation to give Clinton a 3rd place finish behind Bush and Perot. The reason is the same that Gallop found.
I would suggest asking Gallop to give more data if you require such.
No the poll is useless, because it has tight, specific groups and then it just lumps the majority of all of America into a catch all group as Protestant, in this case, since they were getting into tiny groups like Mormon and Muslim, then the least they could have done would be to have an Evangelical, or a Southern Baptist category.
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