Rubio was 8 or 9 years old when his mother brought him to the Mormon Church.
However “smart” the young Marco Rubio was, I seriously doubt anyone under the age of 8 or 9 really had a grasp on the doctrinal between different branches of Christianity.
Let’s remember, many of us belong to the churches not because we did some serious soul searching and independent thought and decided that church best represented our own views or is “correct.” We belong to our church because our family does, or our friends and neighbors do.
I also note that Church is about connecting to something higher. And on one level that something higher is the feeling of community. We’re not going to say churches are just social clubs, but are they not basically religious social clubs? So it follows that the Rubios, brand new to Nevada, would start attending church with their closest family members in the area.
At 13, Rubio’s family moved back to Catholic-heavy Miami and begin once again attending Catholic church. There isn’t much of a Mormon community in South Florida anyway, but it makes sense that the Rubio family would again be attending the church that their friends and family in the area did.
Rubio still identifies as Catholic but attends a non-denominational Baptist church in West Kendall. It seems to us that for Rubio, the actual act of going to church isn’t so much about the scripture as it is the community. How else do you explain a Catholic going to a Baptist church?
Unless Rubio is actually a Mormon sleeper agent who is part of a vast Manchurian conspiracy to join Romney in the White House to rule America under strict Mormon law, I’m really not sure how any of this is all of that important.
It’s not like Mormonism and Catholicism translate to very different political opinions. Both creeds are anti-gay marriage and anti-abortion.
I was also baptized Mormon when I was 8. I quit attending when I was in my 20’s. I never officially resigned until some Mormon posters here on FR demanded that I quit calling myself a Mormon even though I was born into a multigenerational LDS family and still had my name on the rolls.
YOU may think it is a non-issue, I take it you are Catholic, but others may not be so understanding and it could well complicate the race if two Mormons ‘of record’ were on the ballot. You don’t need to convince me, I understand that Rubio no longer attends the LDS services, but until he resigns or he is excommunicated, he is still considered a Mormon by the LDS Church.
How can he, at some point in the race, come out and refute the LDS Church while Romney is such a super Mormon? What kind of division would THAT cause?