Mormonism
Posted at 11:29pm on Jan. 28, 2008 Re: Francis Beckwith and the LDS
By Ben Domenech
While I understand the comparison Francis is trying to make about political realities with that post, it doesn't seem to me like a very worthy reason to oppose Romney as the nominee. The LDS position on race in the past was certainly bad, but it's not like Romney had any control over it, and I think there are any number of other reasons to oppose Romney that don't smack of bias about where the man worships.
And in any case, if anyone thinks that John McCain will get any more of the African-American vote than Mitt Romney will in a race against Barack Obama, I think they're kidding themselves - 90% or more will go to him. The real benefit for McCain comes from the Latino community, where he has much better footholds than Romney.
Posted at 3:03pm on Jan. 7, 2008 The "Scandal" Blockbuster That Isn't
By Dan McLaughlin
Don't say I didn't warn you. The much-hyped expose that hits the bookstores today...well, let me quote the press release:
Mitt Romney is a Mormon. Mormon Mormon Mormon. He's the Mormoniest Mormon that ever Mormoned. Did we mention that he's a Mormon? That's so Mormon of him.
OK, that's not quite verbatim, but it might as well be.
Posted at 12:52pm on Dec. 12, 2007 Huckabee Picks His Own Poison
Don't Go There. Please, Don't Go There...Oh, He Went There.
By Dan McLaughlin
If you've read CY's post below, you know that a New York Times profile on Mike Huckabee includes comments about the Mormon faith that are likely to stir up passions over religious differences between Evangelical Christians and Mormons - two faithful parts of the GOP coalition - that are best left untouched.
Preemptive note to commenters: please don't discuss the theological merits of Huckabee's remark here, or comments on this post will be closed as well. As Thomas noted on CY's post, once you start in on this, it's only a matter of time until somebody kills a guy with a trident.
Huckabee's camp responded to the initial leak from the NYT by pleading for context, as well they should:
In fact, the full context of the exchange makes it clear that Governor Huckabee was illustrating his unwillingness to answer questions about Mormonism and to avoid addressing theological questions during this campaign.
"Governor Huckabee has said consistently that he believes this campaign should center on a discussion of the important issues confronting our nation," said Senior Advisor, Dr. Charmaine Yoest, "and not focus on questions of religious belief. He wants to assure persons of all faith traditions of his firm commitment to religious tolerance and freedom of worship. Governor Huckabee believes that one of the great strengths of our nation lies in its diversity of thought, opinion and faith."
Now, the full article is online, so we can get the context that was missing from the teaser. Unfortunately, we can see from the context that Huck went and volunteered his thoughts on this point, even after admitting that he's not well-versed in LDS theology. Perhaps, as a man trained and experienced as a guider of souls, the former Baptist preacher couldn't resist the temptation to evangelize, just a little. But as a presidential candidate, he really should have known better than to go there. But he went there anyway:
Read On...
Posted in 2008 | Mike Huckabee | Mitt Romney | Mormon Beliefs | Mormonism | NYT — Comments (138)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 2:17pm on Dec. 6, 2007 And Now a Word on the Romney Speech.
By Leon H Wolf
Look, I know that the big buzz today is the Romney speech. I know that this is a hot topic today. That does not change the fact that while there are lots of good places for Baptists to tell Catholics they're not Christians (and vice-versa), and for everyone to tell Mormons that they're not Christians, RedState is not one of those places. This is a friendly reminder because a lot of our long time commenters and diarists seem to have forgotten, and this friendly reminder is better than the alternative.
Let me also say, as a personal matter (as opposed to a matter of site policy), that this entire discussion irritates the living daylights out of me. As I said here, I can't think of anything that's stupider, from a political perspective, than sending a message to one of the most loyal segements of your voting base that they are some sort of second-class citizens: fit to vote, but not actually to govern. It dismays me that there seem to be a lot of people (even here) who either outright think that or are sympathetic to the position, and I'm probably powerless to change that. I'm not going to go Hugh Hewitt on anyone, but I encourage everyone to think long and hard about what that attitude means, and what it's likely to get us down the road. We're not electing a pastor, we're electing a President. And if you think some Mormon beliefs sound crazy, you ought to consider how more mainline Christian beliefs sound to someone who hasn't grown up with them, and ponder whether the Bible might actually have something to say about that in the second half of 1 Corinthians 1.
I understand that there are valid reasons that some people don't want to vote for Romney that have nothing to do with his Mormonism, and that's fine. I just wish we could avoid what the media said we couldn't: the rejection of a candidate by a significant number of Republicans because of his religion - a religion, by the way, that votes overwhelmingly Republican.
[UPDATE]: You may have noticed that I did not actually mention anything about the speech. That is because I have not watched it and have no intention of watching it. As I have said before, it is irrelevant, from a political standpoint, whether Romney shares my religion at all, so long as he shares my values. And I am convinced that he does.
Posted in 2008 | Mitt Romney | Mormonism — Comments (52)/ Email this page » / Read More »
