Saturday Discussion on Mitt Romney

Christian fundamentalists are discussing Mitt Romney over at Bob’s blog.

While over here, FAIR is leading the charge about bigotry, here and here.  Yet to be honest, I think we all have religious bias.  Just imagine the scenario of a Baptist running for mayor in a Mormon town.

I am just thankful that in America we have these possibilities for discussion and spirited engagement.  Thank God we have the freedom to ask questions about what is vital to our heart convictions.

21 comments

  3. Todd,
    I don’t believe that someone being Baptist would make them a lesser mayoral candidate. Whether or not I agreed with their politics would do it.

    Why would you assume that Mormons wouldn’t choose a Baptist? Are you speaking from experience? I am not saying such could not happen. I am just curious.

  4. Nope, I have no personal experience involving any political aspirations, John.

    But I have worked through incidents with friends who feel they were not accepted for the job, for the position, or social opportunity, etc. because they were not LDS.

    As you know, when one is not within the cultural/sociological network because of one’s faith, things can become very challenging.

    And John C., perhaps it is easy for human nature to make assumptions, whether it is the LDS individual living among all Baptists and listening to their talk or a Baptist individual living among all LDS and listening to their talk.

  5. Meh, I don’t care what a candidate’s religion is, I just don’t want him/her to make it an issue. I see Huckabee making his religion one of his qualifications to be pres., and I think that’s wrong. (Disclaimer: I’m not voting Republican, either way.)

  7. John C.

    I grew up in southern Utah.

    I’m pretty confident in saying that a Baptist mayoral candidate would have an uphill climb.

    The main reason is the lack of a ready-made social network that being active in the LDS Church provides you. The Baptist would have to fight for that social network, whereas a Mormon wouldn’t have to put in half the effort of getting it.

    And that’s assuming that plain ole tribal loyalty and antipathy toward the “outsider” aren’t at play.

  8. The Baptist would have to join as many neighborhood ward potlucks as he could. Lots of green jello. 🙂

    But if all the LDS friends started asking him what he believed about the Triune God and heaven and hell, I don’t know if any of them in the ward would vote for him in the end.

    If that happened . . .

    Would that be just an acceptable bias to not be outlawed?

    Or should the Baptist start posting articles on bigotry and how this is an unacceptable, alarming offense?

  9. That would be bigotry, tho. Not voting for him because he is Baptist is just as bad as not voting for him because he is Mormon.

  10. Hi!

    I authored one of FAIR’s “leading the charge about bigotry,” and I’d like to set some things straight:

    1. For the record, I HAVE supported non-Mormons against good members of the Church–many times. I agree that religious grouping is usually a poor reason to vote either for or against a candidate.
    2. Even though Utah is 70% LDS, inhabitants seem to have had no problem electing qualified non-Latter-day Saints (For example, Utah was the second state with a Jewish governor! Neighboring Idaho, with a large LDS population, was the first–by two years. See http://www.havelshouseofhistory.com/Jewish%20Governor%20Political%20Items%201.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Alexander.).
    3. On the other hand, in my home state of Florida, with inverted ratios of Evangelicals to the LDS, in the entire history of official LDS presence in the state, there was only ONE LDS who was ever elected to statewide office: Paula Hawkins, who lost the next election to Robert Graham, a Baptist [See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Hawkins.%5D.
    4. I have no problem with “Finn” using his Church’s social network as a political base, or with his championing Evangelical Christians as a whole. Evangelical Christians have been getting some bad press over the past several decades. While their worst elements have no doubt deserved that bad press, the vast majority do not. My problems with “Finn” began with his targeted appeals to those in the “worst elements.”
    5. I am not categorically refusing to vote for “Finn,” but he will have to take some substantive steps to undo the harm he did over the last few months. That, however, would cause massive problems with those less savory elements that “Finn” specifically appealed to.

    This comment is cross-posted at: http://www.fairblog.org/2008/01/18/something-about-bigots/

  12. Thanks for popping in Steven.

    After tonight, I think it is over for Mr. Huckabee.

    Probably, no need to do more FAIR posts on the man.

    I knew that about the Jewish governor in Idaho. It’s cool political history, especially with the bad stuff in Idaho like our past racist compound up north.

  14. Even though there are things I really like about Huckabee, I could never vote for him once he made that sly crack, that he doesn’t know anything about Mormonism, but gee don’t they believe Jesus and Satan are brothers?

    If you know nothing about mormonism, you don’t come up with a well-established incendiary remark like that. I don’t want a President who’s going to poison people against my children.

    This is the kind of stuff that Pastor fed one of my friends at school, resulting in her not speaking to me from second semester 11th grade through graduation, though we had classes together every day, and she was my color guard captain.

  15. “I wonder how many LDS in America have so far cast their vote for the Baptist named Huckabee?”

    Any intelligible LDS could not, not because he is baptist, but because of his anti-Mormon whisper campaign against Romney. I do not want a Pastor-in-Chief of the United Bigots of America.

    If, on the other hand, he didn’t make an attack on Romney’s religion, which is what he did (see his blog and the comments they allowed against mormonism on it), then I wouldn’t have a problem with him. However, now I rather have my hand cut off than to vote for him.

    Way to go Huckabee!

  16. Todd, #11: based on Johnna and Andrew ‘s comments (14, 15), do you think Evangelicals voting for Romney is really analogous to Mormons voting for Huckabee?

  17. Todd #13, Thanks for linking to my blog. I really appreciate your open mind, being a Baptist Minister and defending your LDS friends. I really appreciate what you’ve done starting this blog. I agree with you saying:

    [“I am just thankful that in America we have these possibilities for discussion and spirited engagement. Thank God we have the freedom to ask questions about what is vital to our heart convictions.”]

  18. To lighten the discussion…

    “You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America’s Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn’t want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named ‘Bush’, ‘Dick’, and ‘Colon.’ Need I say more?” – Chris Rock

    Similarly, whoever thought we’d see the day when a woman, a preacher, a black guy, and a Mormon are all frontrunners for one of the top jobs in the world… Sure, we all might have talked about it, and now…here it is.

    Times are a’changin’.

  19. Tate, times are a’changin’. For sure.

    Johnna, I am sorry to hear that. On the flip side, my wife couldn’t run for school office (mid-80s) in a rural community school. She was told it would have been better for her to be jack-Mormon than so ardent in her Christian faith (Pentecostal).

    Keep commenting on HI4LDS. You are welcome here to share your thoughts and concerns.

    Brian, I don’t think an LDS friend is free to say that Mr. Romney is free of dirty play in attack ads on Mr. Huckabee. Politics, I suppose. It all is inexcusable on the part of all candidates.

    I don’t trust Mr. Huckabee. And I don’t trust Mr. Romney.

    But there is One I rest in completely.

    After a nice Lord’s Day, yesterday; it is a great Monday morning, friends.

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