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Why not a Mormon President?

disneydude

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I was looking at a recent NEWSWEEK poll that had some results that I found interesting. Surprisingly a large number of Americans indicate that they would vote for a woman or a black person for President. However, there was a lot more apprehension among those surveyed for voting for a mormon. I am curious what people's thoughts are on why.
Do you think its more of a reflection on Romney than Mormons as a whole?

Does America have more of an issue with a person's religion than they do with a person's gender or ethnicity? I wouldn't think so, but it does appear there may be some truth to that statement. And it doesn't appear to be limited to Mormons. Catholics have had a hard time getting elected and I would have a hard time believing that Americans would vote for a Jew.

Any thoughts? What is America's hang up with religion as a defining issue in who gets elected President?

"If your party nominated a WOMAN for president, would you vote for her if she were qualified for the job?"

Yes No Unsure
% % %
ALL registered voters
86 8 6
Men
86 8 6
Women
86 8 6

"Do you think America is ready to elect a woman president, or not?"

Is Is Not Unsure
% % %
ALL registered voters
55 35 10
Men
59 32 9
Women
51 39 10
.

"If your party nominated a BLACK or AFRICAN AMERICAN for president, would you vote for that person if he or she were qualified for the job?"
Yes No Unsure
% % %
ALL registered voters
93 3 4
Whites
92 5 3
Non-whites
96 2 2

"Do you think America is ready to elect an African-American president, or not?"

Is Is Not Unsure
% % %
ALL registered voters
56 30 14
Whites
55 30 15
Non-whites
57 33 10


"What if your party nominated a MORMON for president, that is, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints? Would you vote for that person if he or she were qualified for the job?"



Yes No Unsure
% % %
ALL registered voters
66 25 9

"Do you think America is ready to elect a Mormon president, or not?"

Is Is Not Unsure
% % %
ALL registered voters
34 48 18
 

It may not be fair but when you think of Mormons it's hard not to think of Utah and men with multiple wives. Now I use to have a mormon friend so I know that applying polygamy and all the other backwards ways stereotypes to all mormons is total b.s. but my friend lived in California and well UTAH really does exist and it's scary.

Catholics make you think of the pope and that whole hierarchy while many other factions of christianity have adopted more laid back live and let live approaches to faith the Catholics are still kneeling, standing, sitting, kneeling and going all crazy with the eternal hell and damnation. On top of that laid back christian walmart style churches are cropping up everywhere while the Catholic priests are still in the business of judging. They call abortion a sin which seems rational enough but they also continue to refer to gays as sinners which I think is a little sanctimonious and they still consider masturbation a sin which is downright insane.
 
Trust me Taloulou:

I lived in Utah for 28 years.....so I know what it is like.
I completely disagreed with the vast majority of Utah politics and the way that the Mormons control the politics in the state (However, Utah is not really all that Scary....it really is no different than any place else I've ever lived)....

That said.....I appreciate your thoughts. I really am curious. I would have apprehensions about voting for a Mormon, not because of their religion but because of their political idealogy (ultra conservative).
But I think that this poll says something more. I think that people in this country have a reluctance to vote for certain religions over and above where the person stands on the political spectrum.
 

See I've never been to Utah but the problem is whenever Utah or Mormon is mentioned on TV its generally along the subject lines of Warren Jeffs so the mormon's have a Public Relations issue. Same with the Catholics with their whole "gay sex is a sin" while news stories about the priest child molestor have become cliche.

But then there are people like Barak. Given his Muslim background I wouldn't think he had a shot in hell but people are backing him and his support is building. Though the stories of his Muslim background haven't really been campaigned yet. So I don't know but yeah there are certain public relations problems that are harder to overcome and given that the people voting are most likely never going to get to actually know you it's a given that they are gonna look at the labels that you've given yourself or had put on you in an effort to better evaluate you the person.
 
It almost is tied in with how people view the president. Look at all the negative campaigning, and imagine how somebody could totally pick apart a candidate on the basis of religion.
Look how Harold Ford was shot down in Tennesee, and realize that Gore lost his home state 6 years ago because of Lieberman. Having a religion that's "different" is just another rock for the other side to throw at you.

Of course, when it gets more and more sick more and more people stop voing. Maybe we'll have another JFK, a Catholic who had an affair with one of the most beautiful women alive at the time.

But that was none of our business, was it?
 
disneydude said:
I would have apprehensions about voting for a Mormon, not because of their religion but because of their political idealogy (ultra conservative).
Click to expand...

Harry Reid's a Mormon and he's not ultra-conservative. It's just like any religion, you get differences on the political spectrum across the board.

Talloulou I don't think the public holds the same apprehension as they used to about Catholics, we've already elected one and we almost did in 2004. Very little was made about Kerry's religion other than bishops denying him Eucharist due to his abortion stance. There was really no bias against him because of his religion from what I could see.
 
I think the results of that poll make perfect sense. Race and gender don't necessarily have a big influence on your stance on issues except possibly those directly related to race or gender. Your religion, on the other hand, can have a big influence on your stance on a wide range if issues. Also religious convictions can create a "catch22" for a potential candidate. If he always follows the doctrine of his religion he's viewed as a "shill" for his religion, if he doesn't follow the doctrine of his religion he's viewed as lacking conviction.
 

They were saying the same thing about JFK in 1960 and we all know what happened then..........
 
We fear what we don't understand, and people don't understand Mormons. To most people, Mormons are a cult of people that have multiple wives, wear funny underwear, build some fairly impressive temples (and a few that are just wacky-looking), and eat green jello with carrots in it. Okay, maybe only those of us in Utah and Idaho know that last one.

Still, stereotypes are rampant and if we don't bother to educate ourselves, we'll think of Mormons as superficially as some people think of Muslims.
 
You forgot the "fry sauce" - which to my horror is beginning to ooze its way down here into California. God save us.

Though you are right. Although I enjoy living in California more than I ever enjoyed living in Utah (California fits my liberal views much better)....I have found that people have very strange ideas about Mormons and Utah.

Most people are suprised to find out the not everyone in Utah is Mormon and those who are are suprisingly almost unanimously not polygamists.

As far as Romney....its interesting in the same poll (not reflected in my post)....that when match-ups were made with Hilary and Obama, Republicans stood strongly with McCain and with Guiliani...but dropped significantly with Romney.
What does this say about Republicans? I don't know...but I find it interesting and think that it has to do with fear of Mormons...(which is again...surprising coming from Republicans). How else can you explain Republicans jumping to Hilary and Obama if Romney were the Republican nominee?
 

I think most Americans are smarter then that believe that Mormoms are followers of Jesus Christ..........
 
I think it's about time we have an atheist president. To hell with this religious appeasement.
 
I think a lot of people are not familiar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and assume the FLDS out of Colorado city, Arizona is the same religion. It is like taking a Jewish person who is from a small, radical sect and everyone assuming it is the face of Israel and Judaism or taking David Koresh and his followers as the symbol for all Christians. It is not reality. There are also many Evangelical leaders(not all) who misrepresent the Mormons and teach that they are some weird, dangerous cult. It is my experience that there is a large percentage of Americans who view the Mormons through these lens. It would be difficult to elect a Mormon president because of this.

I think the true face of leadership found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is representative in the following examples:





Robert Oaks-The first LDS four-star general, he retired from the US Air Force in 1994, after serving on the Pentagon staff, as commander of the 86th Tactical Fighter Wing and later US Air Forces Europe at Ramstein AFB in Germany, and allied NATO forces in Naples, Italy, among other assignments. He is a Vietnam veteran. At the time of his call to be a general authority (2000), he was senior vice president of operations for US Airways. At that time, he was president of the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania North Stake. He has also served as mission president's counselor, Young Men president and gospel doctrine teacher. As a Seventy, he presided over the Africa Southeast Area. He was born in Los Angeles, California. He has six children. In 2004, he replaced Elder Uchtdorf in the presidency of the Seventy.




Captain Bill Jacobsen-Recently killed serving in Iraq as part of the Army's 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment. While helping to secure the city of Mosul, one of his roles was to stand a top an armored vehicle and dispense seemingly random judgements upon the military-age young men which other soldiers had rounded up. In reality, an informant sat in the armored vehicle with live video feed identifying those who had joined the growing insurgency. The fine line between stopping insurgents and unfairly punishing innocents is difficult to maintain when casting such wide net.




Torah Bright-Olympian snow boarder
"Religion is my life," says Bright, a Mormon. "It's hard when I am on the road because I go to church every Sunday." I can go six weeks and not make it because I am traveling or am in another country but I always have my scriptures handy and I read a lot. "It keeps me grounded and gives me a purpose to what I am doing."



He commanded a seven-person crew aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. The space shuttle was launched on 17 Apr 1998 and after 256 orbits, landed at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 03 May 1998. He is the first Mormon to ever command a NASA space craft.(James Fletcher(LDS)was the administrator of NASA during much of the Reagen years, and Ron Dittemore(LDS) was the director of the space shuttle program until 2003.)




Steve Young-Great, great grandson of Brigham Young, SuperBowl MVP, Hall of fame quarterback, set up foundation Forever Young to help undeprivledged children.
 
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Got a source for that?
 
I wouldn't mind voting for a Mormon president if he agreed with my politics.

As someone who lives in MA, I'd never vote for Romney. But if a Mormon who didn't waffle on issues and was reasonable came along, sure.
 
Romney has two big obstacles to getting elected. First he has the Massachussets flip-flopper disease (I was for gays before I was against them) and he is a mormon.

Christian fundamentalists do not think that Mormon's are Christians. They certainly have some unique beliefs. The feeling is so strong that the National Day of Prayer group will not allow a Mormon to lead prayers. This group is lead by Shirley Dobson, wife of the notorious evangelical leader James Dobson. The evangelicals will stop at nothing to kill Romney's nomination. This is so much worse than a catholic from their perspective - they would probably prefer a Muslim over a mormon, since at least Muslims believe in the God of Abraham.
 
Thales said:
I wouldn't mind voting for a Mormon president if he agreed with my politics.

As someone who lives in MA, I'd never vote for Romney. But if a Mormon who didn't waffle on issues and was reasonable came along, sure.
Click to expand...

I wonder living in Mass. did you vote for the biggest waffler in history in John Kerry?
 



I agree with that statement. I have a cousin who married a mormon then converted. While they are nice people they are a little weird and ultra conservative. I am sure if they were elected religion would play a big part in their agenda and I don't think people are ready for the mormons.
 
Navy Pride said:
I think most Americans are smarter then that believe that Mormoms are followers of Jesus Christ..........
Click to expand...

In my experience this is just not true. I'll grant you I have no evidence, but I'm doubting you can provide any either. Still, I have yet to speak to a Protestant of any stripe who did not initially think Mormons are not Christians. Most continue in this belief regardless of what information they find...again, in my experience.

When I was a believing member of the LDS faith and in the Air Force I had a very well-meaning group of Baptist and various non-denomenational friends who continually tried to Save me. When I asked them to define what a Christian was, they said it was someone who believed in Jesus Christ as their personal savior. When I told them that was what Mormons believed, they then turned their attention to finer points of doctrinal difference (which also varied a lot in their own ranks, ironically) and started trotting out propoganda produced by their churches. They were so invested in their own confirmation bias they couldn't find common ground in spite of everything we shared.

In the end, they went away believing that Mormons think they are Christian when in fact they are not. Many of them seemed to find this the greatest heresy of all, greater even than the ideas they construe as polytheistic.
 
Americanwoman, maybe you should get to know a broad section of Mormons and not judge all of them from one couple. I know many very liberal Mormons, I know goofy Mormons, serious ones. Just like any other people.
 
laska said:
Americanwoman, maybe you should get to know a broad section of Mormons and not judge all of them from one couple. I know many very liberal Mormons, I know goofy Mormons, serious ones. Just like any other people.
Click to expand...

well I do know more than one couple of mormons but the ones I do know are pretty conservative. Thanks for the heads up though, I was trying not to put them all in a box but it just seems the majority of mormons that I have known or heard about are conservative and very religious and people are afraid to vote for something outside the norm.

Actually there are these one mormons that come to my door all the time and we all have a great time arguing religion. They always leave all these books and pamplets and while I may not agree with them, I always read them with an open mind.
 
Navy Pride said:
I wonder living in Mass. did you vote for the biggest waffler in history in John Kerry?
Click to expand...

As exceptionally painful as it was, yes. I dislike Romney mostly for his policy views anyway. Kerry was still, despite numerous flaws, the candidate who agreed with me most often.

I'm hoping that the Republicans put up someone solid. And if they put up Romney and the Democrats should put up a left-wing wacko...

I'd swallow my dislike and vote Romney. :2sick1:

The life of a moderate is the life of voting for the lesser of two evils.
 

They are not Christians but they are followers and believers in Jesus Christ...
 
Navy Pride said:
They are not Christians but they are followers and believers in Jesus Christ...
Click to expand...

What is the distinction?
What differentiates a "Christian" from someone who are followers and believers of Jesus?
(My argument would be that most Christians I know are clearly in their deeds/actions/words NOT followers of Christ)....but I doubt that your distinction is the same.
 
laska said:
Americanwoman, maybe you should get to know a broad section of Mormons and not judge all of them from one couple. I know many very liberal Mormons, I know goofy Mormons, serious ones. Just like any other people.
Click to expand...

You may know many liberal Mormons but it is undenialable that the Mormon faith is very Conservative with the exception of "Dingy" Harry Reid who is pro life but is ok with abortion on demand........
 
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