Mormon For President?

[Wren]

Hi all,

With all the talk about this, I was wondering what you all think of this. Please feel free to respond with your thoughts. Why or why not would this be a good thing?

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...1562941,00.html

(Mitt Romney's possible presidential candidacy)

[gameshowfan]

Interesting article, Wren. I didn't really give it a second thought before, but the article says there are still many fundamental Christians that consider Mormonism "a cult" or "sect", even "not Christian" because of what they believe in differently.

But I think Mitt has his focus clear and absolutely right here:

"But then as you get into the details of doctrines, I'd probably say, 'Look, time out. Let's focus on the values that we share.'"

He's not (far as I know) advocating Mormonism as "the religion to have" or pounding the Mormon doctrine into people's heads. In fact, it's clear from just this statement that Mitt is far more concerned about the huge, uniting bond of Christianity than quibbling about the differences that his particular branch has. Not saying their aren't differences--even significant ones--but the fact is Mitt (along with everyone else, Mormon or not) has the right to both cherish these unique differences, while, at the same time, acknowledging that there are also many things that he and other faiths share.

This little piece troubled me, but didn't necessarily really surprise me:

Even though the church has not allowed members to have multiple wives since 1890, that's not how it comes across on TV, in books or even in the courts

A practice that ended over 115 years ago! is still widely portrayed in TV and other pop culture in today's world as if it is still the prevailing doctrine. You can't help but be saddened by that.

But I have a suspicion why this has prevailed: Stereotypes. Stereotypes are easy. Much much easier for us to put a person or group of people "in a box" and keep them locked in there, in our mind, than to change our classification as reality changes. The fact is, doing so requires thought and effort. People are complex, not one-dimensional, and realizing this requires us to stretch our mind--again, from seeing the person as "one thing" to seeing him/her as a vast and changing combination of many, many things. Obviously far more complicated.

In other words, the sweeping generalizations are easy, and having been on the other end even as a Catholic, I can firmly say that they are not something I want to be kept in. "Catholics are against gay marriage, so therefore they hate gay people." That's one such over-generalization that's been implied, in my mind, by other people many times. Much simpler, again, to do the simple reasoning. "They don't like this -- they don't like us!" Far more complicated to dig and discover the whole, often multi-faceted, truth of the matter.

Point is, I think we have all had sweeping judgements made, be it on our faith or something else. Certainly Mormonism and a person's faith is (there I go again) a complex issue. I (and hopefully others) just want to be sure I'm not passing on the same blanketed classification to the Mormons that has already been passed onto me before.

This post has been edited by gameshowfan on Dec 17 2007, 10:15 PM

[Wren]

Thanks for your response, gameshowfan. :)
I enjoyed reading your thoughts on this.
This may sound like a strange question, but I will take the risk and ask anyway. :giggle:
Has there ever been a president who was not a christian?
(e.g. atheist)

[jlrust622]

Hey there. I've been a member here for quite some time but have hardly commented or visited because of time constraints. I wrote an article on my blog just this past week as I reflected on a similar article in Newsweek regarding the Romney & Huckabee entitled

The Mormon-Evangelical Divide .

My perspective was basically to challenge Christians to know what they believe and why and there is some interesting discussion going on there. Feel free to check it out.

Merry Christmas to all!
Janna Rust

[Wren]

Hi Janna,

Welcome to the forum, and I look forward to reading many more of your posts as time goes on. Merry Christmas to you as well, I hope it will be a happy and safe one for you.
Thanks so much for sharing your article, and I hope to hear comments on it right here from members.

:D

[Lucky 13]

I believe that the President (or for that matter, any head of state) should not be driven by their religion, moreso than their devotion to the country they serve.

I'd support the Prime Minister here in Canada regardless of whether he was Mormon, Catholic, Protestant, Scientologist...it doesn't matter. Just as long as he properly represents the country on the world stage and run things at home.