I agreed wholeheartedly with badlydrawnjeff above and think this focus on Romney's religious beliefs is despicable. Romney is, in his way, like Kennedy in 1960: a majority of Americans are misinformed about and mistrustful, if not outright hostile, towards his religion. In order to get enough votes to win, Kennedy had to pander to various Protestant groups and swear up and down that he wouldn't be taking orders from Rome if elected (a ridiculous assumption, as any Catholic then or now could tell you). Romney on the other hand has had to try his hardest to gloss over the differences between the LDS and contemporary evangelical Protestantism and fit his religious beliefs inside a generalized happy Religious Right vibe.
The way Mormons have been treated in this country, historically, is shameful. As much as we Catholics complain about anti-Catholicism in America, some of which continues to this day, at least the president never sent the U.S. Army to force us to conform to Protestant norms. Articles like this are especially disturbing, considering how much Evangelical America has molded itself around the semi-mythological image of poor, oppressed Puritans forced to flee England for new shores because of religious persecution. The Puritans were heroes of freedom and religious liberty who came to America to establish a place where people could worship God as they pleased (provided they wanted to worship a strictly Puritan God). But Catholics fleeing persecution in Ireland, Jews fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe, and Mormons fleeing persecution right here in the United States? Buncha riff-raff traitors and scofflaws.
Whether Romney ends up more like Kennedy in 1960 or Al Smith in 1928 remains to be seen. I've noticed that people on both the right (http://townhall.com/columnists/janetmefferd/2011/10/10/in_defense_of_robert_jeffress_mormonism_is_not_christianity/page/full/) and left (http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2011/10/is_mormonism_a_cult_who_cares_it_s_their_weird_and_sinister_beli.html) have been criticizing and ridiculing Romney's Mormon faith, and it's just plain disgusting. A lot of Republicans here in the South will not vote for Romney, no matter what; they would rather have Obama win a second term than elect a Mormon.
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Date: 6/1/12 22:57 (UTC)The way Mormons have been treated in this country, historically, is shameful. As much as we Catholics complain about anti-Catholicism in America, some of which continues to this day, at least the president never sent the U.S. Army to force us to conform to Protestant norms. Articles like this are especially disturbing, considering how much Evangelical America has molded itself around the semi-mythological image of poor, oppressed Puritans forced to flee England for new shores because of religious persecution. The Puritans were heroes of freedom and religious liberty who came to America to establish a place where people could worship God as they pleased (provided they wanted to worship a strictly Puritan God). But Catholics fleeing persecution in Ireland, Jews fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe, and Mormons fleeing persecution right here in the United States? Buncha riff-raff traitors and scofflaws.
Whether Romney ends up more like Kennedy in 1960 or Al Smith in 1928 remains to be seen. I've noticed that people on both the right (http://townhall.com/columnists/janetmefferd/2011/10/10/in_defense_of_robert_jeffress_mormonism_is_not_christianity/page/full/) and left (http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2011/10/is_mormonism_a_cult_who_cares_it_s_their_weird_and_sinister_beli.html) have been criticizing and ridiculing Romney's Mormon faith, and it's just plain disgusting. A lot of Republicans here in the South will not vote for Romney, no matter what; they would rather have Obama win a second term than elect a Mormon.