Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman and the GOP: America is ready for a Mormon president
Telegraph UK ^ | June 3, 2011 | Tim Stanley

Posted on 06/03/2011 8:00:10 AM PDT by greyfoxx39

The GOP race now has two Mormon candidates – Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman. Predictably, the question of whether or not America is ready for a Mormon President has been raised on both sides of the Atlantic. To be fair to the critics, the theology and history of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints is a little eccentric.


-SNIP-


But Romney and Huntsman should not run away from their church. Indeed, they would do well to put it front and centre of their campaigns, to challenge the fragile tolerance of the 21st century electorate. They should seize this opportunity to promote a much-maligned and misunderstood faith – a faith that, coincidentally, could have electoral benefits. Mormons tend to be well-educated and surprisingly cosmopolitan people.


-SNIP-


Romney and Huntsman could exploit the Church of Latter-Day Saints’ history of terrible persecution. Joseph Smith and his army of wives were driven from state to state, fleeing angry mobs wherever he settled. In 1844, the prophet was dragged from jail by an angry mob and murdered. His killers were acquitted by sympathetic juries. The Mormons have a narrative of suffering and survival against the odds that makes their story far more universal than their peculiar theology suggests. 


-SNIP-


The story of persecution would play well among a Christian minority who feel similarly neglected, or oppressed, by the modern liberal state. The Church’s reputation for social conservatism could help cover up the flip-flopping that Romney has pulled off on abortion.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Utah
KEYWORDS: huntsman; inman; mormon; persecution; romney
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121 next last
To: LegendHasIt
My point was: All the Mormons I know are hardcore conservatives. Socially and fiscally. Romney and Huntsman are not. Therefore are “Not the Mormons that we are ready for”. I agree that Romney and Huntsman are, by their actions, centrist leaning Democrats : i.e. Populist / RINOs

I agree with your observations re: mutt and huntsman - populist RINOS. Yet the mormon community in 2008 voted 90%+ for mutt. Were they voting their 'conservatism' or their religion? If they were the social/fiscial conservatives you say - then they voted based on religion and not conservatism.

81 posted on 06/03/2011 11:05:06 AM PDT by Godzilla (3-7-77)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: Colofornian

Don’t worry about it. Its not going to happen. Get upset about something else.


82 posted on 06/03/2011 11:25:00 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: laweeks; camle; KarlInOhio; Antoninus; chargers fan; Ingtar; Red Badger; Brookhaven; ...
* I don't give a flying rat's ass about being a Mormon. [laweeks]

* ...we may be ready for a mormon prez...[camle, post #3]

* Could I accept a Mormon president? Yes, but not the two who are running. [karlinohio, post #6]

* I'd have no trouble voting for a Morman. [Antoninus, post #8]

* Not saying I’d vote for Romney in the primary (I’m a Cain guy myself) but I’d vote for a Mormon, Catholic, Jewish, Hindu... shoot even Buddist president if they are commited to the principles of the free market, personal liberty, and the Constitution. [Chargers fan, post #10]

* Find me a good candidate who is also LDS, and I will support them... [Ingtar, post #16]

* Who gives a damn what their religion is? It’s their policy that matters. [Red Badger, post #39]

* Romney's religious beliefs are the least of his problems; [Brookhaven, post #42]

* For me, it is not an issue of being Mormon. [ridesthemiles, post #45]

My new tagline: I already have a God as my leader. Why do I need ANOTHER one as POTUS?

I guess my question for most of those I pinged -- and referenced their posts above:

If a certain Rev. Wright...
...had given a certain sermon...
...when Obama was a member under his spiritual tutelage...
...& the sermon content proclaimed Obama as THE Messiah...
...why would such a sacrilege be suddenly "irrelevant" to so many FREEPERS?

There's just no way we would have had the liberal campus advisement of "tolerance of all things religious" come out from FREEPERS had Wright said such a thing about Obama. FREEPERS would have been all over that!

What way too many FREEPERS wouldn't stand for a Democrat saying..."I am -- or He is -- the Messiah...I am or He is a god"...is suddenly A-OK if a "conservative" proclaims it?

You mean to tell me that it's irrelevant to you if your one-day fave candidate -- as long as he has other "conservative" credentials...thinks he's a baby god on his way to full-grown godhood?

83 posted on 06/03/2011 11:41:33 AM PDT by Colofornian (I already have a God as my leader. Why do I need ANOTHER one as POTUS?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: MrB

....But... since they have “Jesus Christ” in their long name, they’re “Christians”...

No they’re not! muslims revere Jesus as a “prophet”, but that doesn’t make them “Christians”, does it?

Mormonism has a lot in common with islam.

As for Mormon theocracy and land-claims, lookie here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Deseret


84 posted on 06/03/2011 11:42:26 AM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Utah Binger
I got the garment check at least ten times that day

Ouch!

:^)

85 posted on 06/03/2011 11:44:00 AM PDT by Regulator (Watch Out! Americans are on the March! America Forever, Mexico Never!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Zakeet

The Book of Mormon (BOM) has been scientifically falsified.

The BOM states that the American Indians are descendants of the Israelites. However, modern genetics shows that the Indians are descendants of Siberians, not Israelites or any other Middle Eastern or Mediterranean people.

Mormons, many of whom are good people, need to deal with the issue of the utter falsity of their scriptures other than the Bible. I do not see any mass exodus from Mormonism as of yet, however.


86 posted on 06/03/2011 11:52:30 AM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: greyfoxx39

87 posted on 06/03/2011 11:57:07 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: greyfoxx39
To be fair to the critics, the theology and history of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints is a little eccentric.

I'm a little bit pregnant.


88 posted on 06/03/2011 11:59:49 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: greyfoxx39
They should seize this opportunity to promote a much-maligned and misunderstood faith – a faith that, coincidentally, could have electoral benefits.

Hang on!

You soon will begin to UNDERSTAND this 'faith' and the reasons that it is MALIGNED!

I'm not so sure about the BENEFITs though...

89 posted on 06/03/2011 12:01:41 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Colofornian

If the candidate believes we are all descended from baboons and are waiting for a spaceship to take us back to the home planet is irrelevant. Religious beliefs are all based on faith............


90 posted on 06/03/2011 12:02:57 PM PDT by Red Badger (I killed Schrodinger's Cat with Occam's Razor.................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies]

To: greyfoxx39
Romney and Huntsman could exploit the Church of Latter-Day Saints’ history of terrible persecution. Joseph Smith and his army of wives were driven from state to state, fleeing angry mobs wherever he settled. In 1844, the prophet was dragged from jail by an angry mob and murdered. His killers were acquitted by sympathetic juries. The Mormons have a narrative of suffering and survival against the odds that makes their story far more universal than their peculiar theology suggests.

poor babies!!

(WHERE was the BARF alert?)

91 posted on 06/03/2011 12:03:04 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: yldstrk
One wife for life, no beliefs that you will become a “god” when you croak.

You inadvertantly got that right!


Romans 7:2 (niv)

For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.

92 posted on 06/03/2011 12:05:09 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: MissMack99
...is the second to last thing America is ready for (another term of zero being the last).

Penultimate is the word..................

93 posted on 06/03/2011 12:05:41 PM PDT by Red Badger (I killed Schrodinger's Cat with Occam's Razor.................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Tennessee Nana
Romney and Huntsman could exploit the Church of Latter-Day Saints’ history of terrible persecution.

How?

After all, that printing press thing seems like something they'd want to downplay; along with MORMONism's founder's penchant for lying, cheating, scamming and false prophecying.

Then there is that little thing about the Fancher party, Danites and polygamy: which is STILL 'scriptural'!

94 posted on 06/03/2011 12:09:14 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Zakeet
...the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.

Did SOMEone say BLACKNESS??





 

"You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind.

The first man that committed the odious crime of killing one of his brethren will be cursed the longest of any one of the children of Adam. Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings.

This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then another curse is pronounced upon the same race--that they should be the 'servant of servants', and they will be, until that curse is removed."

Brigham Young-President and second 'Prophet' of the Mormon Church, 1844-1877- Extract from Journal of Discourses.



Here are two examples from their 'other testament', the Book of Mormon.

  2 Nephi 5: 21    'And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people, the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.'

  Alma 3: 6    'And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren, who consisted of Nephi, Jacob and Joseph, and Sam, who were just and holy men.'



 

August 27, 1954 in an address at Brigham Young University (BYU), Mormon Elder, Mark E Peterson, in speaking to a convention of teachers of religion at the college level, said:

"The discussion on civil rights, especially over the last 20 years, has drawn some very sharp lines. It has blinded the thinking of some of our own people, I believe. They have allowed their political affiliations to color their thinking to some extent.I think I have read enough to give you an idea of what the Negro is after."

"He is not just seeking the opportunity of sitting down in a cafe where white people eat. He isn't just trying to ride on the same streetcar or the same Pullman car with white people. It isn't that he just desires to go to the same theater as the white people. From this, and other interviews I have read, it appears that the Negro seeks absorption with the white race. He will not be satisfied until he achieves it by intermarriage."

"That is his objective and we must face it. We must not allow our feelings to carry us away, nor must we feel so sorry for Negroes that we will open our arms and embrace them with everything we have. Remember the little statement that we used to say about sin, 'First we pity, then endure, then embrace'...."

(Rosa Parks would have probably told Petersen under which wheel of the bus he should go sit.)



 1967, (then) Mormon President Ezra Taft Benson said,

"The Communist program for revolution in America has been in progress for many years and is far advanced. First of all, we must not place the blame upon Negroes. They are merely the unfortunate group that has been selected by professional Communist agitators to be used as the primary source of cannon fodder."



We are told that on June 8, 1978, it was 'revealed' to the then president, Spencer Kimball, that people of color could now gain entry into the priesthood.

According to the church, Kimball spent many long hours petitioning God, begging him to give worthy black people the priesthood. God finally relented.



Sometime before the 'revelation' came to chief 'Prophet' Spencer Kimball in June 1978, General Authority, Bruce R McConkie had said:

"The Blacks are denied the Priesthood; under no circumstances can they hold this delegation of authority from the Almighty.

The Negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain blessings are concerned, particularly the priesthood and the temple blessings that flow there from, but this inequality is not of man's origin, it is the Lord's doings."

(Mormon Doctrine, pp. 526-527).



When Mormon 'Apostle' Mark E Petersen spoke on 'Race Problems- As they affect the Church' at the BYU campus in 1954, the following was also said:

"...if the negro accepts the gospel with real, sincere faith, and is really converted, to give him the blessings of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get celestial glory."



When Mormon 'Prophet' and second President of the Church, Brigham Young, spoke in 1863 the following was also said:

"Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God is death on the spot. This will always be so."

(Journal of Discourses, Vo. 10, p. 110)




95 posted on 06/03/2011 12:12:03 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Tennessee Nana
Joseph Smith and his army of wives

           Decisions decisions!

 
Fanny Alger
Lucinda Morgan Harris
Louisa Beaman
Zina Huntington Jacobs
Presendia Huntington Buell
Agnes Coolbrith
Sylvia Sessions Lyon
Mary Rollins Lightner
Patty Bartlett Sessions
Marinda Johnson Hyde
Elizabeth Davis Durfee
Sarah Kingsley Cleveland
Delcena Johnson
Eliza R. Snow
Sarah Ann Whitney
Martha McBride Knight
Ruth Vose Sayers
Flora Ann Woodworth
Emily Dow Partridge
Eliza Maria Partridge
Almera Johnson
Lucy Walker
Sarah Lawrence
Maria Lawrence
Helen Mar Kimball
Hanna Ells
Elvira Cowles Holmes
Rhoda Richards
Desdemona Fullmer
Olive Frost
Melissa Lott
Nancy Winchester
Fanny Young
 
Emma Hale only!!
 
 


96 posted on 06/03/2011 12:13:17 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: aMorePerfectUnion
How DARE you put WORDS in my mouth, AMPU!!

It is ony I that can put words into GOD's mouth!


97 posted on 06/03/2011 12:15:50 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Honorary Serb

I guess you missed the inherent sarcasm tag.


98 posted on 06/03/2011 12:16:51 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 84 | View Replies]

To: LegendHasIt
I’ve liked and respected every Mormon I have known, even halfway considered converting, despite some of their ritual oddities.

A little nooky and you'd have bitten the bullet; Glenn!

99 posted on 06/03/2011 12:17:50 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: Georgia Girl 2
If Bachmann or Cain turn Mormon I guess I could live with it.

I HIGHLY recommend not DYING with it!

100 posted on 06/03/2011 12:18:58 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson