Why Jewish Voters Might Like Mitt Romney: His Religion

The Daily Beast ^ | April 7, 2012 | Michael Medved

[Clintonfatigued]

Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith, so often described as an impediment to his political prospects, might work to his advantage with one crucial segment of the electorate: Jewish voters.

The very fact that his Mormonism makes him less popular among evangelical Christians almost certainly makes him more popular among American Jews. Academic analysis of the intersection of religion and politics suggests that Jews maintain a distinctly—and surprisingly—favorable view of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When comparing these figures with the exit polls from major primaries, Romney fares much better among Republican Jews than he does among any other religious group in the GOP, except for his fellow Mormons, of course.

This outcome reflects a surprising study by two prominent professors, Robert D. Putnam of Harvard and David E. Campbell of Notre Dame, concerning public attitudes toward various faith communities. As expected, Mormons scored poorly in terms of their overall popularity, ranking below evangelical Christians, Catholics, and Jews, and ahead of only atheists and Muslims.

Among Jews, on the other hand, Mormons ranked at the very top of the approval list—and Jews viewed Mormons more warmly than did any other respondents in the survey. For those who speculate that this positive attitude might connect with the fervent support for Israel by members of the LDS church, Putnam and Campbell point out that evangelical Christians similarly love Israel, but American Jews in no way love them back.

[chuckee]

The only group Jewish folks care for less than Mormons are Republicans. No matter who the Republican nominee is he will not be getting more than 30% of this group. The only group that votes more in lockstep for Dems are African Americans. Republicans are better sticking to matters of policy than playing the Dem game of group pander.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

[MasterGunner01]

Seventy plus percent of Jews will still vote for Dear Leader. Romneybot may be a Massachusetts liberal Republican, but Obama is a REAL Marxist Donkey. Given the choice, Obama gets the liberal Jewish vote without a doubt.

[Colofornian]

Actually a lot of Jews don't care for Mormons because no matter how many times the Mormon church keeps promising they'll stop baptizing Jewish Holocaust victims, they keep on doing it.

Af_vet_rr has it right...

Track the history of the Mormon "promises" to Jewish groups on this controversial practice:

By the early to mid 1990s, the Mormons had already necro-baptized approximately 380,000 Jewish holocaust victims (Source: Mormons, Jews Sign Agreement On Baptizing Holocaust Victims)

Lds-Jewish Groups finally came to an agreement to stop this practice ... and issued a joint release April 28, 1995, which was run April 29, 1995 in the NY Times: Mormons to End Holocaust Victim Baptism

Latter part of 2002:
Dec. 11, 2002: The Jewish Telegraph Agency reports that: Mormons still baptizing dead Jews

Same day -- latter part of 2002:
Dec. 12, 2002: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints affirmed Wednesday [Dec. 11, 2002] it will NOT PERMIT posthumous baptisms of any people known to be Jewish, including Holocaust victims, albeit with a minute number of exceptions.
Source: LDS Church Reaffirms No Proxy Baptisms of Jews (Salt Lake Trib excerpt)

By February of 2006, it's noted that the Mormons are still at it -- in baptizing both holocaust victims and other Jews: Since 1995, Mormons have performed proxy ordinances for most Jewish notables, including prominent Israeli political figures: Yitzhak Rabin, Moshe Sharett, Golda Meir, David Ben-Gurion and Theodor Herzl--along with hundreds of thousands of other Jews, including multitudes of Jews in the arts, the sciences and in the entertainment field--such as Gilda Radner, the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges. Even Jews on the Titanic, who went into the icy waters of the North Atlantic with the Jewish Shema prayer on their lips, spoken with their last breath, have been proxy baptized and proclaimed as members of the LDS Church.
Source: Proxy Baptism of Jews: The Splash Goes On

Latter part of 2008:
Nov. 10, 2008: The Church stands by its word. It has no intention of performing baptisms or other rites in its temples for Holocaust victims, except in the very rare instances where such people may have living descendants who are members of the Church. Such exceptions were noted and agreed to in 1995. The understanding reached in 1995 determined that the Church would remove Holocaust names from its public database immediately, which the Church has done.
Source: Church Responds to Jewish News Statements

One day later, Nov. 11, 2008: Genealogy Insider: Jewish Group Says Mormons Are Still Baptizing Holocaust Victims

Latter part of 2010:
Sept. 1, 2010: "It is gratifying that the good faith efforts undertaken over the years to deal with an important issue of sensitivity to the Jewish Holocaust survivor community have eliminated a source of tension between our two groups..." Church and Jewish Leaders Resolve Concerns Over Baptisms

So, this "source of tension" has all been "eliminated" once and for all, eh?

Uh, not quite:

Latter part of 2011:
The NY Times was reporting in October of '11 that the Lds church had baptized holocaust victim Anne Frank (done @ a Mormon Dominican Republic temple).
See Anne Frank, a Mormon?
* Hitler baptized as a Mormon

Imagine that...Anne Frank may have, per what the Mormons tell us, "rejected" the Mormon offer of "salvation" in the spirit world...and Hitler may have accepted it...per the Mormons...Hitler would be "saved" & Anne Frank would be doing time in "outer darkness"...

No wonder RedCounty.com was running articles like:
* Could Hitler's Mormon Baptism Destroy Romney?

Then we get to early 2012...

Feb. 14, 2012: ...the Wiesel family names were not submitted for baptisms but simply entered into a genealogical database....names have been submitted in violation of policy. Whether this is done by simple error or for other reasons, the Church considers these submissions to be a serious breach of protocol. Church Statement on Jewish Names Entered in Genealogical Database
And a week later, Feb. 21, 2012: The Church keeps its word and is absolutely firm in its commitment to not accept the names of Holocaust victims for proxy baptism. Church Statement on Violations of Proxy Baptism Policy

(yeah, right)

[Colofornian]

One other note re: how the Jewish groups react to Lds necro-baptisms:

Imagine if you are a Christian -- who believes you have only ONE Savior, Jesus Christ (John describes Jesus as THE Savior in John 4:42 & 1 John 4:14) -- meaning the ONE and ONLY Savior.

And we splashed the earth with a new invention of a new religion...the "Colofornian" religion...and would decided to announce to the world about the millions of post-death Colofornians...all due to our necro-baptizing all Christian ancestors...

And a little more "quietly" on the side...of course...I would announce to my fellow Colofornians that we would be the saviors (plural) of the necro-'Christians.'

What? Not a very provocable "doctrine?"

Why is it that Christians don't seem to regard their Savior, Jesus Christ, with enough veneration...
...that they would just go around and openly "tolerate" us hypothetical Colofornians (minus any objectionable comment)...
...to usurp Jesus as "Savior" of your family members?

You see, the Jewish people provoked by Mormon baptisms actually exercise more respect & veneration for their family members than do Christians showing a definitive lack of respect & veneration for their elder brother Jesus Christ, THE Savior of all truly "in Christ" ones...

For more documenting how Mormons regard themselves as LITERAL PLURAL saviors via necro-baptism, see: Are Mormon people LITERAL saviors of dead Jews, others? (The OTHER World Series: Vanity)

[Clintonfatigued]

I don’t like Romney, but I trust his Christianity more than I trust Obama’s.

[Colofornian]

I don’t like Romney, but I trust his Christianity more than I trust Obama’s.

Epic fail to label Mormonism "Christianity."

Mitt Romney is a direct descendent of Parley P. Pratt, a Mormon "apostle." Mitt Romney's ancestor taught:
"Gods, angels, and men are all of
one species,
one race,
one great family,
widely diffused among the planetary systems as colonies, kingdoms, nations, etc.
Source: The Key to the Science of Theology, 1978, p. 21

So what? Why should Romney be linked to what his ancestors taught? Well, because Romney himself provided such a linkage!

Mitt Romney, Dec, 2007, speaking @ the George Bush Presidential Library: "I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers – I will be true to them and to my beliefs.

Mormon "theology" that essentially says the Mormon man-gods & man-angels bounce around the universe and thereby arrive on planet earth as essentially aliens. And Mitt "confesses" and "professes" this as the "faith...of my fathers - I will be true to them and to my beliefs."

Lds "apostle" John Widtsoe originally published in 1915 called Rational Theology.

Widtsoe in that book slandered God, reducing him to be of slime and then mortal origins:
"God and man are of the same race..." (Widtsoe, p. 61)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Clintonfatigued.

[Clintonfatigued]

How would you define President Obama’s religion?

[Colofornian]

Ill-committed; liberal false “gospel” of “tolerance” & social “gospel” leanings; caters to Muslims

[justiceseeker93]

Perhaps Mitt Romney's relative popularity with Jewish Republicans in this primary season is more a matter of the perception of his being more middle-of-the-road than his challengers, rather than his Mormonism. (Four years ago, Giuliani was much preferred to Romney among Jewish Republicans.)

Of course, Michael Medved, who is an orthodox Jew, has been an unabashed Romney supporter, so his piece may have been written, at least in part, to promote his candidate in the Jewish community.

Medved could also have mentioned that Mitt Romney's father, George, was (from anecdotal information) rather well-liked as a three-term GOP Michigan governor by the state's Jews.

[GladesGuru]

American Jews largely are de facto collectivists, and Romnutz is a collectivist in the Saul Alinsky mold.

Note that American Jews also loved the HillaBeast, and she was also an Alinsky acolyte.

[GladesGuru]

I forgot that Romnutz also gave a $10,000 contribution to a queer outfit, and ....... Romnutz is a well known gun grabber!

May as well vote for Obama and get socialized by a honest socialist.

Yeah, I know “honest” and “socialist” are mutually distinct populations, but it was a mere figure of speech.

[justiceseeker93]

Might as well vote for Obama and get socialized by an honest socialist.

Don't be foolish. Obama is the furthest thing from "honest." Socialism has to be put into effect by lies and deviousness, because that's the only way the majority of the American public would buy it. Like the "Affordable Care Act", which is not "affordable" in any sense, which had to be voted on in the dead of night in order to pass the House, and which required bribes to pass the Senate under "reconciliation."

Romney certainly has his warts, but he has a distinctly different approach to foreign policy and to economic growth compared to Zero.

[GladesGuru]

You saw my error with “honest socialist”! Sorry, I didn’t post a /sarc.

:-)

Better to have the coming cultural/race war while there are still some who understand the Constitution and don’t have a “Deer-N-Da-Headlites” look when the term “American Exceptionalism” is used.

[blasater1960]

Medved is very out of touch I’m afraid...Jews have no idea what mormons believe and the Obama camp will make sure everyone knows every weirdo doctrine by October. The MSM will love nothing more than to help him out.

[Hildy]

You’re problem, like so many here, is you only see this through your conservative eyes. Yes, he divides the Conservative community.. But he is a viable candidate for moderate Democrats and Independents. This article is correct. Jews will be able to vote for Romney. Could not say that for Gingrich or Santorum. I know this because I have friends and family who have told me this.

[PRePublic]

interesting.

[stpio]

We have to keep praying, this hasn’t been the best week.

A SPIRITUAL WARFARE QUOTABLE

“THE NATURE OF THE ENEMY’S WARFARE IN YOUR LIFE IS TO CAUSE YOU TO

BECOME DISCOURAGED AND CAST AWAY YOUR CONFIDENCE, TO GIVE UP YOUR

HOPE OF GOD’S DELIVERANCE. THE ENEMY WANTS TO NUMB YOU INTO A COPING

KIND OF CHRISTIANITY THAT HAS GIVEN UP HOPE OF SEEING GOD’S RESURRECTION

POWER.”

BOB SORGE

[TheOldLady]

Click any Horse

Wild Horses Couldn’t Drag You Away From Free Republic
So Why Not Donate Monthly to Keep Things Going Strong?

Sponsors will pony up $10 each time a new monthly donor signs up