Free Republic

How America got used to his religion, and mine.On the night of the South Carolina Republican primary in January, I sat near the front of a dark campaign press bus and listened to reporters talk about Mitt Romney's underwear.Earlier in the day, one of them had happened upon the candidate and his wife doing laundry in the basement of our Columbia, South Carolina, hotel, and a small cluster of colleagues had now gathered to listen to him relate the anecdote, lapping up every mundane detail of this rare interaction with the closed-off couple.Finally, another reporter interrupted."Did you see their underwear?"...

MessageToEagle.com - Normally, as a matter of personal preference I don’t get into politics, but when we have a presidential campaign that begins to cross over into the strange twilight zone of religious weirdness that centers on the one person who’s going to control the most powerful government and army on the face of the earth, well, it brings up some unusual scenarios to wonder about. It is being reported in the media today that former presidential candidate Mitt Romney only wrote a victory speech for Election Day; presumably a harried, last minute scramble to revise his speech was being...

Governor Mitt Romney prepares to take the stage during his introduction at an airport rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Oct. 24, 2012. Photo by Eric Draper/Mitt Romney for President.

Mitt Romney weighed in for the first time on the Democratic platform initially removing the word “God," saying that was something he would never do. Romney began a campaign appearance in Virginia Beach, Va. on Saturday by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before turning to the platform controversy. “That pledge says “under God,” and I will not take God out of our platform,” Romney said to cheers. “I will not take God off our coins, and I will not take God out of my heart.” During their convention in Charlotte, the Democrats' platform was changed from 2008 to remove references...

<p>In recent decades the Republican Party has made a person’s religious beliefs an issue for election to political office, despite the First Amendment to the Constitution explicitly forbidding this [bullshit misstatement of the 1st amendment].</p> <p>For the Republicans, that requirement is a person must be a Christian. Mitt Romney has chosen staunch Roman Catholic Paul Ryan as his running mate. That should help divert some of the concern about Romney himself being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — a Mormon.</p>

When the Obama campaign released its much-anticipated Dashboard platform last May, it was touted as a potentially revolutionary organizing tool that would connect supporters, and merge online activism with real-life grassroots campaigning. It can also be used as a platform to launch whispering campaigns, as one user proved this week. On Monday, a "team member" named Laurence De Palma, who lists his location as East Nashville, presented volunteers with some talking points to convince Southern Christian voters they shouldn't vote for a Mormon. The message was available under "Resources" and tagged "persuasion." "I'm thinking that even though we don't LIKE...

A recent AT article predicted that the Obama campaign would play the Mormon Church card after Labor Day. It's begun early. On June 25, 2012, an American Thinker article entitled "Obama Campaign's Hole Card: Romney's Church" predicted that, through its loyal supporters in the liberal media, the Obama campaign would play Romney's affiliation with the Mormon Church against him. In part, the article read: And, as November nears, does anyone think that the two Davids -- Plouffe and Axelrod -- will hesitate to play it [the Mormon Church card] after Labor Day? Of course, they won't play it face-up, overtly....

The four minute segment that appeared on "World News" tonight is part one of a two part series on the Mormon Church.

I live in a beautiful rural valley of 700 people in eastern Idaho and after I came to live here I found out that Utah isn't the only place that is fifty percent Mormon. As a compulsively inquisitive geo-political junkie I decided to look through the Book of Mormon so I could learn a little about the belief of my neighbors. As with any outsider looking into another's faith, I found many outlandish passages that would require faith to swallow, however, this is a characteristic that all religions share. What I have learned of my Mormon neighbors in the years...

...Romney keeps his focus simple: fix the economy. But others are fixated on something else: his faith. SNIP Some call it a cult... Yet Mormons call themselves Christians, which raises eyebrows, especially within evangelical circles. Shawn McCraney is a former Mormon who now hosts a show called, 'Heart of the Matter," where he witnesses to Mormons in Salt Lake City. "...I didn't know the Lord and that led me to an internal angst." "What happened was I came to realize that there was nothing I could do to get myself right before God -- where with Mormonism...it's you have to...

WASHINGTON — Concerning Mormons and Republicans, history offers a large helping of irony. In 1843, an Army officer named John C. Fremont led a geographical expedition of 39 men more than 1,700 miles to the shores of the Great Salt Lake. His report on the journey inspired hounded Mormons to mount their wagons and resettle in the Great Basin. Thirteen years later in Philadelphia, Fremont became the first presidential nominee of the Republican Party, which adopted a platform opposing the "twin relics of barbarism — Polygamy, and Slavery." The slogan, and the anti-Mormon sentiment behind it, caught on. A Republican...

A direct descendant of Brigham Young, Sue Emmett left the church because of the very values she says would make Romney a frightening president. She speaks exclusively with Jamie Reno. A direct descendant of Brigham Young, Sue Emmett left the church because of the very values she says would make Romney a frightening president. She speaks exclusively with Jamie Reno. Sue Emmett is Mormon royalty. Her great-great-grandfather was Brigham Young, the founder of Salt Lake City, first governor of Utah, and president and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) from 1847 until his death in...

In a speech to a wounded nation, presidential hopeful Mitt Romney returned to his roots of faith in the face of a national tragedy.-SNIP-The Bible-laden references in Romney's speech also signal to evangelicals who worry about his Mormon faith that he is drawing from a familiar text."I think he's growing more comfortable and today's speech is further evidence of that, talking about his faith in the public arena," said Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council. -SNIP- There are still undoubtedly theological tensions between Mormons and evangelicals that won't be resolved in the presidential campaign. "Most of...

When Mitt Romney embarked on his first political race in 1994, he also slipped into a humble new role in the Mormon congregation he once led. -SNIP- Mr. Romney’s penchant for rules mirrors that of his church, where he once excommunicated adulterers and sometimes discouraged mothers from working outside the home. -SNIP-Clayton M. Christensen, a business professor at Harvard and a friend from church, said the question that drove the Sunday school classes — how to apply Mormon gospel in the wider world — also drives Mr. Romney’s life. When Mr. Romney’s former Sunday school students listen to him campaign,...

-snip- 62% [of mormons] say that Americans are “uninformed” about the religion. Yet the reluctance of most Mormons to discuss their beliefs and customs with non-members only adds to secular suspicion that the church is a cult. -snip- Romney would also be assigned two “home teachers” — fellow Mormons who live in his vicinity and would visit with Romney once a month, probably in the White House, to counsel him on his faith and general emotional state -snip- Less than two hours after my visit — despite giving staffers only my first name and filling out no paperwork — I...

It's often taken for granted that Christian conservatives' uneasiness with Mormonism best explains why Mitt Romney has struggled to win-over those voters. In Inside the Circus, a new e-book about the 2012 campaign by Politico's Mike Allen and Evan Thomas, the Romney campaign is depicted as so consumed with worry that the candidate's faith would hurt him with the evangelicals that dominated the Iowa caucuses that it failed to anticipate Rick Santorum's rise. "Part of the reason for the ceiling [of support], quite frankly, is the Mormon thing," a Romney aide told the authors. "If he was even an Episcopalian,...

As I have repeated since 2008, what is taking place here is spiritual. Darkness is falling on America. God has been patient and now we are choosing death because we love lies more than the truth. Regardless of whether we choose the "less of two evils in 2012, Obama and Romney are nevertheless going to destroy this country from within. We have been hearing about the “slippery slope” of legislating homosexual "marriage". One of the most common conservative responses to the issue is "What's next, polygamy?" Well, yes. If Mitt Romney is nominated and somehow elected (which I highly doubt),...

Much has been made about Mormonism, now that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney looks to be on his way to the Republican presidential nomination. But should he win the general election in November, would it be accurate to say that Romney is a Christian president? On Sunday’s “This Week” on ABC, fill-in host Jake Tapper posed the question of Romney’s religion to Rick Warren, the pastor of the California mega-church, Saddleback Church. “Mitt Romney will almost certainly be the Republican nominee and if that happens, which it looks like it will, he’ll be the first member of Church of Jesus...

Much of Mitt Romney’s life as a Mormon missionary in France was not as poor or arduous as he has claimed, say those who knew him at the time. It was a rare reflection by Mitt Romney on his life as a young Mormon, offered as proof to struggling Americans that despite being born into privilege and amassing a $250 million fortune, he too had known hard times. A day after being labelled “out of touch” for casually offering a $10,000 bet to a rival candidate, Mr Romney told supporters he had experienced austerity as a missionary in France, using...

Google "Romney's Mormon problem" and you'll receive thousands of references to what the conventional wisdom says is the Republican presidential candidate's greatest liability among his party's largest voting bloc, religious conservatives. In the eyes of many Christians, Mitt Romney's Mormon faith is incompatible with Christian theology. Ironically, however, Romney can reassure skeptical Christian conservatives by stressing his Mormon values. That's because Mormonism is strongly associated with conservative positions on social issues such as abortion and marriage -- the very issues that are the greatest source of doubt about Romney among religious conservatives. As a member of the Church of Jesus...