Mormons try to brush up image while in spotlight

[Holly3278]

(CBS News) The Mormon Church reached a milestone today, as Jon Huntsman Jr. joined the presidential race, adding a second Mormon to the growing field of candidates. Mormon Mitt Romney is also campaigning for the White House.

So what does this mean for the church?

cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/21/earlyshow/main20072948.shtml

Personally, I do not want a Mormon president. However, I’d rather have a Mormon president than a liberal Democrat who would be pro-abortion. At least most Mormons are somewhat pro-life and against gay marriage.

 

[Caldera]

Mitt Romney will not have my vote.

 

[Holly3278]

Mitt Romney will not have my vote.

He won’t have mine either unless he is the best candidate when it comes to the five non-negotiable issues of:

1. 
   *]Abortion
   *]Embryonic Stem Cell Research
   *]Gay Marriage
   *]Human Cloning
   *]Death Penalty
   
   If he is the best candidate on those issues, he will get my vote.

 

[heathernoel]

He won’t have mine either unless he is the best candidate when it comes to the five non-negotiable issues of:

1. 
   *]Abortion
   *]Embryonic Stem Cell Research
   *]Gay Marriage
   *]Human Cloning
   *]Death Penalty
   
   If he is the best candidate on those issues, he will get my vote.

1. 
   Amen!

 

[FightingFat]

He won’t have mine either unless he is the best candidate when it comes to the five non-negotiable issues of:

1. 
   *]Abortion
   *]Embryonic Stem Cell Research
   *]Gay Marriage
   *]Human Cloning
   *]Death Penalty
   
   If he is the best candidate on those issues, he will get my vote.

1. 
   What happens if he isn’t? Who will you vote for then?

 

[ANNE_2]

He won’t have mine either unless he is the best candidate when it comes to the five non-negotiable issues of:

1. 
   *]Abortion
   *]Embryonic Stem Cell Research
   *]Gay Marriage
   *]Human Cloning
   *]Death Penalty
   
   If he is the best candidate on those issues, he will get my vote.

1. 
   Holly,** both the **Catechism of the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict do NOT put the “Death Penalty” in with absolute or non-negotiable issues.
   
   CCC- " 2267 Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor."
   
   " 3. Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia.
   For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion.
   While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment.
   There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia." - - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
   
   SEE " Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion - General Principles
   priestsforlife.org/magisterium/bishops/04-07ratzingerommunion.htm
   
   Euthanasia is one of the five non-negotiables.

 

[valentino]

Other than confessing a believe in John Smith and seeing Jesus as a prophet only what image do they show?Ive seen their tv broadcasts and ive never heard anything objectional.

 

[wisdomseeker]

He won’t have mine either unless he is the best candidate when it comes to the five non-negotiable issues of:

1. 
   *]Abortion
   *]Embryonic Stem Cell Research
   *]Gay Marriage
   *]Human Cloning
   *]Death Penalty
   
   If he is the best candidate on those issues, he will get my vote.

1. 
   what is the problem with death penalty? God puts authority on the world to punish those who commits transgression against the innocent.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Other than confessing a believe in John Smith and seeing Jesus as a prophet only what image do they show?Ive seen their tv broadcasts and ive never heard anything objectional.

The Mormon religion is a curious thing, since their president can, and does have “revelations” that can change things a lot. There is plenty in the seminal Mormon documents that a person could worry about if somehow a militant form of Mormonism got firm control of the country. But the likelihood of that happening is virtually nil; first because most modern Mormons aren’t all that into literal interpretation of the aggressive early writings. Second, because, whle their numbers grow, Mormons are still a very small minority in this country.

There are positive aspects that have been mentioned. It’s also at least passingly interesting that there are a significant number of Mormons who attend the more traditional Catholic colleges and grad schools, where they get to know truly devoted Catholic young people. They think a lot better of faithful Catholicism than most people realize.

Personally, I have no use for the Mormon religion at all. Zero. But it’s certainly not weirder than the Watchtower Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses) or “Womanchurch”.

 

[Marie5890]

The LDS Church made great strides under Pres. Gordon B Hinkley in becoming more mainstream and less fringe. He was very good at PR and took the church in a direction that made it more accepting to every day Americans.

Mormons are good people. Very patriotic and care very much about remaining true to what they see as the vision of the founding fathers.

I vote as per their policies positions on the issues (including social) of any given candidate and not their religious affiliation.

 

[Marie5890]

The Mormon religion is a curious thing, since their president can, and does have “revelations” that can change things a lot. There is plenty in the seminal Mormon documents that a person could worry about if somehow a militant form of Mormonism got firm control of the country. But the likelihood of that happening is virtually nil; first because most modern Mormons aren’t all that into literal interpretation of the aggressive early writings. Second, because, whle their numbers grow, Mormons are still a very small minority in this country.

There are positive aspects that have been mentioned. It’s also at least passingly interesting that there are a significant number of Mormons who attend the more traditional Catholic colleges and grad schools, where they get to know truly devoted Catholic young people. They think a lot better of faithful Catholicism than most people realize.

Personally, I have no use for the Mormon religion at all. Zero. But it’s certainly not weirder than the Watchtower Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses) or “Womanchurch”.

Thank you. Yes, having been both a TBM Mormon and devout Catholic I can tell you as a whole Mormons tend to be very faithful people to their church and are great citizens. When I attended BYU, one thing that was very strong is how much the government recriuts the students because they are so patriotic, loyal, faithful. Washington DC has a very high LDS population because of their extreme and dependable patrioticism

 

[SalesianSDB]

I don’t vote based on what religion a candidate is, but rather, what they stand for.

Persecuting a Mormon candidate because you fear Salt Lake City’s influence is like what they did to Kennedy fearing the Vatican’s influence on him.

Here is a speech Mitt Romney gave in 2007 regarding his faith and his candidacy.
“Faith in America”
youtube.com/watch?v=WO1m_Knaq6c

 

[Marie5890]

I don’t vote based on what religion a candidate is, but rather, what they stand for.

Persecuting a Mormon candidate because you fear Salt Lake City’s influence is like what they did to Kennedy fearing the Vatican’s influence on him.

Here is a speech Mitt Romney gave in 2007 regarding his faith and his candidacy.
“Faith in America”
youtube.com/watch?v=WO1m_Knaq6c

Emphasis mine. People forget how Kennedy being a Catholic was a HUGE issue back in 1960 campaign.

Over the course of American history, both the anti-Catholic and anti-Mormon sentiments in our nation aren’t something we as Americans we should be proud of.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Thank you. Yes, having been both a TBM Mormon and devout Catholic I can tell you as a whole Mormons tend to be very faithful people to their church and are great citizens. When I attended BYU, one thing that was very strong is how much the government recriuts the students because they are so patriotic, loyal, faithful. Washington DC has a very high LDS population because of their extreme and dependable patrioticism

Interesting. I had a grad school roommate who ultimately ended up in a fairly high office within the intelligence structure. He told me all the intelligence agencies like to recruit Mormons and traditional Catholics because the agencies know what their morals and beliefs are and can generally trust them to follow them.

 

[valentino]

The Mormon religion is a curious thing, since their president can, and does have “revelations” that can change things a lot. There is plenty in the seminal Mormon documents that a person could worry about if somehow a militant form of Mormonism got firm control of the country. But the likelihood of that happening is virtually nil; first because most modern Mormons aren’t all that into literal interpretation of the aggressive early writings. Second, because, whle their numbers grow, Mormons are still a very small minority in this country.

There are positive aspects that have been mentioned. It’s also at least passingly interesting that there are a significant number of Mormons who attend the more traditional Catholic colleges and grad schools, where they get to know truly devoted Catholic young people. They think a lot better of faithful Catholicism than most people realize.

Personally, I have no use for the Mormon religion at all. Zero. But it’s certainly not weirder than the Watchtower Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses) or “Womanchurch”.

Do you mean he personally said that he’s had revelations ?has he ever revealed what they were?

 

[Marie5890]

Interesting. I had a grad school roommate who ultimately ended up in a fairly high office within the intelligence structure. He told me all the intelligence agencies like to recruit Mormons and traditional Catholics because the agencies know what their morals and beliefs are and can generally trust them to follow them.

Yes that is true. Also many Mormons, esp the young men, are bi-lingual because of their missions.

All Mormon males of the age of 19 are expected to serve 2 year missions for the church. So many are bi-lingual. Take now-presidential candidate Jon Huntsman. He served his mission in Taiwan and that is why he was able to be Obama’s ambassador to China. Mitt Romeny served his in France, so I am guessing he can still speak French. Those are all big pluses for recruitment, esp within intelligence. Several times I was interviewed by govern agencies for friends who were being vetted for jobs.

 

[Marie5890]

Do you mean he personally said that he’s had revelations ?has he ever revealed what they were?

The last time to my knowledge that one of the LDS presidents claimed a major revelation was when the priesthood was opened to Blacks back in '78 when Spencer W Kimball was pres.

That being said, yes they still do claim revelations and every year the LDS membership in what is known as General Conference, support and sustain the president of the church as well as the 1st Presidency and the Qurom of 12 Apostles as “prophets, seers, and revelators”

I would expect that one could claim when a new temple is announced in those conference or a change in the temple ceremony (there was a change while I was LDS. I was part of that generation that got to see both latter 20th century versions. There have been changes even prior to the '89 change)

 

[spellinggirl]

The 2012 election will be the first presidential election I will be old enough to vote in.

I’ve grappled with the religion issue in regards to a future president quite a bit. I have some very close friends who are Mormon, and their generally conservative views are in line with mine, but… I don’t know, the religion creeps me out a little bit.

I know it would be like discriminating against JFK because he was Catholic (not that he was a good one), but Mitt Romney will probably not be getting my vote. :twocents: