The American Spectator

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The Mormon Ticket

2.15.08 @ 12:01AM

BENEFITING FROM DOUBT
Re: Christopher Orlet's No Mormons Need Apply:

Romney was the only conservative elephant in the room with a chance to win the nominee, but his religion was the only elephant in the room many chose to see. How many? More than enough to lose in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina. Denying the obvious does not move us forward, but confronting it hopefully will.
-- Jeffrey Lawrence

A lot of what Mr. Orlet says is probably correct, maybe all of it. As the Washington Post once infamously said or as I paraphrase, We Evangelicals pride ourselves on being faithful to our Holy Word and are usually pretty fine patriotic folk but we sometimes are not the brightest bulbs and also are sometimes easily led (by false prophets?). Mitt Romney was by the far the best candidate in either party both as good man and with the capability to lead us through the difficult times ahead. But democracy is not always fair or easy.
-- Jack Wheatley
Royal Oak, Michigan

I'm not a Latter Day Saint, but the prejudice shown towards Mitt Romney, because of his faith was disgusting. What is more revolting it that some of it was done in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for political reasons. Tragically, the Republican Party was dragged into the gutter of religious intolerance inhabited by Democrats thanks to a few small minded hypocrites and a sleazy politician. I'd vote for an atheist or Muslim if his or her politics were acceptable. One's faith is a personal matter and while it will undoubtedly influence their political decisions it is not a harbinger of how they will govern. Jimmy Carter was a Baptist, but he governed like a typical intolerant, small-minded, and anti-religious Democrat.

Sadly, this is what happens when we fail to understand there is a conservative side to separation of church and state. The wall of separation of church and state (as envisioned by Thomas Jefferson) should not and does not exclude people of faith from participating in our Democratic system or faith-based groups impacting government or society. Simply, it should keep the state from subjugating religion or religion from usurping power and creating a theocracy. As our founders recognized one cannot separate a person from their faith nor is it wise to separate our faith from decision making even in elected officials. But it can be healthy in a republican government to have a bit of tension between these two institutions to preserve freedom.

Mitt Romney was not on the way to creating a "Mormon" Mecca. They have that in Salt Lake City. He wasn't demanding that the Book of Mormon become the Constitution of the United States. Nor was he asking that any of us ascribe to his system of worship. Would LDS values of hard work, thrift and family have influenced his Presidency? Had there been a Romney Presidency I hope they would. Who can castigate these simple all American values?

There is no religious test to serve as an elected official in the United States. Unfortunately, some people on the left and now apparently the right believe there should be. That is not the American or Republican way and it never should be. Those who have brought this garbage into the Republican Party should leave the GOP and join the Democrat party where they can happily vote for the "public theologian" Barack Obama or the lazier faire Methodist Hillary Rodham Clinton.
--Michael Tomlinson
Jacksonville, North Carolina

I believe Mr. Orlet is right in his analysis of Mitt Romney, but I would take it one step further. I suspect for many voters, their vote against Romney wasn't so much because they were anti-Mormon but because their perception -- largely due to the mainstream media fanning the flames -- that too many others would be anti-Mormon therefore rendering Romney "unelectable" in the general election.

If the mainstream media were consistent (a fantasy to be sure), they would continually hound our liberal Senate Leader Harry Reid for his Mormonism. Why don't they? Though Reid does not condone abortion (Google it), the MSM prefers his liberalism in all other respects.

But a true conservative like Romney comes along, and he's accused of flip-flopping on the abortion issue. The MSM in their "objectivity" is merely reporting anti-Mormon statements. This makes it so much easier for people like Huckabee to make a snide comment about Mormons, knowing the MSM will pick it up and do all the dirty work.

The conservative talk show hosts, who were openly pro-Romney leading up to Super Tuesday, should have spoken up sooner. However, I doubt it would have made any difference. With the MSM amplifying the anti-Mormon rhetoric, Romney never had a chance.
-- Paul Lindberg
American Fork, Utah

While Romney's faith was a factor for many (myself included), I do not believe that it was the major factor in his not winning the GOP nomination. While I have my problems with Mormon theology, I was more than willing to vote for Romney in a contest against McCain and Huckabee because he was the last candidate who at least espoused conservatives principles throughout the campaign.

Romney's biggest problem was Mike Huckabee, in that Huckabee was able to siphon off conservative voters that would not go for McCain. By splitting the conservative vote, Huckabee allowed the moderate/independent vote to have a greater than average impact in the nomination process; the vote splitting allowed people who will most likely vote Democratic in November to effectively choose their opponent for the general election. Maybe Huckabee thought he could win, maybe it was collusion between McCain and Huckabee; whatever it was, the McCain-Huckabee alliance was too much for Romney to overcome.

Oh yeah, former Presidential candidate Joseph Smith was a victim of a lynch mob to be sure, but he was no innocent victim. Joseph and Hyrum Smith were in jail for providing perjured affidavits that they were not engaged in polygamy or adultery, and having the newspaper (the Nauvoo Expositor) declared a public nuisance and destroyed. They were also under arrest for the crime of treason for having called out the Nauvoo Legion, the local militia, to prevent them from being arrested for their previous crime. That does not justify mob justice, but it does give a bit more context to what happened and why.
-- Eric Edwards
Walnut Cove, North Carolina

For the record, I voted for Mitt Romney in the Georgia primary. He was the best available candidate on the Republican ballot. Fred Thompson's name was still on the ballot, but he had taken himself out of the race, so I went with Mitt. That doesn't change the fact that Mormons do believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers. And it seems to have taken the realization that a Mormon couldn't be elected president without at least some black votes to prompt the belated (1978) revelation that blacks were fully qualified to hold office in the Church.

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