Boston Globe Article on Mitt Romney and Mormons

Highlights from the article:

"Today many Americans remain deeply skeptical about the LDS church. Recent polls have found that around 40 percent of Americans say they would not vote for a Mormon for president -- though nearly as many said they would have reservations voting for a Catholic in 1960, the year John F. Kennedy won the White House."...

'All in all, in the words of Mark Noll, a historian of American Christianity at the University of Notre Dame, "politically considered, white evangelicals and Mormons look very similar." '...

"To be sure, Mormons and conservative Christians, both Catholic and evangelical, are on the same side of two of the bitterest culture-war battles being fought today, over gay marriage and abortion."...

"Romney himself has been quick to point out that he is not running as a representative of his religion. And like John F. Kennedy, he has demonstrated over the years a certain independence from his church."...

"Aside from what it sees as issues relating to "how children are raised," says Jan Shipps, widely considered the leading non-Mormon historian of the religion, the church's leaders tend to shy away from taking political action"...

"Since those comments resurfaced a few weeks ago, Romney has been pressed to reconcile them with his now strident opposition to same-sex marriage. On that issue, Romney's newly assertive conservatism places him in step with his church. On others, though, he seems more a conservative evangelical than a Mormon."

- rest at http://tinyurl.com/y6aemf

 

Marcia, I am supporting Mitt Romney for president of the United States, not for national pastor of the Baptist Church.

This is the United States, not Iran. Our government is, and always has been, a secular government.

I don't care about Mitt's - or McCain's or Guiliani's or Clinton's or Obama's, etc. - theological views.

 

No. This is the politics forum and the biggest political story from now until election day in 2008 will be the presidential campaign.

Actually, I would encourage other folks to get off the sidelines and start discussing their horse in this presidential derby.

 

Mitt is an electable conservative. And after having the White House occupied by George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and George W. Bush I would like to see a conservative in the White House - the first one since Ronald Reagan occupied the Oval Office.

 

No. Once he officially announces his campaign I plan to have one long one until it reaches the 10 page limit and then start another one, etc., etc., etc. Until then I'll just have to piecemeal it.

I hope that the supporters of other presidential candidates will do the same so that we can have a great give-and-take during this campaign. It will also be a very good historical record of the 2008 presidential campaign.

Of course, no one is under any obligation whatsoever to respond to anything I post or to even read it. So if you are not interested, carpro, just ignore me.

 

Mitt is pro-choice. Mitt is against homosexual marriage. Mitt led the effort to pass a health care plan in Massachusetts that the Heritage Foundation applauded. Mitt balanced the budget without raising taxes.

The most important issues for me in 2008 are balancing the budget and fixing Social Security, Medicare, and our unsustainable health care system. I think Mitt is the best candidate lead the effort on these issues and resolve them in a conservative way.

 

I support increasing the minimum wage. And I support indexing it to something along the lines of 40% of the median production worker wages. This would stop it from being used as a political football every few years.

I support banning assault weapons. No one needs a machine gun to go deer hunting.

Mitt's position on abortion changed with the debate over embryonic stem cell research during the past few years.

By the way, there is no problem with changing one's position as long as one can give a good reason for doing so.

 

I appreciate that.