This is primarily aimed at those who lean towards the fundamentalist side of the spectrum but all replies are welcome:
Is Romney's religion, Mormonisn, a deal breaker, as far as you are concerned, for the GOP nomination?
If so, why? If not, why not?
Going along with the precept that people who vote for Nader waste their votes, because they throw them away without faith, a precept to which I disagree, it is then incumbent to consider whether one would vote for a Mormon, but without much hope. So then, so the theory goes, better to vote for somebody in the same neighborhood who can win.
Therefore, the perceived negatives would include:
According to Bill Mahr, 43% of the country polled said they would not vote for a Mormon. Doubt he has been challenged on the figure, or asked to detract it, so I will take it as face value, unless corrected by expose of fact. Being a comedian does, too, suggest a need for a close and discerning eye, as the very grist of comedy is stretch. If that number is correct, it tends to speak. I doubt it reflects just lack of visibility and celebrity status (even politicians are celebrities, and play it like celebrities).
Also, if Mormonism itself is on trial because a contender is one, one would also have to weigh the history of Mormonism regarding its issue with Blacks. Blacks were not allowed at all in the Mormon Church, and when they began to take hits for their stance, they then allowed Blacks to attend as 1st degree only, the church's organization much like the Masons is a 32 degree ascention through work. Blacks were not allowed ever beyond the 1st degree. (I find this structure, minus the onus, by the way, outstanding. Working through a bonafide metaphysical construct echoes true bells through everything spiritually valid from the shamans to the Jesuits to the Buddhists. It is only of very recent history that bellowing like a carny to fat women knitting has become an operating dogma.)
There is something also in their basic structure as to the original vestage of their beliefs where one side is all White, the other all Black. The sum of which, one can assume, means that answers are in order--inquiring Black minds want to know.
The media would probably, left to their own, choose to ignore dissecting the religion itself, but Jesse and Al would eventually get to the bone of it. And indeed, why should any religion be permitted such deference of silence for avowed racism? The media played to the hilt (the hilt has since moved) Kennedy as a Catholic, but they did not start bone-picking through the religious beliefs. And if real numbers count, white Baptist America would outshine the Mormon star. Baptist didn't leave a paper trail.
The biggest point, however, is that nearly all the evangelicals and fundamentalists consider Mormons satanic. True, there has been some gags put in political place and masks worn during the formal balls on their ascention into the White House, but I still hear it in less conspicuous preachings, and I doubt it too late for the conniving con-artist Base Mandarins to yell their flock into step and vote for any Mormon. Too many still think them satanic. They heard it too much, too long. And these are the individual votes.
The biggest issue is this: we should not have to even consider what religion a person is to elect them president. That would be because we would assume that they would leave their religion at home when they went to work.
Since Bush, not a chance.
