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14 May 2012
Pat Robertson: Romney’s Not Jesus, But We’ll Take Him
May 14, 2012
BuzzFeed
“It looks like the people who were worried about his Mormonism, at least that crowd is diminishing somewhat,” Robertson said. “The question is, if you have two candidates, you don’t have Jesus running against someone else. You have Obama running against Romney.”
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/pat-robertson-romneys-not-jesus-but-well-take
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Evangelicals ‘sinned against Mormonism’?
May 14, 2012
Washington Post
“We’ve often seriously misrepresented the beliefs and practices of members of the LDS faith,” Mouw said that night. “It’s a terrible thing to bear false witness.”
The impact was immediate.
Some of Mouw’s colleagues and fellow believers were outraged. They accused him of selling out, of not standing for the Christian truth or adequately denouncing evil, of being duped.
Undeterred, Mouw continued this line of preaching to evangelicals for the next seven years and maintained regular conversations with Mormons. He has now expanded it into a just-released book, “Talking with Mormons: An Invitation to Evangelicals.”
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How Mormons – like Romney – cultivate business savvy early on
May 14, 2012
Christian Science Monitor
“You do see a disproportionate percentage of Mormons who have decent organizational and managerial skills,” says Jeff Benedict, a Mormon journalist who profiles executives in his book “The Mormon Way of Doing Business: Leadership and Success Through Faith and Family.” “That’s because, at a very young age, Mormon kids are given responsibilities and taught to organize.”
Mormons need no convincing that religious experience enhances business success. The LDS Church strongly encourages men at age 19 to go on a full-time, two-year mission to help grow church ranks. (Women go on missions in their early 20s, though it’s not as strongly encouraged for them, and few move into executive positions in the business world. Eighty percent of American Mormons say their mission experiences, which often include living abroad and the toughening that comes with knocking on doors, have been very valuable in preparing them for a career, according to a fall 2011 Pew Forum survey.
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Let’s Get To Know Mitt Romney
May 14, 2012
Houston Chronicle (Texas)
The sad part of the story in the Daily.com is that these good works may be being avoided because they are related to Mitt’s Mormon faith. It’s disappointing that just because one may disagree with Mormonism, his campaign feels they can’t paint the full picture of who Mitt Romney really is. Sure, he is a very successful businessman, but he also clearly cared about those around him. The Christian faith (and yes, Mormonism IS Christian) demands that we care for the poor. Not the government. Us. We are called, as individuals, to care for the poor.
http://blog.chron.com/texassparkle/2012/05/lets-get-to-know-mitt-romney/
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How being Mormon fosters business acumen for some, like Mitt Romney
May 14, 2012
Alaska Dispatch
In laying groundwork for a successful business career, it helps to become a religious leader at age 12.
That’s when Mormon boys receive the first mantle of authority as deacons in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), which has no professional clergy but vests ordinary people with religious duties, at young ages. Boys conduct meetings, raise money, and give talks for adult crowds while they’re still settling into middle school.
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/how-being-mormon-fosters-business-acumen-some-mitt-romney
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How Mitt Romney Could Pitch Himself as Mormon Freedom Fighter
May 14, 2012
Christianity Today
Mitt Romney continues to warm evangelical voters to the idea of a Mormon President, as evidenced by his well-received commencement speech Saturday at Liberty University. But the presumptive GOP nominee has yet to robustly address a key issue of shared passion for evangelicals and Mormons alike: the promotion of international religious freedom.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/mayweb-only/mitt-romney-mormon-freedom-fighter.html
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Approach about faith questioned as Romney woos evangelicals
May 14, 2012
USA Today
Likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s commencement speech at Liberty University this weekend dealt with issues of faith and spirituality in a broad sense, an approach that raises questions about how far he needs to go in discussing his Mormon faith this election cycle.
Romney spoke Saturday to an estimated 35,000 people at one of the largest Christian universities in the country. The forum allowed Romney to speak directly to those in the conservative base who have harbored doubts about his conservative credentials and his Mormon faith.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-05-13/romney-liberty-university-mormon/54946180/1
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Romney urges grads to honor family commitments
May 14, 2012
Albany Times Union (New York)
Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith has shaped his life, but he barely mentioned it as he spoke to graduates at an evangelical university Saturday.
And he hardly touched on hot-button social issues like abortion and gay marriage, instead offering a broad-based defense of values like family and hard work.
http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Romney-urges-grads-to-honor-family-commitments-3553566.php
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NBC: Romney Entered ‘Lion’s Den’ of Liberty University That Has ‘Big Problem’ With Mormons
May 14, 2012
NewsBusters
Early on Sunday’s NBC Today, co-host Jenna Wolfe stirred division between Mitt Romney and conservatives as she proclaimed: “[He] spoke at Liberty University, an evangelical school that’s called his Mormon faith a cult. Can he get religious conservatives excited about his presidential campaign?”
Introducing the later report on the speech, fellow co-host Lester Holt ominously declared: “Mitt Romney, the likely Republican nominee, walked into the lion’s den this weekend. He gave the commencement address at Liberty University, an influential conservative Christian school where some have a big problem with his Mormon faith.”
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Mitt Romney makes his case to evangelicals
May 14, 2012
Boston Herald (Massachusetts)
When it came to evangelicals in this year’s primaries, Mitt Romney was most often the rejected suitor — struggling to overcome suspicions about his authenticity as a conservative and his Mormon faith.
On Saturday at the evangelical university founded by the late televangelist Jerry Falwell in Lynchburg, Romney tried to tackle those lingering misgivings as the presumed Republican nominee — by delivering a speech that delved deep into his faith and by urging about 30,000 in the audience at Liberty University to look beyond their differences with his religion.
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An unnecessary speech
May 14, 2012
The Economist
The speech was an effort by Mr Romney, a Mormon, to bolster relations with non-Mormon Christians (or, to be precise, that subset of Christians who represent the “religious right”–as Timothy Noah aptly pointed out in March, the category of “Christian” encompasses nearly 80% of Americans). Polls show that a considerable number of people profess to be leery of voting for a Mormon; the wariness is especially pronounced among self-identified evangelical Christians, a demographic that has heavily favoured Republicans in recent elections.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/05/mitt-romney-liberty-university
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Pat Robertson: Romney’s faith not an issue
May 14, 2012
USA Today
Televangelist Pat Robertson said today Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith is becoming less of an issue with voters.
“It looks like the people who were worried about his Mormonism at least that crowd is diminishing somewhat,” Robertson said today on the 700 Club. “The question is, if you have two candidates, you don’t have Jesus running against someone else. You have Obama running against Romney.”
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Pat Robertson Says Jesus Not in Race, But Romney Will Do
May 14, 2012
Christian Post
“It looks like the people who were worried about his Mormonism … at least that crowd is diminishing somewhat. The question is, if they have two candidates, you don’t have Jesus running against someone else. You have Obama running against Romney,” Robertson said on his Christian news program, which ran an interview with the former Massachusetts governor.
http://global.christianpost.com/news/pat-robertson-says-jesus-not-in-race-but-romney-will-do-74934/
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World’s Leading Internet Evangelist Says Vote for Jesus for President
May 14, 2012
Christian News Wire
Bill Keller, the world’s leading Internet Evangelist and the founder of LivePrayer.com, with over 2.4 million subscribers worldwide reading the daily devotional he has written every morning for 13 years on the issues of the day from a Biblical worldview, is encouraging people this November to not vote for President Obama or Mitt Romney, but write in the name of Jesus for President!
Keller continues, “On the other hand, how can a Christian in good conscience vote for Mitt Romney, a 5th generation member and priest in the satanic Mormon cult. His Presidency would give his cult the mainstream acceptance they have always wanted since being founded 200 years ago. Conservative estimates are that his cult will add at least 1 million converts in the US alone. For a Christian, that means 1 million souls who will buy into a false Gospel and end up in hell for all eternity!”
http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/9105419696.html
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Mormon Church Open Service
May 14, 2012
San Francisco Chronicle (California)
The singles’ congregation of the Mormon church in San Francisco is holding a special worship service especially for those visiting for the first (and/or only) time.
The congregation is comprised of single people ages 18-30, but non-singles are also welcome to attend. Please visit http://mormon.org/worship/ to find out what to expect.
http://events.sfgate.com/san_francisco_ca/events/show/259987324-mormon-church-open-service
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No One Can Unite Evangelicals and Mormons Quite Like Barack Obama
May 14, 2012
Patheos
Why did I feel like blowing off work, skipping even my shower, and just heading straight to my favorite video game to tune out the world? Because last week Barack Obama accomplished more in about two minutes and thirteen seconds than I was able to accomplish in more than six years of continual effort. Barack Obama united evangelicals and Mormons around Mitt Romney.
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Dutch ‘distaste’ at revelation that royals were baptized as Mormons by proxy
May 14, 2012
The Christian Century
There is public criticism in the Netherlands of the Mormon practice of baptism by proxy after a Dutch newspaper revealed May 9 that several members of the royal family were posthumously “baptized” into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, colloquially known as the Mormon church.
The daily newspaper Trouw quoted unpublished documents in the Mormon church’s global genealogical database that show the late Queen Juliana, her husband Prince Bernhard and Queen Beatrix’s late husband Prince Claus were all baptized as Mormons after their deaths.
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Gay rabbis, God’s will, and Conservative Judaism
May 13, 2012
Jewish Journal (California)
For Mormons, the question for Conservative rabbis who support the liberal shift on issues related to homosexual conduct is whether they claim that God has inspired the movement to do this. Is it God’s will that Conservative rabbinical courts approve gays and lesbians for ordination? If the answer is yes, then there’s nothing more to say. However, to my knowledge no Conservative rabbi has made this claim. Unlike Mormons, Jews don’t believe in continuing revelation – for them direct revelation from God to prophets stopped over two thousand years ago. While I understand this, it’s still hard to understand why a Conservative seminary professing fealty to Jewish law would claim the right to override a biblical prohibition on conduct that Leviticus called an “abomination” that defiled nations and the land itself. Many years later rabbis would put homosexual conduct in the category of “gilui arayot,” sexual acts that are forbidden to both Jews and Gentiles.
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All Utah Needs Is Love?
May 14, 2012
Weekly Standard
Mia Love, the 36-year-old mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah and Republican candidate for Congress in the state’s newly created Fourth District, is something of a political anomaly. A conservative and a Mormon, Love would be the first black female Republican in Congress ever.
Love doesn’t seem too eager to trade on this “first.” She does say she doesn’t consider herself a victim and doesn’t single others out for their race or gender. “My job is to treat people equally,” she says. When I ask her about the prospect of being the first black Republican woman in the House, she replies rhetorically, “Do you find it interesting?”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/all-utah-needs-love_644389.html
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Behind the Lines: Sister Dottie speaks!
May 14, 2012
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
This week’s Behind the Lines guest commentator is Sister Dottie S. Dixon, who is heard regularly on X96s’ “The Painful Circle.” Selected “Best Utahn” by City Weekly in 2010, her hilarious, sold-out shows explore life as a Mormon mother and her acceptance and celebration of a gay, Mormon son, “Donny.” Donny was recently married to his boyfriend in the critically acclaimed “DOTTIE: The Sister Lives On.”
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/54098352-82/gay-dottie-sister-bagley.html.csp
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Mormon doctrine leads to socialism?
May 14, 2012
Enter Stage Right
Now that Mitt Romney is the presumptive Republican nominee for president, the left is increasing its attacks on his Mormon religion, hoping to distract voters into focusing on perceived negatives about Mormonism. The latest attack is shrewdly done. Instead of directly attacking Mormonism, which could look bad, the left is claiming that Mormonism is really socialist.
Last month, the far left website Salon ran an article entitled, “When Mormons Were Socialists.” It relied completely upon a deliberate misinterpretation of a few verses in the Book of Mormon. The author claimed that Mormon doctrine about events in the first century A.D. advocated for socialism. He declared that in the Third Book of Nephi, God punished a city because “the government disregarded the sick and poor.” Tellingly, the Salon article did not indicate where in the Book of Mormon the verses it relies upon are located, because they do not exist. At no time did the Nephite government ever give even a tiny amount of assistance to the poor.
http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0512/0512mormondocsoc.htm
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Why Obama and Romney Should Share Their Religious Beliefs
May 14, 2012
Huffington Post
Gov. Romney has avoided talking about religion for obvious reasons. Mormonism is not widely understood, and many Americans who are even modestly acquainted with its teachings find it odd. (All religions, of course, are in some measure odd, but it would be foolish to deny that many Americans find Mormon traditions to be especially bizarre.) Also, polls indicate that there is more prejudice against Mormons than most other religious groups. That prejudice has not surfaced in a major way, thankfully, and Mr. Romney undoubtedly does not want to tempt fate by focusing on religious matters.
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