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29 October 2012
Church Releases Statement on Hurricane Sandy, Now a Post-Tropical Storm
October 29, 2012
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued the following statement today regarding people impacted by Hurricane Sandy, now a post-tropical storm:
Our thoughts and prayers are with those impacted by post-tropical storm Sandy. Local Church leaders along the eastern coast of the United States have made preparations for the storm. Church representatives are in contact with the Federal Emeregency Management Agency (FEMA), The American Red Cross, Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) and other relief agencies to coordinate response efforts. Forty-two LDS volunteers are supporting Red Cross shelter operations in New Jersey and neighboring areas. The Church is working closely with the Red Cross to identify additional shelter locations if needed.
The Church stands ready to assist affected communities. Emergency Response resources have been pre-positioned in Bishops Storehouses in the area. These resources include items such as food, water, blankets, hygiene supplies, tarps, cleaning supplies, chain saws and shovels.
Local Church leaders will make assessments in the coming days and coordinate with response partners to determine further relief efforts.
Mission presidents have taken precautions to protect the safety and well-being of missionaries.
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New Verse-by-Verse Resource on the Book of Mormon
October 29, 2012
FAIR Blog
One of our objectives at FAIR is to provide access to quality research on Latter-day Saint topics that is useful for the average Saint in their everyday study of the scriptures. To that end, as a new part of our FAIR Study Aids project, we have developed a verse-by-verse research index on the Book of Mormon. This can be accessed online, here:
http://en.fairmormon.org/FAIR_Study_Aids/Book_of_Mormon_Resources_by_chapter_and_verse
Here, what we have done is we have gone through hundreds of articles, essays, and research papers and cataloged them under the chapter and verse for which its contents are most relevant (in many cases, articles can be found under more than one scripture reference). See the page on Jacob, for example. There is also a page for research related to the introduction, history of its coming forth, and general themes that run throughout the book. In some cases, books and chapters also have “overview” materials available.
http://www.fairblog.org/2012/10/29/new-verse-by-verse-resource-on-the-book-of-mormon/
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Why Romney’s Mormonism Has Caused No Backlash Among GOP Faithful
October 29, 2012
Daily Beast
It’s too early to know whether Mitt Romney will realize his dream of becoming the first Mormon president, but he has already made history by achieving a new pluralism in the Republican Party and encouraging a more inclusive focus for the religious right.
I saw that change first hand as a featured speaker at a Battleground States Talkers Tour event in Cleveland last Thursday night. The boisterous, overflow crowd of 1,700 included a prominent portion of evangelical Christians who nonetheless cheered lustily at every mention of a Mormon named Romney, a Catholic named Paul Ryan, and the Jewish nominee for U.S. Senate in Ohio: Josh Mandel, state treasurer, Marine Corps officer, and Iraq War veteran. In conversation and during the book signing afterward, I met Latino Catholics, black Baptists, Eastern Orthodox believers of Serbian heritage, Irish-American cops, a smattering of Mormons, Seventh-day Adventists, and dozens of observant Jews.
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Mormons silent on state gay marriage referendums
October 29, 2012
Standard Examiner (Utah)
Maryland activists working to overturn same-sex marriage have had to get used to one surprising absence from their religious coalition: Mormons.
A huge amount of Mormon money and foot soldiers and the support of church leadership were credited with an epic win for traditional marriage in 2008 when California voters approved Proposition 8, which said that only marriage between a man and woman would be recognized in the state. And the Washington region has one of the largest communities of Mormons outside the West.
http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/10/29/mormons-silent-state-gay-marriage-referendums
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In Arizona, Latino Mormons at a Crossroads
October 29, 2012
New America Media
Political journalist Terry Greene Sterling says there’s an interesting dynamic at play this year for Mormon voters. Their church stance on comprehensive and humanitarian immigration reform contrasts with Romney’s support for self-deportation of undocumented immigrants.
“So it’s going to be tricky,” she says, “to see whether the Mormons go with their thoughts about immigration and vote for Carmona, who is for immigration reform, or whether Mormons will indeed vote for Flake and Romney because they are Mormons.”
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=31ccb3def2ffd6c52b8ebbbefca4201d
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Mitt Romney Reportedly Avoids Taxes Through Mormon Church Trust
October 29, 2012
Huffington Post
Romney legally avoided paying taxes through a charitable remainder unitrust he set up with the Mormon Church in 1996, Bloomberg News’ Jesse Drucker reports.
The trust, which is only a small fraction of Romney’s $250 million net worth, has been paying Romney 8 percent of its assets every year, according to Bloomberg. Since charities, including the Mormon Church, are tax-exempt, Romney hasn’t paid taxes on the money for more than 15 years. The Romney campaign declined to respond to questions from Bloomberg and only said through a spokeswoman that “the trust has operated in accordance with the law.”
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iPlates offer the Book of Mormon as comic books
October 29, 2012
Standard Examiner (Utah)
Perhaps the best endorsement for iPlates, the Book of Mormon comic book series from Stephen Carter and Jett Atwood (here), is that my seven-year-old son, Joe, can’t get enough of Volume 1, which culminates with the story of the wicked King Noah, the prophet Abinadi, and the reformed priest Alma’s escape from his former confederates.
Not only does Joe insist I read a chapter of Volume 1 to him each night, he then grabs the slim comic book and reads the whole shebang himself. Older Mormons are urged to read The Book of Mormon as many times as possible, so it’s not a bad idea to have a comic book version that youngsters can enjoy over and over.
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The Other Mormon Candidate
October 29, 2012
Religion Dispatches
Some on the campaign trail have told Henrichsen to “stop talking about being Mormon.” He also gets a lot of questions about California’s Proposition 8. For him, it is easier to talk about these subjects as a political candidate than as a person of faith. His rationale is that by telling something about being LDS, it helps him on the campaign trail because it is very much a part of the Western story, especially in Wyoming, where Mormons trekked through on the way to what would become Utah.
Henrichsen’s run also highlights an aspect of Mormon culture: in his words “Mormon culture is focused on professions, where success is viewed as a good by the community.” Perhaps articulating what Mitt Romney doesn’t know how to say well, Henrichsen’s good cheer and industrious politicking will pay off. It is certainly that spirit that keeps him logging many miles on the campaign trail.
http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/antheabutler/6555/the_other_mormon_candidate__/
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Mormonism: We are free to believe as we please
October 29, 2012
Ravalli Republic (Montana)
I believe everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, including the opinions expressed by Handford. I am uncomfortable, though, with how she misrepresented many things about Mormons, presenting them as fact. I will not dispute her assertions item by item, but invite readers to form their own opinions with all of the information.
I am a Mormon and welcome anyone to watch the PBS documentary she cited, “An American Experience: The Mormons.” I then encourage you to also visit www.mormon.org to get information on the beliefs of the Church directly from the source. As opposed to Handford’s statements, we have nothing to hide.
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Visiting professors lecture on Mormon feminism
October 29, 2012
The Justice (Massachusetts)
At the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute in the Epstein Building, participants gathered last Thursday for a presentation on “The Faces of Eve: Varieties of Mormon Feminism” led by anthropologist and Prof. Janet Bennion of Lyndon State College in Vermont and historian and Prof. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich of Harvard University.
During the event, Bennion and Ulrich spoke individually about their research, and a question-and- answer session followed. Bennion and Ulrich focused on revealing the feminist aspects possible in polygamist relationships as a part of fundamental Mormonism.
“[T]here are a variety of feminisms that just because you disagree with another woman’s decision to be in a patriarchy doesn’t mean she’s not a feminist; it means she’s defending her rights, and we as feminists have to provide that protection for her … [M]any of the women I study are in rigid patriarchal groups, [but] I would never be in one of those groups,” said Bennion in an interview with the Justice.
http://www.thejustice.org/visiting-professors-lecture-on-mormon-feminism-1.2939433#.UI9Q4rHA_jI
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Did early Mormonism influence the growth of Bolshevism?
October 29, 2012
National Post (Canada)
Looking Backward (originally published in 1888), Bellamy’s portrait of a prosperous but authoritarian socialist America in the year 2000, became a bestseller and seeded the “Nationalist” club movement that was an immediate precursor of the Socialist Party of America. (A wealthy Bellamy supporter built the iconic Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles, anticipating the architecture of that socialist future.)
The similarities between Bellamy’s collective commonwealth and the Mormon ideal of “consecrated” community — as well his “Industrial Army” for organizing production and distribution, and the semi-military organization of Young’s Deseret — have ignited controversy for more than a century. Indeed, one rabidly anti-Mormon website currently makes the claim that as Brigham City influenced Looking Backward, so did Bellamy’s novel influence Bolshevism, thus implicating the Romneys through their Church in “the horrors of communism.”
http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/10/29/did-early-mormonism-influence-the-growth-of-bolshevism/
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Reporter’s Notebook: The Political Neutrality Of The Mormon Church
October 29, 2012
New Hampshire Public Radio
Originally, the story “N.H. Mormons Navigate “Mormon Moment” As Election Day Nears,” was supposed to be a profile of the Wolfeboro congregation, who worship with Governor Mitt Romney and his family when the Romneys visit their home on Lake Winnipesaukee. The idea was to pursue an angle of what it’s like being part of a small church when one of your members is running for President. What’s it like walking into church and seeing Secret Service agents and AP reporters? What sorts of questions are you fielding? And day-to-day, what’s it like having the Romneys over? Does Ann lead singing? Are Mitt’s testimonies particularly enlightening? Do they bring potato salad or Jell-O to church potlucks?
After making some inquiries with local church representatives, my request was sent up the media relations chain to Salt Lake City. It’s fairly unusual for Mormon church services to be recorded. But unlike temples, which are used for weddings and other religious ordinances, LDS services at meetinghouses are open to non-Mormons. There’s nothing secret about Sunday worship. It is, however, a devotional setting, and a reporter going into any religious house typically has a conversation or series of conversations about when, where, and how taping or quoting members is appropriate.
http://www.nhpr.org/post/reporters-notebook-political-neutrality-mormon-church
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Building of first Mormon temple rattles Parisian Catholics
October 29, 2012
National Post (Canada)
A dispute over the construction of a Mormon temple in a suburb of Paris is revealing as much about France’s changing religious profile as it does about possible prejudice against the little known religion.
In the Parisian suburb of Le Chesnay, where construction continues amid pending court action to bar the project, the complaints are legion: Missionaries will bother residents, children could be targeted for conversion without parents’ knowledge, construction will be disruptive, the edifice will be too large for the town.
But what seems equally on display is unease about a profound decline in Catholic practice, accompanied by a rise – however small – in Christian evangelicalism.
http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/10/29/building-of-first-mormon-temple-rattles-parisian-catholics/
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LDS leader shares lessons in history, humility with area Mormons
October 29, 2012
Scranton Times-Tribune (Pennsylvania)
Northeast Pennsylvania’s sacred place in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is both a burden and a blessing to area Mormons who steward that legacy, a visiting church authority told hundreds of the faithful on Sunday.
Members of nine congregations – from Easton to Montrose – gathered for a semiannual stake conference and the rare opportunity to hear Elder Paul B. Pieper, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, a leading church council based in Salt Lake City.
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A Question For the 73% of White Evangelicals Who Say They’re Voting for Romney
October 29, 2012
Huffington Post
What’s the explanation for the fact that WHITE American evangelicals made the allegedly philandering lying ignorant braggart lapsed Roman Catholic Dinesh D’Souza their anti-Obama hero, embrace a pro-choice Mormon bishop who promoted abortion and Planned Parenthood in MA, are working to elect a job-destroying tax-avoiding lying flip-flopping-tell-anyone-anything-they-want-to-hear Swiss bank account collecting draft dodger running with a disciple of the God-hating, Jesus-mocking hater-of-the-poor Ayn Rand, for their presidential candidate and look the other way as a crazed ultra-Zionist many Israeli Jews fear billionaire casino owner who is being investigated for allegedly making billions off the dirtiest Chinese gambling Communist Party-controlled outfit in the world funds the enterprise, at the very same time as Franklin Graham sold his ailing father Billy’s soul and denied core evangelical theology by taking Mormonism off the Billy Graham organization’s list of cults in order to help the Mormon pagan-ritual-performing, Trinity-denying, casino-money-grubbing billionaire-coddling, earth-destroying global-warming denying Mormon bishop win respectability for his dead-Jews-baptizing-polygamy-rooted-reality-denying-interplanetary Masonic lodge-embracing faith in an election against an exemplary modest faithful husband good father compassionate smart BLACK evangelical Christian President who’s major accomplishments include saving the economy, ending a war, killing our greatest enemy, giving health care to children and the poor and the “least of these” and who has tried to reduce the number of abortions by helping women escape poverty in a reenactment of the lesson of the parable of the Good Samaritan?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/a-question-for-the-73-of-_b_2033645.html
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Collectivists for Christ!
October 29, 2012
High Country News
In 1936, the Mormon Church created its Welfare Program, which today spans the globe, providing food, shelter, medical help and emergency aid to those in need. It had its underpinnings in the United Order. And it can’t be coincidence that Utah today is the most philanthropic state, and wealth is more equally distributed here than anywhere else in the nation.
The Church adhered to the collectivist values of Smith, Young and Young’s successor, John Taylor, also a strong proponent of wealth redistribution, until McCarthyism infected the nation in the 1950s. Then, maybe fearing more persecution, church leaders started an effort — perhaps concerted, perhaps not — to change their public image from borderline theocratic communists to full-on capitalists.
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Robert Bennett: Why Europe supports President Obama, not Mitt Romney
October 29, 2012
Deseret News (Utah)
Those attending the conference told me that this is not because Europeans particularly dislike Mitt Romney. They simply don’t know anything about him, with one exception — they know he is a Mormon.
But most don’t know what that means. One European panelist, who spoke just after I did, spent his entire time talking about Mormons, portraying them as crazed zealots who comprise a truly sinister force in American life. In addition to the specifics of Mormonism that he considered ludicrous, he also made it clear that anyone who believed in Jesus as a divine being was laughably deluded. It was such a stunning diatribe that the moderator of the panel, an American, interrupted the pattern of the presentations to give me time to respond. I was pleased that my statement received a very respectful hearing from the audience, who thought the other speaker had gone too far. (He later apologized to me, saying, “I didn’t know you were a Mormon.”)
But the question of Romney’s Mormonism did not go away. It came up often, albeit without the venom displayed by the panelist, as one questioner after another suggested that a candidate who was a Mormon would be at a disadvantage. After the presentations ended, an American journalist living in Europe told me this was typical. “It comes up all the time,” he said. “Europeans just can’t accept the idea that Romney’s religion is not a political issue.”
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“Mitt Romney Style”–A Virtually Religion Free 2012 Contest?
October 29, 2012
Religion Dispatches
But in what is perhaps the most fully realized parody of Mitt Romney this season there is not even a glimpse of Romney’s Mormonism. No gratuitous references to polygamous wives, the Book of Mormon, dancing missionaries, LDS garments. For heavens sakes, the Romney impersonator curses and smokes a cigar–the latter especially being a major no-no for Mormons.
The video is a perfect capper to a general election campaign in which the role of religion was decidedly understated–despite the fact that Romney belongs to a faith that is widely misperceived and somewhat disliked and despite the fact that many Mormons have been bracing for his candidacy to turn unwelcome attention to sensitive aspects of the faith.
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Romney’s Hopes Fade In Nevada
October 29, 2012
The New Republic
Despite one of the worst economies in the country and a large Mormon population, Nevada was always an uphill climb for Romney. Minorities constituted a larger share of the Nevada electorate than any other battleground state, enabling Obama to win the state by 12 points in 2008.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/electionate/109272/romneys-hopes-fade-in-nevada#
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Brandon Flowers is real rocker
October 29, 2012
Belfast Telegraph (United Kingdom)
Brandon Flowers says he is the most “rock and roll” person in the world.
The Killers frontman was raised a Mormon and gave up alcohol and cigarettes five years ago. Although he knows many can’t understand how he lives such a clean lifestyle while in a rock group, he insists it isn’t hard.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/news/brandon-flowers-is-real-rocker-16231085.html
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More Newspapers Endorse Candidates as Election Day Nears (Updated)
October 29, 2012
The Wrap (California)
And even the Salt Lake Tribune, a paper-of-record in Utah, spurned the Republican candidate, claiming in an editorial that the Mormon Romney was a flip-flopper on core issues and endorsed Obama.
http://www.thewrap.com/media/article/more-newspapers-endorse-candidates-election-day-nears-62661
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Live from Colorado: Keep politics out of the pulpit
October 29, 2012
Dallas Morning News (Texas)
Just got off the phone with Bill McKenzie to get a better feel for the pastor he heard in Colorado Springs yesterday. It’s the same guy, Mark Cowart, who was quoted as saying this from the pulpit earlier this month at the Church For All Nations:
“I didn’t like the fact that Romney was a Mormon but I’ll tell you what, he’s got my vote.”
To me, that’s over the line. I think most Sunday worshippers want politics rendered unto Caesar — that is, left out in the parking lot. It’s the same general reason — unwanted political proselytizing — that people walked out of a Madonna concert in New Orleans over the weekend.
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Which Candidate Is To Blame For Hurricane Sandy?
October 29, 2012
Southeast Missourian
Considering that Romney is a Mormon and all Mormon’s reputedly wear magic underpants which gives them powers that non-Mormons can’t even dream of, I would not be at all astonished to discover that the church leaders in Salt Lake have a super secret weather control device. If Mitt were projected to win by a landslide, they probably would keep it under wraps, but since this is likely to be one of the closest presidential elections ever, they’re firing up their secret weapon to give Mitt the last minute boost he could use.
I bet that right now Mitt is chuckling away in a hotel room somewhere in Ohio, slamming can after can of caffeine-free Red Bull while he directs the Mormon Tabernacle Storm Machine to dump another 6 inches of rain directly on the White House.
http://www.semissourian.com/blogs/hollerbach/entry/50108/
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China takes over Bryce Canyon
October 30, 2012
Asia Times
Mormon settlers arrived in this region in the 1870s. In the Book of Mormon, published in 1830, God – which may, or may not, have started the creation of Bryce Canyon 200 million years ago – reveals to Joseph Smith, the founder of the religion, that American Indians were the lost tribe of Israel. They had traveled from Palestine only 600 years before Smith’s revelation. But they had neglected true religion. So Smith believed that American Indians – whom he called Lamanites – were cursed with dark skin. If they could hear the word of God, convert and become Mormons, their white skin would become “white and delightsome”. And all their previous sins would be forgiven.
After hiking the Navajo loop I left Bryce on the way to the Grand Canyon’s North Rim and – what else – a spectacular sunset. I was eager to find a Navajo or a Hopi to test Smith’s proposition and to pose them the ultimate question; how do you evaluate the consequences of Mitt the Mormon possibly becoming the next President of the United States (POTUS)? As for our friends from Guangzhou, no need to ask questions; they are going to take over everything anyway.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/NJ30Ad01.html
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Romney’s Not-So-Charitable Tax Shelter
October 29, 2012
Yahoo News
In Romney’s case, that means his CRUT, which officially benefits the Mormon church, pays him 8 percent of its assets a year. The value of the trust has slowly declined. In 2001, it was worth between $750,000 and $1 million, according to disclosure forms and IRS documents Bloomberg analyzed. It was earning a return of between $60,001 and $100,000. A decade later, in 2001, it was worth $421,203. It earned a return of $48. But that year, it paid the Romneys $36,696.
http://news.yahoo.com/romneys-not-charitable-tax-shelter-131217694.html
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2 deaths likely related to winter weather
October 29, 2012
CBC News (Canada)
Calgary’s cold weather likely contributed to the unrelated deaths of two seniors, officials say.
A man in his 60s was found dead Monday morning in a church parking lot in southeast Calgary. Staff at the Mormon church in Forest Lawn said they saw the man the night before and offered him food and a scarf.
Emergency officials said it appeared cold temperatures overnight were a factor in the man’s death, although it’s not clear if he also had a contributing medical condition.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2012/10/29/calgary-body-frozen-death.html
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Voting, Politics and Evangelism
October 29, 2012
Christian Post
Politics can turn normally calm people into ranting, raving lunatics. This divisive subject can transform a friendly chat over coffee at a Starbucks into a venomous, verbal brawl. But it can also be a great segue into an opportunity to share the good news of Jesus.
Questions like “What do you think about Mitt Romney being a Mormon?” or “Have you ever wondered what President Obama believes about God?” can be surprising and effective conversation starters.
http://www.christianpost.com/news/voting-politics-and-evangelism-84087/
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Romney Gains from Since-Outlawed Tax Break on Church Giving
October 29, 2012
Chronicle of Philanthropy
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney uses a tax shelter that Congress did away with in 1997 that permits him to use a charity’s exemption to defer taxes on capital gains from the sale of assets, according to Bloomberg.
Mr. Romney established a “charitable remainder unitrust” for the Mormon Church in June 1996. Like other wealthy individuals who used such vehicles for donations, he was allowed to keep it going when the practice was outlawed the following year.
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Pastor: Blame gays for Hurricane Sandy
October 29, 2012
Salon
In a separate post about “Hurricane Sandy and the Election,” McTernan expounds on his Romney as friend of the Gays Who Are Bringing About the Lord’s Wrath theory, writing about “Romney being a Mormon and pro-homosexual. Yes, he is a big time pro-homosexual supporter to the point he will keep open homosexuality in the military; he wants homosexuals in the Boy Scouts; and he wants more open homosexuals in the Republican Party.” Because if there’s one thing Mitt Romney would like the American people to know, it’s how much he respects gay people.
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/29/pastor_blame_gays_for_hurricane_sandy/singleton/
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Two St. Louis religious conventions highlight the bookends of faith and politics
October 29, 2012
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
Early indications from evangelicals that many would resist Gov. Mitt Romney as a candidate because of his Mormon faith faded during the general election. Nevertheless a national conversation about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began, leading to what many have called a “Mormon Moment.”
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