The Day Romney Seals The Deal?
To the polls in Illinois. The latest polling indicates Romney should win, and maybe big. Should Romney win by more than five points the press, which is beginning to show signs of waking up already, will have to declare it “over.” Santorum and Gingrich will not agree, but come on. Some people still don’t get it:
Political pundits believe that Rick Santorum’s rhetoric, grounded in conservative religious principles, will appeal to both Catholic and Evangelicals while a poll conducted by the Paul Simon Institute at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 2010 found that a majority of registered voters in the state of Illinois would never vote for a Mormon. However, more recent polls have revealed that Romney is neck-in-neck with Rick Santorum, which may mean Republican voters in Illinois may be paying less attention to Romney’s Mormon faith.
Just a minute here. Romney just won Puerto Rico, like 80% Catholic, by a landslide. Santorum has yet to win the Catholic vote in any primary. (I guess they do not read the exit polls at Southern Illinois U.) And then there is this headline:
Evangelicals Voting in Record Numbers During GOP Primaries
OK, that headline should contain an enormous lesson. Santorum is carrying the Evangelical vote pretty heavily, and yet Romney has a huge lead in the fight for the nomination. So, if Evangelicals are voting in “record numbers” there are clearly not enough of them to carry the day. Thus, if Evangelicals want to matter, they need to quit playing identity politics and start playing team ball. This time around they cannot even play “spoiler.”
The press turn is interesting. Before the meme developed that Santorum could defeat Romney, he did get some religious attack, but now that that has ended, the Opus Dei, religious extremest attacks have begun anew. And the “weak frontrunner” meme is gaining new life. There is some fresh stuff too.
Apparently, flip-flop is a Mormon trait?!
The press is pawing over Mitt Romney’s religion, and the candidate may just welcome this scrutiny. It marks him as a man of active faith and diverts attention from an issue that necessarily plagues him: Mitt Romney, flip-flopper.
Critics point shrilly to well over a dozen strong positions he has conveniently changed on issues like health care, minimum wage, and gay rights. In response, Romney pleads learning curve. He’s adapted, he says, to “new information.” In the business world, non-adapters get fired.
Still Mormons themselves, who, a recent Gallop poll says, are the most conservative major religious group in the U.S , have not all been convinced. Fellow Latter-day Saint Glenn Beck, at least, wants it known that it’s not just Obama: “Mitt Romney is a socialist too.” Yet, if Romney’s concessions to changing political environments have upset even some Mormons—they are not uncharacteristic of the church to which he belongs. Mormonism has its own history of political accommodation.
Friends, know this for what it is – this is a liberal take on the “Mormons lie” meme. Maybe it’s not so fresh after all. The bottom line on this presentation is simple – every church has changed with the political and cultural climate. The CJCLDS suffers from a compressed history of such and a uniquely American history of such, but anybody that knows anything about the history of the Christian church, or the Jewish for that matter, can see such changes. This is not argument, it is pure spin.
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sewinglady on 20 Mar 2012 at 10:22 am #
I am getting pretty tired of the “Mormons lie” theme. I don’t suppose that it will go away soon? Oh well.
I have a couple of links that I hope you, Lowell, or John Mark will look at. I’m sorry that I’m not technologically savvy enough to activate the links. It was all I could do to type them in. One is of Santorum clapping at a rally where some pastor made the “mistake” of saying things about Muslims and Jews. Something the NYTimes picked up on. Of course, pastors saying nasty things about Mormons doesn’t require reporting, as everyone knows that nasty things said about Mormons are true. (Sarcasm intended) I believe there is a video of Rick at this sermon applauding, as well, although this link doesn’t have the video.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/at-santorum-rally-a-pastors-fiery-remarks-reverberate/?ref=politics
The other link is actually a breath of fresh air. The author writes about what Mormons really believe, and offers a fresh approach for outsiders looking in. He does get the doctrine wrong by stating that we don’t believe in the virgin birth, which is untrue; however, I thought that this article is really good.
http://www.firstthings.com/article/2012/01/mormonism-obsessed-with-Christ
JLF9999 on 20 Mar 2012 at 10:31 am #
If a person cannot accept that the LDS Church leadership is in fact as they claim, that is, real apostles of Jesus Christ and a real prophet of God just as in Old Testament times, then they have no option than to look at Mormonism but as a fraud. There is no other way to view us. Either we are as we say or we are not. There is no middle ground. Our friends will look at us with nuanced eyes but that is disingenuous too.
We certainly appreciate their kind words and friendship but their opinions of us do not change what we are. Either our doctrines, as expressed by our leadership, come directly from Jesus Christ or they do not. This is the position of the late President Gordon B. Hinckley. There is no middle ground. The issue then is whether every utterance from leadership is doctrinal or opinion. It has recently become a political one for Mitt Romney too. We Mormons know but outsiders struggle with that one.
I bring this point up because the media is want to hang some man’s personal opinion around our necks as though it was doctrine when in fact is may not be. But if their intent is to confuse and annoy then it doesn’t matter to them. It only matters to us. Maybe our friends would like to know but I wonder just how far down that path they are willing to go before they say we are proselytizing. It happens.
Just so I can say I took a stab at it, and not to proselytize, let me say that the way to separate opinion form doctrine is whether it is repeated in official Church organs under the leadership’s name. For it to be doctrine it will be printed in the priesthood manuals, Sunday school curriculum and found in recent Church magazines. Leaders will address it in semi-annual Church conferences. If it isn’t found in any of these then it is not doctrine. http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/approaching-mormon-doctrine.
Bookmarks 03/21/2012 « Conservative First on 21 Mar 2012 at 6:12 am #
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