Free Book on Mitt’s Mormonism (Today Only)

The Kindle edition of Andrew Jackson’s, “The Mormon Faith of Mitt Romney: What Latter-day Saints Teach and Practice” is free today: http://amzn.com/B006Q6OZXK

Watering the Differences Down Won’t Help

“White evangelical Christians who believe Mormons hold different beliefs strongly favor Mitt Romney over President Barack Obama, according to a new poll.” (ChristianPost.com)

ForTheSakeOfTheGospel.com

“For the sake of the Gospel, we, the undersigned, call upon Christian leaders and their respective ministries and organizations, if you plan on endorsing Governor Mitt Romney for the office of President of the United States, do so by clearly and unequivocally distancing yourself and Biblical Christianity from his Mormon beliefs.” (For The Sake Of The Gospel)

Mormonism, Shadowy Religion, Wary of Increasing Spotlight

Thomas Burr And Peggy Fletcher Stack write in the Salt Lake Tribune:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is likely to see more scrutiny than it did during the Olympics — now through a political lens. Ben Park, an LDS doctoral student at the University of Cambridge in England, said Mormons will face a host of new perspectives. “Prior to this,” Park writes in an email, “it’s only been evangelicals and the religious right. … This will be the first time they confront thoughtful secular criticisms — the kind that can’t be shrugged off as anti-Mormon bigotry and will actually cause reflection.” That may prompt a bit of a pause with some of the LDS faithful, who find themselves hopeful for a candidate but also wary of the spotlight. “There is a curious mixture of excitement and apprehension [about Romney’s likely nomination] among Mormons, whatever their political persuasion,” says LDS writer and blogger Jana Riess in Cincinnati. “We are hyper-aware of our minority status in America and concerned that increased public scrutiny of our faith will prove painful.”

I have written elsewhere:

“On a personal level, I get the impression that committed Mormons oftentimes want at some level for their religion to be misunderstood, for it to remain esoteric and elusive. It is as though direct light on the shadowy religion would kill the precious shadow itself, hence it must be protected from the light of illumination. There is power seen in ambiguity, strength in ambivalence, solidarity in equivocation, encouragement in non-officiality.”

We can work it out?

“Many evangelicals are looking for ways to slide gracefully into the Romney camp — issues with his Mormonism notwithstanding.” (Joseph Walker, “Mitt Romney’s Mormonism not a problem for Catholics, Cardinal Timothy Dolan says“, Deseret News)

Maybe politically, but not religiously.

Rick Warren on Mormonism

With Republican Mitt Romney moving closer to becoming the first Mormon presidential nominee, I asked Warren whether he believes Mormons are Christians — a contested issue among evangelicals.

“The key sticking point for evangelicals and actually for many is the issue of the Trinity… that’s the historic doctrine of the church that God is three-in-one,” Warren said. “Not three Gods; one God in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Mormonism denies that.” (ABC News)

“Mitt Romney and the Mormon factor”

Aljazeera shines more embarrassing light on Mormonism. All because ”in what could be a tight race with Barack Obama, Romney’s Mormon faith might be a deciding factor… Romney has done his best to avoid all discussion of his Mormon faith in the 2012 race. According to Phil Barlow, a professor of religion at Utah State University who was a counselor to Romney when he was a bishop in the Boston area, Romney and his campaign regard any speech about his faith as a ‘lose, lose situation’.”

Cultural Mormon Joanna Brooks tells Aljazeera what supposed “anti-Mormons” have been saying for over a century:

“There is a quality about his guardedness, his woodenness, his stiffness that I see as being a legacy of the way Mormons have related to the outside world… There’s still a tendency in the Mormon faith to this day to speak amongst ourselves one way [and] tell the world something slightly different that will protect the beliefs we want to hold sacred. “