Ironic and sad
How very ironic and sad that Evangelical Christians who are the biggest victims of religious intolerance in America–at least within the media and popular political culture–are themselves among the perpetrators of religious intolerance against Mormons. Heck, they’re even on the same side of nearly every political issue with you. It’s not an accident that the most Republican state in the Union is also the most Mormon. If you can make peace with Catholics because of a common cause as you have since 1980, why not Mormons?
February 8th, 2008 at 10:37 am
I have seen a number of articles in the past couple days blaming Mitt Romney’s lack of success on evangelical Christians’ bias against Mormonism. I don’t buy it.
I am an evangelical Christian who supported Fred Thompson until he dropped out of the race, and then voted for Romney in the primary. Even while supporting Thompson, however, I still blogged about Romney and linked to other evangelical Christians blogging about Romney.
Most high profile and influential evangelicals went out of their way to say that Romney’s Mormonism should not be an issue as far as his candidacy for president. Christianity Today took this stance, as did Al Mohler, Ravi Zacharias and many other evangelical leaders.
Evangelical Christian bloggers took a similar stance. Obviously, Hugh Hewitt stood behind Romney. John Mark Reynolds who blogs from Biola University supported Romney from the start. Joe Carter (who couldn’t stand Romney as a candidate) made statements that Romney’s Mormonism should not be an issue. And even James Dobson, who came out in support of Mike Huckabee today, said that he would have supported Romney if it had come down to Romney versus McCain.
I don’t know. Perhaps this is more of an issue in the south, but for the evangelical Christians that I am in network with, Romney’s Mormonism was not an issue when it came to his candidacy.
February 8th, 2008 at 11:02 am
[…] what Bob Krumm is asking: How very ironic and sad that Evangelical Christians who are the biggest victims of religious […]
February 8th, 2008 at 11:08 am
He was a Northeasterner running on Southern Conservative values…but the biggest Southern Conservative value is a southern accent, something he couldn’t flip-flop on.
February 8th, 2008 at 11:11 am
It’s probably not a huge percentage of people, but in a divided field it was enough to make the unviable Huckabee’s numbers rise more than they should have at the expense of Romney. The evidence indicates that there is certainly less animus for Mormons among evangelical Repubicans than there is for blacks among rural Democrats. Still the fact that there is any animus whatsoever when, in terms of political views the two groups could not be more alike, is quite disturbuing.
February 8th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Sean, You’re right there. Huck demonstrated the other day a profound appreciation and respect for the SEC* and football.
*For you Northerners, this SEC has nothing to do with the Securities & Exchange Commission.