Has anyone else been seeing a lot of "I am XYZ, and I am a Mormon" commercials?

[Grace62]

I've decided that southern Baptists and Missouri-synod Lutherans aren't Christian. They are different from me and that's all I can and will see. It doesn't matter what THEY think on the subject, so don't bother providing me with any information about what they believe. I won't be convinced.
Thanks.

[rjmacs]

Grace62 wrote:
I've decided that southern Baptists and Missouri-synod Lutherans aren't Christian. They are different from me and that's all I can and will see. It doesn't matter what THEY think on the subject, so don't bother providing me with any information about what they believe. I won't be convinced.
Thanks.

And that's your prerogative. (I'm guessing you're being facetious, but that's not the point.) Note that i didn't say it was a bad idea for Mormons to wage a PR campaign about Mormonism and what Mormons believe. I just said that it won't resolve the controversy over whether Mormons are Christians.

Also, please understand that I am not taking any position on this matter at all. I have no dog in the fight. I think it's really fascinating, however.

P.S. As a Catholic, it would put you outside both the Church's teaching and the Catholic mainstream to consider Southern Baptists and Missouri-synod Lutherans not to be Christians. The same cannot be said for Mormons.

Edited to add the P.S.

[Grace62]

Growing up in the south in the 60's and 70's, it was commonplace to hear Protestants say "Catholics aren't Christians." There are still people who believe that.

I think we're in agreement rj - just because people are ignorant doesn't mean you shouldn't resist by providing information.
People can do whatever they want with the information.

As far as I'm concerned, it's up to the individual to identify themselves as a follower of Christ, or not. Mormons self-identify as Christians, so to me they are Christians. That being said, a person saying "I'm Christian" doesn't tell me a whole lot about the person.
Telling people they are "not in the club" is in my view a decidedly unchristian thing to do.

[Acer]

The difference is bigger than "We've arbitrarily decided they are not like us."

To name a few significant differences, Mormons hold that:
* The God of his world was a man from another planet who achieved God-hood.
* Jesus is only the "son" of God, a distinct entity; not God directly incarnated in flesh, i.e., part of a Trinity.
* Joseph Smith received direct written revelation from God via the angel Moroni to add to the Bible.

Lutherans, Catholics, Southern Baptists et. al. certainly have their inter-denominational differences, but they collectively have big problems with these tenets of Mormonism.

A Christian apologetics site will explain all these differences in great detail. e.g., http://carm.org/is-mormonism-christian

To the non-religious, this is of course all semantics, and you are free to dismiss the differences as meaningless, but the differences are important to people of faith.

[Grace62]

Acer wrote:
but the differences are important to people of faith.

To some, but not all.

I don't expect that Perry-supporting preacher from the Dallas First Baptist Church who described Mormonism as a "theological cult" to change his mind about this, and many members of his church probably feel the same way. He is probably very threatened by the idea of a Mormon president. BTW, those two religious groups are probably competing for "hearts and minds" more openly than any other religious groups. Southern Baptists are on the decline, Mormons on the rise. That scares the sh$t out of Baptists.

I'm guessing here but I think the percentage of Americans who care a lot about this is pretty small. People will vote for Romney because they want a Republican, or just not Obama, not because of his religious beliefs.

[OWC Jamie]

Jimmypoo wrote:





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Is he named after a particular mitt? Catcher's mitt? Wilson A2000? Just wondering...

close ...

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazi...f-Chicago/

[Acer]

Grace62 wrote:
[quote=Acer]
but the differences are important to people of faith.

I'm guessing here but I think the percentage of Americans who care a lot about this is pretty small. People will vote for Romney because they want a Republican, or just not Obama, not because of his religious beliefs.
It is hard to keep people frightened of a "cult" that has such a reputation for being clean-cut, law-abiding and peaceful while enthusiastically participating in American culture with everyone else...except for Starbucks.

[Ted King]

Grace62 wrote:

I'm guessing here but I think the percentage of Americans who care a lot about this is pretty small. People will vote for Romney because they want a Republican, or just not Obama, not because of his religious beliefs.

Not making a point - just providing information:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/148100/hesita...-2012.aspx

The new Gallup poll, conducted June 9-12, finds nearly 20% of Republicans and independents saying they would not support a Mormon for president. That is slightly lower than the 27% of Democrats saying the same.

The largest differences in opposition to voting for a Mormon for president are by educational level, with adults who have not attended college more resistant than those with some college experience or college graduates. This educational pattern is seen in attitudes about voting for someone from almost all of the specific religious or demographic groups tested in the poll.

There are no significant differences on this question by gender, age, region of the country, or religious preference. Additionally, the views of Americans who attend their place of worship weekly are no different from those of less frequent attenders or non-attenders.

At 22%, Americans' resistance to electing a Mormon president, even one nominated by their own party, is exceeded only by their opposition to electing someone who is either gay or lesbian (32%) or an atheist (49%). By contrast, less than half as many, 10%, say they would not vote for a Hispanic, and fewer than 10% would not vote for a nominee who is Jewish, Baptist, Catholic, female, or black.

[rjmacs]

Looks like Democrats aren't nearly so tolerant of religious difference when it comes to Mormonism!

[Grace62]

Isn't the reason a number of Democrats wouldn't support a Mormon President the fact that the larger organization espouses socially conservative positions? I'm surprised that number is not a lot higher.
As it turns out there are of course Mormons who are NOT socially conservative. You really have to ask each individual.

If Romney only has 18% of Republicans not liking Mormons, he's in great shape.