Romney again.

Larry Sabato spoke at the University of Utah and told students that Mitt Romney's religion could derail his candidacy. I guess this ignorance and prejudice will always be with us. A large part of it is stirred up by ministers who see the massive growth which together with the fact that Mormons have a lay ministry.

Two main criticisma are made of the LDS church. The first is the claim that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not Christian, because it doesn't accept the Nicene Creed with its doctrine of the trinity. When one considers what other Christian churches teach, you have to stop and think how their teachings looked to the Jews, Romans and Greeks. Or, how the Greek and Roman religions seemed to anybody else, it seems pretty clear that familiarity removes a lot of strangeness. The Nicene Creed was adopted after an assembly of bishops convened by the Roman Emperor Constantine who wanted the theological conroversies of the day settled so that they would quit declaring each other heretics. They were pretty much agreed that revelation had ceased with the Apostles, which is exactly the point. Mormons believe that the original church with the original offices, authority and new revelation was restored.

The second criticism is that Mormonism is a cult. As I understand it, a cult is a religion formed around an individual, such as David Koresh, Jim Jones or Marshall Applewhite. The enemies of Joseph Smith thought that the LDS religion would cease to be once they killed him, but he was replaced by Brigham Young and a series of other prophets who have guided it to its present size, around 12,000,000 world wide. The only individual central to this church is Jesus Christ himself.

The Boston Globe has already made claims that Romney's campaign is being supported by the LDS church, but the church doesn't endorse or allow its property to be used in support of political candidates. Of course, trying to claim that this should prevent Mormons from contributing personally would be like arguing that the Kennedy damily shouldn't be taking donations from Catholics.

If Mormons don't care what religion other politicians are, why should anybody else care if Romney is a Mormon? I think I'm safe in saying that he won't be having adulterous relationships, like some others. I'd think Evangelicals would support a candidate who shares their moral values and actually lives by them. The real issues should be what his character and abilities are and what his views on national issues are. His management ability has been proven over and over, and he has the kind of charisma that Reagan and Kenneday had. He's probably much less likely to talk about his faith in public that George W. Bush does, and to be a much more unifying leader, to the extent Democrats would let him.