Is the US ready for a Mormon president?

[Gerald]

Romney (centre) has made the economy, not social issues, his central theme

Mormon Mitt Romney is an early frontrunner among the Republicans vying to run for president - and one new opinion poll shows him in a surprise dead heat with Barack Obama. Another Mormon, Jon Huntsman, is expected to enter the race. Will their religion be an issue?

It's a nation that prides itself on having few barriers to the highest office.

Yet the prominence of two Mormons in the Republican race for the White House has raised questions about US attitudes towards the religion.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to give its proper name, was founded in 1830 in New York State by Joseph Smith, and today has about 5.7 million members in the US.

But whether it is fully accepted is another matter, and new findings published by the Pew Research Center suggest there is still a long way to go.

Although 68% of Americans polled said their support for a candidate would be unaffected if they were Mormon, a quarter said they would be less likely to vote for them.

This rose to 34% among white evangelicals, who make up a large part of the Republican base. "It's more prevalent among the [voters] who are going to play a role in this Republican primary process," says Carroll Doherty, of the Pew Research Center.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13674696


Note: 8 June 2011 Last updated at 11:34 GMT

[MothBalls]

In the latest issue of Life magazine (3/14/2007), featuring Chris Rock on the cover, Rock is asked, "Is this country ready for an African American president?" Rock answered, "It's ready for a retarded president, why wouldn't it be ready for an African American president?"

I guess so.

[tater]

Giving oneself to one irrational set of ideas is little different than any other irrational set of ideas.

[Takeda Shingen]

Why wouldn't we be ready for a Mormon president?

[Bakkels]

If he gets enough votes to be elected I guess the answer is yes. Weird question in the first place.
(Though a voodoo priest for president would be way cooler )

[mookiemookie]

I really don't care what religion the President is.

[Platapus]

I would prefer an atheist President but as long as the President governs in a secular manner I have no problem with a President's religion.

It is when the President's religion influences his decisions that I get concerned.

[Onkel Neal]

I don't care what religion he is or isn't as long as he cuts spending, reduces the deficit and national debt, secures the borders and criminalizes employment of illegals, and gets the space program back on track. Oh, and he can end the two wars we have going, we accomplished enough.

[August]

There are plenty of reasons not to like Mitt Romney without resorting to the irrelevant.

[Torplexed]

All that fretting and hand-wringing over John F. Kennedy being the first catholic president fifty-one years ago and Ronald Reagan being the first divorced president thirty-one years ago. When it's all done and over with these issues never seem very important in retrospect.

[Onkel Neal]

And those were two of my top 5 Presidents.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by August

There are plenty of reasons not to like Mitt Romney without resorting to the irrelevant.

Best post of the thread.

I don't care what religion he is or isn't as long as he cuts spending, reduces the deficit and national debt, secures the borders and criminalizes employment of illegals, and gets the space program back on track. Oh, and he can end the two wars we have going, we accomplished enough.

Since you are not likely to get any real advances on any of that from any of the possible candidates wouldn't you like to focus on a non-issue instead

[Anthony W.]

Originally Posted by Tribesman

Since you are not likely to get any real advances on any of that from any of the possible candidates wouldn't you like to focus on a non-issue instead

You really seem to hate most of what America stands for. I had a friend of mine read some of your posts. Even he thought you sounded Euro Elitist. That isn't a compliment.

Back on topic (Can you tell I'm fidgety tonight?)

I don't much care about religion either. However (the judgement I will make is that) I don't think America is ready for a non Christian president just yet, and to be honest, with the percentage of Christians in America, I doubt there ever.will be one.

I'm a Romney supporter on economic grounds.

PS: I'm a Catholic. A lot of my friends are Mormon. I have friends of a wide variance of religion including Islam, Sihk, Buddist, and atheist. I'm not prejudice.

You really seem to hate most of what America stands for.

You really seem out to prove that though you think you are more intelligent than your teachers you lack simple comprehension skills.
Though out of interest can you run through a few essential of what you think your country stands for and see if I agree with the values or laugh at your naivete.

Even he thought you sounded Euro Elitist

If your "friend" has the same problems as yourself with comprehension that isn't a surprise, but go on give me another laugh, describe euro elitism.

It is really funny that you think that pointing out the simple problem of your politicians not really doing anything effective about defecits, spending, debt and immigration is somehow hating america and its values