The GOP’s Mormon question

(Bjorn Graabeck/Wikimedia)

(Salt Lake City, Ut.)  A mostly unspoken reason for Mitt Romney’s failure to break away from the pack in the Republican presidential primary may be his Mormon faith.  Beyond the famous Mormon Tabernacle choir, the fact that Mormons once practiced polygamy, and the internet picture of a voluptuous model wearing a shirt bearing the words “I can’t, I’m Mormon,” most voters in Georgia and around the country are probably unfamiliar with the Mormon religion.  According to the Association of Religious Data Archives, only about five percent of Georgians are Mormon.  The Pew Religious Landscape Survey indicates that nationally the percentage of Mormons is even lower at less than two percent.

Briefly, the official name of the Mormon Church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The church got its start in New York around 1820 when Joseph Smith said that God told him that all religions were wrong.  As he recounted in his testimony, Smith tells of heavenly visions and visits by angels over the next few years.   Smith said that in 1823 a resurrected prophet named Moroni directed him to a collection of buried golden plates that contained the writings of early American writings of Jesus.  Smith recovered and translated the writings on the golden plates and published them in 1830 as “the Book of Mormon,” named for one of the prophets who compiled the writings.

 

This article was first published on Examiner.com:

http://www.examiner.com/elections-2012-in-atlanta/the-gop-s-mormon-question

Meet the candidates: Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney (Jessica Rinaldi/Wikimedia Commons)

Voters who followed the 2008 presidential election will probably be familiar with Mitt Romney. Romney is a conservative businessman who ran a three-way race with Mike Huckabee and John McCain for the Republican nomination before finally being defeated by John McCain. Many voters probably remember Romney best for the controversy over his Mormon religion.

Willard Mitt Romney was born in Detroit on March 12, 1947. His father was a CEO of American Motors and a three-term governor of Michigan. His father ran unsuccessfully against Richard Nixon for the GOP nomination for president in 1968. Mitt graduated from an elite private school and then attended Stanford University in the midst of the turbulent ‘60s. At Stanford he was known as a clean cut student and at one point was part of a counter-protest to a sit-in against the draft. After a year at Stanford, he became a Mormon missionary to France for two and a half years.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Meet the candidates: Mitt Romney – Atlanta Elections 2012 | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/elections-2012-in-atlanta/meet-the-candidates-mitt-romney#ixzz1ODsA5DTv