A recent article titled “Pawlenty video aimed at Mormon faith of Romney and Huntsman” caught my eye a couple weeks ago. The article made it sound like Pawlenty is slamming Romney and Huntsman because of their Mormon beliefs. When I watched the video, it didn’t seem like Pawlenty was doing anything other than describe his Christian faith. I was actually surprised by how straight forward and honest he sounded, something that quite frankly, I’ve yet to see with Romney on certain issues and definitely with Huntsman.
I do not feel that this ad was in any way trying to target the LDS church or other political candidates. Rather, it was showing his faith and trying to appeal to those who share the same faith and doing so in a straightforward manner. In fact, I feel that his comments on family and beliefs in God should be appealing to LDS members, but I doubt many Mormons would vote for him.
I believe that Mormons are very hesitant and skeptical about the intentions behind Evangelicals. Historically, we’ve seen and heard things that are preached against us in Evangelical churches and we tend to want to steer clear of supporting anything remotely anti-Mormon. Additionally, I think that the LDS are taught that Joseph Smith was told directly by God that all other Christian Churches aren’t right and the LDS, or Mormon Church is the way to go if you truly want to be on God’s side.
On the other hand, I can see how Evangelicals feel the same way about Mormons because we have a tendancy to flaunt our religion as the “one true church” and “all other churches are false”. Also, I think that many Evangelicals haven’t spent time getting to truly understand Mormons other than things that are taught or rumored in their circles such as “Mormons aren’t Christians” and they believe in a “different Jesus”.
I’m sure there are many people who share these same feelings. What do you think it will take and what is the actual likelihood of a Mormon voting for an Evangelical and visa versa in the 2012 race?
Grace for Grace 
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August 6, 2011 at 6:36 am
Cal
For visitors to this site that don’t know me, I’m an evangelical who knows by the Spirit of God that the LDS is serving the real Jesus. I’m ashamed of my fellow evangelicals’ condemnation of the LDS. Non-Mormons are often misinformed and often overly afraid of being deceived by Mormonism so that they don’t give Mormons a fair chance to defend themselves (Doug is an exception!).
AMA asked, “What do you think it will take [to get a Mormon to vote for an Evangelical and visa versa]?”
Blogs like this one and bridge builders like AMA.
I was alerted to a poll just a few days ago that said Americans in general are only slightly less likely to vote for a Mormon than they are to vote for an evangelical. So we’ve come a long way since the days of non-Mormon government officials (in Missouri in the 1830s) exterminating and imprisoning Mormons just because they were Mormons.
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August 6, 2011 at 8:52 am
Eric
I saw the video, and I agree with your assessment: It isn’t intended to be anti-Romney so much as it is meant to shore up Pawlenty’s base of evangelical voters. It’s something that they could watch and identify with him in a way that more traditional political videos would not. I don’t detect any hint of anti-Mormonism in it; I think Pawlenty would have made the video even if Romney weren’t in the race. Also, if Romney weren’t in the race, the video would probably play reasonably well in the Mormon Corridor. Nearly everything he says most Mormon Republicans would agree with.
As to who will vote for whom: There’s no question that LDS Republican voters will be overwhelmingly for Romney in next year’s primaries. I don’t see them as hostile to evangelical candidates (after all, they voted overwhelmingly for Bush seven years ago) as long as those candidates don’t say stupid things about Mormons (like Huckabee did). It’s just that Romney is “their guy” and is a credible candidate.
As to evangelical Republican voters … well, it depends. Romney has plenty of evangelical support, and in the general election most evangelical Republicans will vote for the nominee whoever he/she is regardless of religious affiliation. I don’t know about percentage, but there are a significant number of evangelicals wary of Mormons, and as long as they have reasonable alternatives in the pre-convention phase, they’d probably go with one of their own — and there’s definitely a crop of evangelical candidates to choose from. Ultimately, while Romney’s religion will be a factor in the race, I don’t see it as the deciding factor.
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August 6, 2011 at 7:51 pm
ezra
I vote for people not because they are of my faith or even of my personal liking – the key for me is how true they are to my understanding of effective leadership. In my case, that means: slashing bureaucracy (from Homeland security to the extra agencies est by Obama) and needless spending projects, de-regulating the American business (chiefly revoking the stranglehold of Obamacare), exposing the myth of “Global Climate Change” as a means for a global taxing scheme of “Cap and Trade,” emasculating the IRS, removing the death tax, and cutting funding for silly studies, and curtailing the funding of abortions. I will not vote for Romney because his past betrays him–he is conservative when he needs a vote and is liberal when he doesn’t. Huntsman strikes me as the same. As a Minnesotan, I know that Pawlenty might not be as bad, but I know he has tendencies (he did renounce his earlier enthusiasm for “green jobs” and the possibility of supporting cap and tax). My support is for Michelle Bachman, who has always exposed the errors of socialist liberalism and the need to be support individualism, small business, free enterprise, and respect for human life at every level (from the womb to old age). If Osama bin Laden rose from the Persian Gulf and touted these views I would vote for him– I’m sure he could come up with a pretty decent birth certificate if you gave him a couple years to work on it. : )
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August 6, 2011 at 8:03 pm
ezra
Okay, I exaggerated on the Osama comment– but you get the idea. If there was a true conservative Mormon running, I would support his campaign. I delighted in hanging up on the “Romney’s our only hope” phone call that came in last week. We have better candidates out there; pray that they step forth with power.
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August 7, 2011 at 1:37 am
Stan Beale
The best way to understand the relation of mormons and eangelicals is of a venn diagram of a group of three: mormons, evangelicals and a weltanschauung of extreme right wing politics and economics. The intersecion of all three is personalized by the relationship of Glenn Beck and David Barton. Except for their right wing views and and distorted ideas about history, they would probably not ever be in the same room together.
What happens is that the people in the intersection paper over the differences between the two faiths for the sake of political unity or shared goals. After David Barton was attacked by numerous evangelicals for having anything to do with the Mormon Beck, the former said that Beck “is more Christian” than Jim Wallis (a left wing evangelical witer).
The reality is that in Republican primary politics, none of the major candidates will attack the others religion. They will need their votes in the General Election. If one of them feels they need to have the others faith attacked, they will have third parties that cannot be traced back to them do it. Many of us remember the racist Willie Horton ad that was used against Michael Dukakis in 1988 (If anyone doubts the racist nature of the ad, lookat the picture of Horton they chose to use to frighten white voters as well as the
fact that they changed the name he went by, William, to Willie). The ad was the brainchild of Roger Ailes, Jim Pinkerton, and Lee Atwater, all part of the Bush campaign. However, a third party ran the ad and Bush claimed that he did not know about it.
If our faith gets attacked, look for it to be from a third party. Republican party politics iare not genteel (e.g. Karl Rove in South Carolina in 2004-McCain fathered a black baby). If Romney gets the nomination, The Democrats may adopt Republican stratagies and attack our faith to suppress the GOP evangelical vote in certain swing states.
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August 7, 2011 at 6:01 pm
Cal
I agree with Eric (nice to “see” you over here, incidentally!).
I like Ezra’s conservative viewpoints.
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August 8, 2011 at 8:19 am
Taylor
I actually have to disagree with one of your statements. As “Mormons”, we are not taught that Joseph Smith was told by God that all other churches were wrong but didn’t have the full understanding a truth that he (Joseph Smith) was going to help Them (Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ) bring back. It isn’t a question of “Who’s on the Lord’s Side Who” its a matter of whether or not we are following the commandments of God and if we are willing to change our wills and views to His perfect and magnificent views that will allows us to attain the glory of living with Him again! I love your website though and am very grateful that there are people of other faiths that at least support other religions in their beliefs and are openminded and willing to understand a little more about other religions thank you!
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August 9, 2011 at 10:21 am
ama49
Hi Taylor,
Thanks for stopping by and for your feedback. You are right that we are not officially taught that…however, I think many Evangelicals feel that we act that way towards them. That is the main point I’m trying to drive home is that even though we as LDS may not think we are excluding other Christians, many times we are and they feel that we think they are false.
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August 12, 2011 at 12:56 pm
Doug
You have a wonderful and gracious way of looking at both sides!
As evangelicals my son and I have no problem supporting Mitt! My son likes him so much that he had his grandmother purchase a life size cut out of Mitt for his college dorm room and get this: it’s at an evangelical college! I want someone who stands for the moral values I believe in-and if it’s an LDS guy-who cares? Many evangelicals believe as I do.
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August 14, 2011 at 12:58 pm
ama49
Hi Doug,
Wow! That’s pretty supportive! Has your son had any heat from having a Mitt up in the dorms? What school does he attend?
Now that Rick Perry’s in the race though, I’m starting to look seriously at him. I like what he’s done down there in my wife’s home state of TX…the plot thickens!
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August 12, 2011 at 6:40 pm
Cal
As one of the “other Christians,” I’ll confirm ama’s statement that “. . . even though we as LDS may not think we are excluding other Christians, many times we are and they feel that we think they are false.”
I like the challenge of having to turn the other cheek, though. And we non-Mormons are generally more condemning of them than they are of us.
I love your son’s spunk, Doug!
Speaking of Mormon moral values, my Dad recently dated and wanted to marry a Mormon woman even though he didn’t think she was a Christian! I asked him one time why he was more attracted to the Mormon woman than another woman he knows. He responded somewhat sheepishly, “Because of her values.”
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August 14, 2011 at 12:56 pm
ama49
Go Cal’s Dad Go! Get that Mormon girl!
Did he keep dating her then or did the relationship end?
Also, thanks for your honest feedback. I hope other Mormons read what you said about how you feel. I also appreciate you acknowledging fault in Christians too, because I know many Mormons (myself included) have felt that condemnation from fellow Christians.
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August 15, 2011 at 5:40 am
Cal
She ended the relationship. I think she was too good for my Dad. I’ll admit it!
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August 14, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Doug
Hi Ama49!
My son attends Philadelphia Biblical University-actually most of his friends there get a kick out of it. I have to admit this Mitt cut out has scared me half to death on several occasions-nothing like coming down the stairs during winter break and being greeted by a very tall man in the kitchen at 7 AM! Another time he placed Mitt in our picture window-neighbors couldn’t imagine who the guy was watching them!!!
While Perry seems to be pretty popular-he’s a bit of a globalist so I would be hard pressed to support him. I still like Mitt and think his economic background would be a real plus in this current mess we’re in.
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August 14, 2011 at 8:57 pm
ama49
Hi Doug,
That’s pretty funny with that life-size poster. I can see a young kid having some fun with that for sure! I also think it’s great that you and your son’s friends see past religious differences. Do you talk politics much in your sermons for your congregation? How do most of your congregation feel towards voting for a Mormon?
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