Romney’s win in the debates last week and his surge in the polls is seen by many political analysts as something unprecedented in US Presidential history, this late in the elections. For those who support Romney, this is inspiring and an amazing feat. and has charged many conservatives up around the country. Those who do not support him are also inspired to try harder and are also charged up more than before to support Obama.
Since I am a conservative, Mormon Republican I obviously lean towards Romney and associate with mostly people who are of the same opinion. Being somewhat of an “insider” so to speak, I’ll share with you some of the things I’ve seen and heard among Mormons leading up to and after the 1st debate that lead me to believe the majority of Mormons feel God helped Romney win the first debate.
1. People sharing their “testimony” of Mitt Romney
For those who are not familiar with the monthly Mormon “Fast and Testimony” meetings, I’ll briefly describe what they are. On the first Sunday of each month, Mormons fast usually from food and water, for a day and use the money they would have used to pay for food and donate it to those who are less fortunate. During the “Fast and Testimony” meeting in church, Mormons are encouraged to stand up and share their “witness” or “testimony” of Jesus and the gospel.
Although discussing politics in church isn’t a normal occurance, I have heard some Mormons getting up recently and testifying of how God is leading Mitt Romney and praising Romney for being such a good man.
While I do not condone testifying of men at the pulpit, I appreciate that people are excited for a potential leader of our country who they feel is a righteous person.
2. Fasting for Mitt Romney
For those who are not familiar with the Mormon concept of fasting for someone, I’ll briefly explain. Occasionally, Mormons will unite in prayer and fasting to pray for a person who is sick, a situation to improve, etc. The concept is that through fasting and meditation, one comes closer to God and the powers of Heaven are brought down upon the person or situation.
A week or so before the debates, I received a Facebook message from one of my fellow Mormon friends. She had joined a group to fast for Mitt Romney before the 1st debate so God could lift him up.
Judging from the historical leap in the polls Romney had after the debates, it is nothing short of a miracle. I think many Mormons believe that through prayer and fasting, Romney shined in the debates.
3. Putting Romney’s name in the temple
In Mormon temples, there is part of the endowment ceremony where people come together joining hands in a circle and pray for a list of names of people who are in need of help. The names are written down on little pieces of paper and put into a box and prayed over in general terms, not individually by name.
One of my friends was telling me that his parents, who are temple workers, saw Mitt Romney’s name on the pieces of paper numerous times as they were emptying the prayer box after the temple ceremony.
He then shared with me that he and many others feel that God helped Romney win the debates because of the prayers offered in his behalf in the temples prior to the debates.
Conclusion
While I do not have hard data, I do get the feeling that most Mormons feel that Romney was lifted up by God to help him win the debate and put him ahead of Obama currently.
I am also aware that those who do not support Romney feel that Romney cheated and lied his way through the debate to beat Obama. Those who support Obama also feel that Romney didn’t really do that great, it’s just that Obama did so poorly that Romney looked better than he is.
In order to gather some hard numbers on this issue, feel free to take the short poll below and as always, feel free to leave a comment.
22 comments
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October 11, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Invisible Mikey
Look, Mormons, like the majority of Americans, are by a large majority decent, hard-working, family loving people. And then there’s Mitt Romney, pampered bully son of hard workers, vulture capitalist, who also happens to be Mormon. The only god who helped him win that debate was the god of used car sales, where you can violate your own previous positions if it helps you “close”. I have no idea if he will be able to fool enough voters to win, but he isn’t fooling me. I’m deeply disappointed with Obama’s performance in office, but you couldn’t get me to vote for Romney with a gun to my head. Maybe I’ll vote Gary Johnson.
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October 12, 2012 at 7:41 am
Cal
Invisible Mikey, thanks for your accurate compliments for Mormons.
Has the media distorted your view of Romney? I see a man who exudes Mormon character. During the debate I saw a gentleman.
I also thought Paul Ryan was more of a gentleman during his debate with Biden than Biden was.
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October 12, 2012 at 12:06 pm
Invisible Mikey
Oh I suppose there’s plenty of media bias, but mostly I read newspapers and don’t get my impressions from TV. There’s less distortion when you read investigative journalism in print. It’s more in-depth reporting.
I agree with you that both Romney and Ryan had good behavioral demeanor in their debates. But Romney keeps changing his positions, like telling the Des Moines Register one thing about his stance on abortion, then walking it back later the same day. Acting like a gentleman does not excuse being deceitful. There are no specifics in the Romney/Ryan plan of how it will be paid for. They propose a 20% tax cut, but won’t say how that gets offset, not even when Martha Raddatz asked Ryan directly to name one. That’s willful obfuscation. Nicely mannered men, yes, and not to be trusted with these jobs.
I should,however, have applauded you previously for your support by way of prayer. I also pray for all these men, and for us as a country. I do want God to help all of us gain what we need in life, and for the best outcome to be the result. That’s a separate issue for me from who to vote for, and I think you and I would agree on it. Prayer is for everyone.
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October 12, 2012 at 4:02 pm
graceforgrace
Invisible Mikey,
You are right about Romney switching his views on issues (not sure that your timeline is accurate, but nonetheless he has switched views).
What it comes down to is the lesser of two evils so to speak. Romney has his faults as does Obama. However, Romney at least welcomes requests for prayers and acts, as Cal pointed out, like more of a gentleman than the other two do. They have a better spirit about them, from what I can see and I think many Christians and Mormons feel the same way.
And you are right. Prayer is for everyone.
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October 12, 2012 at 6:48 pm
Cal
Invisible Mikey, I appreciate your prayers.
I’ll agree that the Romney/Ryan campaign does most of the same things all the other politicians do.
The flag I wave is my contention that most Americans won’t vote for a candidate who tells us what we need to hear.
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October 11, 2012 at 4:59 pm
Jeff Collins
Mr Obama helped Mr Romney win the debate.
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October 11, 2012 at 10:57 pm
Michael J. Snider
Great piece of blogging! You live in quite a stake. We don’t have anything close to that going on in ours (that I know of.)
– Like you, I do not endorse testimonies of men. Testimony meeting is for bearing testimony of the Gospel, the members of the Godhead, and eternal principles.
– I’m a bit surprised that some put Mitt’s name on prayer rolls. As best I can tell, he is not “sick or otherwise afflicted.”
– IMHO, the notion that God blessed, or lifted Romney to victory in the debate demonstrates a misunderstanding of how God accomplishes his ends. In fact, i believe that kind of thinking demeans both God and Romney.
Please don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that God doesn’t bless His children in time of need, (if he deems it in their best interest), but it usually occurs with regard to health or temporal circumstances or spiritual comfort or courage, not making outcomes happen – like winning debates.
The Parable of the Talents teaches that God blesses us all with varying talents and he expects all of us to make more out of what he gave us. God has certainly blessed Mitt Romney, and clearly Mitt has been busy over the course of his life multiplying (exponentially) the many talents he was blessed given. That combination – of giving talents and then allowing free agency to develop them – is how God accomplishes his ends. IMO God did not need to give any special lift or blessing to Romney on the night of the debate to help him trounce Obama. All Heavenly Father had to do was sit back and witness the sublime synergy of His blessings – coupled with years of preparation, hard work, service and obedience by Mitt Romney…and enjoy the show.
…of course this is all just my opinion; I could be wrong.
Again – great blog-post. The way you presented your thoughts really helped me to stop, step back and meditate on how God blesses His children. He gives us the tools to live as He does, (accompanied by his blessings and tender mercies), but He cannot “bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” by wielding the tools for us too…we must build our own mansion.
—
Michael J. Snider
Castle Rock, CO
————————–
Author: “Our Title of Liberty
(Latter Day Politics for Latter-day Saints)”
————————–
http://www.mormon-politics.com
Twitter: @LDSPolitics
Facebook: Michael J. Snider
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October 12, 2012 at 4:08 pm
graceforgrace
Hi Michael,
Thanks for stopping by. I agree with you that without preparation and planning and magnifying our talents as you mention, one can not expect to achieve and also expect God to intervene.
From what I saw at the debate, Obama was humbled significantly as it seemed he was caught off guard by not preparing. On the other hand, Romney was poised, confident, genuine, and assertive but a gentleman nonetheless.
What if Romney had prepared and planned, etc. but hadn’t received any prayers on his behalf? Do you think he would have performed as well?
My point in asking this is that yes we can increase our talents, but also we can call down the powers of heaven too through faith, preparation, and prayer.
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October 12, 2012 at 7:44 am
Cal
Non-Mormons have been praying for Mitt as well!
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October 12, 2012 at 11:31 am
Perplexed
So if he wins we will have to fast and pray for him every month or he won’t be able to manage the job? Think how much better we would be doing if we had done the same for President Obama the last four years.
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October 12, 2012 at 3:48 pm
Michael J. Snider
Perplexed: Thank you for making my point along with yours. It’s demeaning to both God and Romney to suggest that some sort of heavenly intervention won the debate for Romney.
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October 12, 2012 at 3:58 pm
graceforgrace
Perplexed, and Invisible Mikey,
Great point. We should be praying for all of our leaders. Perhaps prayers would have helped, but the prayers would have needed to be made with faith in the leader that they are at least trying to follow God. I don’t think (my opinion just from observation) that most Mormons believe that Obama is a Godly man who will try and follow the Lord. That still doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pray for him though.
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October 14, 2012 at 7:15 am
Perplexed
Do you have faith in God’s ability to change a man’s heart? Perhaps if you and all the other Mormon’s who have judged Obama as an ungodly man would pray for God to soften his heart and grant Obama a desire to follow His ways wonderful things might happen. There was Saul and Alma the younger. I’m sure some people wrote them off as ungodly also. If there is no hope of such a thing happening, then all of us praying for wayward children are wasting our time, aren’t we?
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October 14, 2012 at 10:18 am
graceforgrace
Perplexed.
Very good lesson for us all! Thanks for sharing. You are absolutely right that God can change a man’s heart and your scriptural references are right on.
Even if we do not support where Obama is right now, we could hope and pray that his heart changes. If God gave him spiritual impressions of promptings it would then be up to him to accept them or reject them.
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October 12, 2012 at 6:34 pm
Cal
graceforgrace, knowing you, I bet you’ll be almost as warmed as I was to hear the news of Mitt’s meeting with Billy Graham. A brief account of it is here: http://www.charismanews.com/us/34303-billy-graham-meets-with-romney-gov-asks-for-prayer
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October 12, 2012 at 10:58 pm
graceforgrace
Hi Cal,
I had heard about this. I think it is awesome. That’s one of the main things that I appreciate about Romney is that although he has shortcomings he seems to be sincerely seeking God. We need that most of all in a leader. Thanks for sharing this.
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October 14, 2012 at 5:34 pm
Cal
I saw your good comment under the story about Mitt with the Grahams.
That was brave of you to walk into the middle of that pack of wolves!
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October 14, 2012 at 10:02 pm
graceforgrace
Hi Cal,
No kidding! There were some crazies on there and I had to set them straight…or try to anyways!
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October 15, 2012 at 5:59 pm
Cal
There were some cronies there, too. 🙂
However, I have some good news. The following is a quote of a blogger responding to a Charisma story about Romney winning the first debate:
“This is an answer to many prayers from millions of Christians who do not want to see this country go over the debt cliff. THANK YOU GOD.”
That comment got 15 thumbs up & 2 thumbs down!
So there’s a bunch folks that would agree with your post above.
Tomorrow is round two! Obama will no doubt try to rectify the damage.
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October 15, 2012 at 8:00 pm
graceforgrace
Let’s all continue pray hard for Romney!
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October 22, 2012 at 5:18 am
Aaron
If the Lord helped Romney in the first debate, he must have been busy with other things during the second in which Romney did not fare so well. Also, without the Lord’s vigilance, Romney came off as the grown-up version of the prep school bully who tormented a gay student back in his younger days. Of course, we all see what we want to see.
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October 22, 2012 at 3:26 pm
graceforgrace
Hi Aaron…LOL. Great point! : )
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