OK, I admit to being highly prejudiced. A recent Zogby poll asked

[Jackpine Radical]

if I would decline to vote for someone if they were black, female, Mormon, etc. And without much hesitation I replied that I wouldn't vote for a Mormon. Upon reflection, I find that this was a bigoted response on my part, due to my stereotypical beliefs about Mormons.

So I hereby retract my Zogby response. I WOULD vote for a Mormon.

As long as the Mormon is a pro-choice, antiwar, feminist, civil-libertarian political liberal who believes all races are equal in the eyes of God, and advocates strong environmental laws, a single-payer national health care plan, nationalization of the oil industry, and the decriminalizing or legalizing of street drugs.

Hell yes, I could vote for a Mormon.

[Sal Minella]

1. Me too. Even if s/he wouldn't share a pot of expresso with me.....

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. But, do we really know who somone "is"??

I haven't. People I've talked with here on DU surprise me all of the time with their stances. I vote for people, not so much for vocalized stances, religious preferences etc. As I've always said come election rev ups... The only perfect candidate for me at this time would be me, and since I'm not running...

[rockymountaindem]

3. I went to a high school that was about 25-33 percent Mormon

and the rest was mostly evangelical Protestant. This was within the last five years, so my experience is relatively recent. I have to say that despite my theological differences with them (I'm Jewish) I respect the Mormons way more than "the fundies" we always complain about. The Mormons kept the religious agenda largely off the table, while the fundies kept hammering away at how bad Mormonism is. The Mormons would not be provoked, and largely I would say they were much more dignified in their spiritual and temporal lives than their fundamentalist Protestant counterparts. To give you an idea of the kind of fundies I'm talking about, Ted Haggard's old church is in my neighborhood and several of my friends were part of his congregation.

As one of the few people of faith outside Christianity, many of the fundamentalist Protestants (including my friends) would always try to tell me of the evils of Mormonism (such as the addition of the Book of Mormon to the Bible). When asked my opinion on the matter, I'd always reply "how is the New Testament not a supposedly proscribed 'addition' to the Bible" and "the Mormons never tell me how bad you guys are" (which was totally true). Long story short, while a lot of people who don't have experience with the Mormons think they're a bunch of clannish wierdos, in reality the Mormons are far preferable to the madness of Focus on the Family et. al.

And, don't forget, Harry Reid is a Mormon.

[twilight_sailing]

5. Well done, rockymountaindem.

Having grown up (albeit many years earlier) in a similar situation, I concur.

[SharonAnn]

6. And I concur. Personal experience with a Mormon family who practice

what Christ preached. I saw them forgive someone who caused the death of their mother (who left young children) in a traffic accident. They could've prosecuted that person to the ends of the earth for the accident and they chose to forgive. I am still in awe.

Honestly, it was truly awesome and I am stil awed by it. It taught me so much about practicing my own Christian faith and what it means to try to live up to what Christ taught us.

I know that forgiveness is part of many religions, I'd just never seen it done on that level before. It was real. It was true. It was living their faith.

[twilight_sailing]

9. Sometimes I think forgiveness is the key

to everything.

[Warpy]

7. Jack Mormons are some of the greatest folks around

but I have found the true believers to be as clannish as true believers of any other religion are. The main difference is they don't harangue other people about going to hell. They don't have a hell.

IMO, a fundy is a fundy is a fundy, and I avoid the lot of them.

Give me a Jack Mormon who is a social libertarian, who listens to the right people on foreign policy, and is willing to reverse Reaganomics, and I'll vote for him/her in a NY second.

[skids]

4. I know a lot of MA residents who would have said that too n/t

[Rosemary2205]

8. All but one of my interactions with mormons have been positive.

My sister in law is a devout mormon and I have had quite a few interactions with them through my brother and his wife. In addition, we worked for 20 years with in the foster program and quite a few foster parents in this area are devout mormons - they whole community they lived in seemed highly supportive of families. In fact, my sister in law's "ward" was much more helpful to my husband and I during our long medical crisis than the members of our own baptist church. These people generally seem to really want to follow the teachings of Jesus regarding love, acceptance, service, kindness, charity, honesty etc.

The only negative experience I've ever had with a mormon was the father of one of our foster kids that had been abusive and was totally unrepentant about his behavior toward his wife and children. He not only lost his family but was quickly excommunicated from the mormon community. They basically shunned him.

[benddem]

10. Have you ever read

"The Book of Mormon?" I'd have a reaaallly hard time voting for anyone that believes that. The whole religion was dreamed up by a guy in NY. Lots of the ideas have been disproven by their own genetic testing...they still believe. I have lots of Mormon friends and volunteer weekly at the Family History Library in the Mormon church here and I appreciate their doing all the genealogy research. I don't, however, think that what they do with the research is bizarre.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. I haven't actually read the B of M, but I do know something

of the history of the church. Joseph Smith & the hat & all. I don't find their ideas a lot more bizarre than those of the Fundies, or the Scientologists for that matter.

Since we're throwing reference books around, do you know of Fawn Brodie? http://lds-mormon.com/brodie.shtml

[atre]

12. I'd have a hard time supporting someone who believes that black skin is the mark of the devil

Mormons believe that when Cain was expelled for having killed Abel, he was given the mark of the devil - which in Mormon theology means black skin... This is how they rationalized color differences.

And while the church "officially" recanted this belief a couple decades ago, it is still the orthodoxy that is taught in ordinary Mormon congregations.

[Rosemary2205]

13. this is not taught in the mormon church.

and if it is the teacher in question should be released. the fact is very few mormons these days are even aware of that teaching.

[benddem]

14. no haven't seen it

but I have read numerous books on Smith et al. Long time ago I dated a man who was placed in a foster home with mormons and they really drilled the religion home. He could quote long passages etc, but was a complete atheist. I became interested because of him.

[undeterred]

15. I worked for a mormon candidate for 8 months last year

and let me tell you, he is a wonderful human being. He fits all your criteria and he ran against Sensenbrenner twice. Lots of one issue voters in that district and people who care only about stem cell research and abortion.

Bryan Kennedy and his wife are practicing mormons, as are their parents, and they are raising their 3 children in the mormon religion. Their political values are at odds with mormon church teachings and he has been confronted about it by the leaders, but he stood his ground, and he did it using biblical reasoning. The truth is you can be a progressive mormon (or Catholic or anything else) and sometimes the only way you can effect change in an institution positively is from the inside.

I worked even harder for him than I originally planned to once I found out about his religious background. I once spent a summer as a fundamentalist missionary- he actually spent a couple of years doing this at about the same age. I knew he was the kind of candidate that nobody would ever dig up dirt on- no sexual affairs, no drunk driving, nothing that would be embarrassing. He doesn't drink at all- and neither do I, so I was glad to know a couple other people at campaign events were sober.

I'm a Quaker and I've studied religion so I know about some of the weirder claims of mormonism. I never talked to him about it. All I know is that I could almost never surprise him with a bit of news (he was on top of everything), he had well reasoned progressive views, and he was eager to serve as a congressman. He is a PhD in Portuguese/Spanish and the country would have been lucky to have him.

He acknowledged his mormonism on his website. I'm not sure how many people decided not to vote for him because of his mormonism. Sadly I wonder if there were as many from the intolerant left as the intolerant right.

[Jackpine Radical]

17. I had no idea Kennedy is a Mormon.

I'd have made the same decision you did.

In fact, this whole thread has been something of an eye-opener for me & I'm glad I did it.

[undeterred]

18. you know, it did catch me by surprise at first

I do know in my head that there are 'progressives' in every religion. I studied religion and some of my best friends were nuns- radical feminist nuns! -who see a million things wrong with the Catholic Church but they are committed to reforming it within. Same thing goes for Mormonism and every other group we tend to think of as kind of crazy and conservative. God bless the ones who stay and fight for change! Bryan took a lot of criticism from his Church and his parents, especially over the abortion and stem cell issues- but he held his ground and he even wrote a wonderful statement on this issue that was on his website.

If he weren't pro-choice or if he were grudgingly pro-choice I wouldn't have worked for him.

He didn't really say too much about being a mormon- he did let people know that his parents raised him as a conservative christian and they might have assumed a few things based on that. He really tried to get people to talk about the war, health care, and the economy when he was going door to door.

Bryan was a delightful surprise. His views are hardly any different from my own representative (Tammy Baldwin) who is a lesbian living in Madison. But the same exact views spoken by a lesbian from Madison and a married mormon from Glendale are categorized differently. Apparently the packaging matters. I don't really think of Bryan as a "moderate" (to me Kohl is a moderate) but if it helps to call him that, fine with me.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

16. I would only vote for a Mormon if they were reasonably heterodox.

And the same is true of most other religions - including but not limited to conservative or reform Judaism, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, most branches of protestantism and most branches of Islam.

I have no problem whatsoever supporting someone like John Kerry, who calls himself a Catholic but doesn't actually follow the teachings of the Catholic church on issues like gay rights and abortion.

I don't give a damn what religion the candidates I'm offered to choose between claim to be, but I won't vote for someone whose moral principles don't match mine, and those espoused by the orthodox versions of most religions don't.