Ross argues:
As an outside observer, it seems to me that Mormonism has a divided soul – there’s a yearning for acceptance within the firmament of Christianity (and a hint of self-pity concerning other Christians’ unwillingness to welcome them with open arms), combined with a pride in everything that makes the Latter-Day Saints unique. I’m inclined to think the latter is the healthier sentiment for members of a young and rising faith. Attention, and the hostility that comes with it, is the price of being a successful religion, as the larger history of Christianity’s rise attests: You don’t see Christopher Hitchens writing polemics against the Mithraists or the cult of Isis, after all.
Here’s the rub for Romney in the newest Pew poll:
The group of Americans most likely to say they value religiosity in a president – white evangelical Protestants – is also the group most apt to be bothered by his religion.
More than one-in-three evangelical Republicans (36%) expressed reservations about voting for a Mormon, a level of opposition much higher than that seen among the electorate overall.
Bummer for Hewitt. David Kuo laments:
We are spending way too much time talking about theological nuances when we should be talking about legal and political and financial nuances. We are a country in a little bit of a stink right now and what we need are effective and impressive (but mostly effective) administrators in elective office. We don’t need to know much about their thoughts on this or that theological issue.
