The church thrives in a vacuuum of knowledge, particulary when it comes to missionary visits, but if Romney gets the GOP nomination, that vacuum will become filled with inconvenient facts. My vote is it will hurt.

Hurt

People who normally wouldn't care, will be digging up all kinds of dirt and talking endlessly about it.

mia Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hurt
>
> People who normally wouldn't care, will be digging
> up all kinds of dirt and talking endlessly about
> it.


I agree 100%. There will be many more PBS type specials that before few people cared about. And the Dems may throw some money at this which will help.

I think that a lot of LD$ inc. dirty little sacred secrets would be exposed.

I can't wait ...

but we all know what a tin-ear the morg has for PR.

Look at the Prop 8 debacle.

If Romney gets the nomination, the light will be shined on the cockroaches.

I think Americans are pretty tolerant when it comes to religion. I don't think it will make one bit of difference.

how often they whack off.

Not too tolerant at all about such practices.

That wasn't the case during JFK's campaign. His Catholicism was a BIG issue.

The Church does better when it can control the message but since the advent of the internet that has been difficult at best. A Mormon candidate would bring out all kinds of stuff the Church doesn't want to deal with.

To counter all the exposure? If Romney is nominated, I predict an unprecedented number (for modern times, at least) of "revelations"

Well I think a mormon candidate like this is what the Church has had wet dreams about since its inception: a fabulously wealthy guy with a full head of hair who epitomizes everything the church stands for. They are well prepared for this moment.

The only problem is Matthew 19:24. Romney espouses what the Church actually believes not what Jesus is all about and Romney used all his G-d-given talents to screw his subordinates in every way possible for his personal enrichment.

Interanlly they will think it helps and look at it as a sign that their cult is true but on the outside, it won't do a thing to help their cause. The mormons are delusional and think their religion is so special when its just not!

The faithful koolaid drinkers I'm sure would think this is all part of the Lord's plan. They'll be bearing their testimonies about how wonderful and marvelous it is. The ChurchCo's PR department has got to be $hitting bricks though. C'mon. How would Dateline or 60 Minutes not do stories about the secrecy of temple vows and magic undies? Plus all of the rest of it? There is sooooooo much material there for the media to dive into. All they need is viewers to have a reason to care about the topic of Mormonism. With Mitt getting the nomination, they'll have more of a reason to care than they've had ever. Of Mitt were to get the nomination AND the general election , we'll have the world media interested in reporting on the craziest aspects of Mormonism. ChurchCo will have more pressure than ever to reform. If they dig in their heals, they will lose power. Any way you look at it, is a win for the exmo cause. Go Mitt go!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/2011 02:22PM by badfish.

badfish Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The faithful koolaid drinkers I'm sure would think
> this is all part of the Lord's plan. They'll be
> bearing their testimonies about how wonderful and
> marvelous it is. The ChurchCo's PR department has
> got to be $hitting bricks though. C'mon. How
> would Dateline or 60 Minutes not do stories about
> the secrecy of temple vows and magic undies? Plus
> all of the rest of it? There is sooooooo much
> material there for the media to dive into. All
> they need is viewers to have a reason to care
> about the topic of Mormonism. With Mitt getting
> the nomination, they'll have more of a reason to
> care than they've had ever. Of Mitt were to get
> the nomination AND the general election , we'll
> have the world media interested in reporting on
> the craziest aspects of Mormonism. ChurchCo will
> have more pressure than ever to reform. If they
> dig in their heals, they will lose power. Any way
> you look at it, is a win for the exmo cause. Go
> Mitt go!!!


And once people are interested, they just need to be steered away from the evangelical spiel against Mormonism and talk to the historians and former mormons and find out the REAL, troubling issues that make the church look ridiculious like BOA, BOM anachronisms, temples and masonary, etc. That's when we steer them to Richard Packham, Grant Palmer, Simon Southerton, etc.

If something were to happen why hasn't it already happened? Why hasn't the media zeroed in on the faith already? I predict nothing will happen and few will care so long as he doesn't involve the church in his decision making were he to ever be president. People will look at any questioning of the faith as religious discrimination. As far as JFK being Catholic obviously We the People didn't care that much.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/2011 02:31PM by suckafoo.

to swiftboat Mittens with all kind of crazy shit?

I do. There are plenty of agendas out there willing to do it.

to name two:

anti mormon evangelicals
pro Obama everybody else

That's the beauty(?) of mormonism; all the crazy shit you can say about it is absolutely true.

Re: the pro-obama everyone else, I don't think they will make a big deal about Mormonism unless he gets the nomination. This is just my own opinion, but I think it would be better for the democrats if Romney got the nomination, rather than Gingrich. THEN they can go to town on Romney, his religion, etc. I don't have scholarly citations to back that up, it's probably based on my own bias. Gingrich as president scares the bejesus out of me.

They did not zero in on the "faith" of Obama so why whould they with Romney. I am a believer that you must look at the whole person and they didn't then and won't now. SAD.

I agree, but the question was whether a rom nom would help or hurt the morg, not whether morg membership will help or hurt a romney candidacy.

It obviously didn't hurt JFK in the end, but his religion, and the finer points of it, was a hot topic during his candidacy. He had to issue disclaimers and such about loyalty to the country over the church/pope, etc.

The higher Romney rises, the more discussion there will be about the finer points of the religion (if there are no other candidates to talk about the 24/7 news cycle culture will make it a topic), casting a spotlight on the weirdness. Whether that makes him more or less electable isn't really the issue so much as whether it will be better or worse for the church.

More info will come out if he is elected. It is bound to hurt them. Many will be surprised a man with those kind of beliefs ever got in the White House - harken to the present.

It might hasten their morphing into homey industrious Christian types. Once people get to know more Mormons they might come to be accepted.

Once the mystery about them is taken away, I'm guessing a lot of people really won't dig into the weirdness anymore. They will judge Mormons by the Mormons they know. Mormons can come off appearing family oriented, nice, and successful. Heck, most Mormons themselves don't know or care about the weird Mormon history and beliefs.

Meanwhile, it will be hilarious as some of the more embarrassing points of Mormonism are brought to light. However I suspect that people who pick on Mormons will be viewed as anti religious meanies in the media.

We'll have to see how it plays out.

Either way, it's time to get out the popcorn! :-)

certificate will come out of the woodwork - in fact they already have on many forums. Unfortunately, they are scarier than Mormons.

I don't think the mainstream media will touch the issues we'd want them to. It'll come out in small venues, online magazines and the like, and in entertainment.

We've already seen about all we'll get. Mormons will continue to joked about on comedy shows.

Our biggest opportunity may well come with the making of the movie of "Under the Banner of Heaven", again, the entertainment area more than politics and media.

people will become interested, and some will join...especially if he is a popular pres.

others will be completely uninterested/ignore.

some people will surely dig up the church's trash and put it on display...that's already on display to everyone who wants to find it, and so I doubt there will be a big change among tbms due to having the church's trash on display...

Romney moved way to the right. The church went of the right-end with prop H8. 80% of mormons are republican. The rightward-pressure in mormonism is at a generational high right now. Liberal and centrist mormons are being pushed over the edge by it.

Meanwhile there's leftward pressure coming from the far right. As mormons move too far right they find themselves in the same lane as ultraconservative christians and there's a mutual bump-back. Mormons don't want the FAR right and the far right doesn't want mormons.

So mormons are stuck in the middle of the right, which is, for most people, as far right as they can go, and right now mormons are shoved up against that wall by the church's own rightward pressure. The only escape...is a whole lotta left. Inevitably the major attrition is gonna be to the left.

Bottom line...many mormons are being forced to the left, ironically, by rightward pressure.

Classic backfire.