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<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
To my Iowa Brothers and Sisters in Christ,<\/p>\n
I get it. \u00a0You have people like\u00a0Bob Vander Plaats who are trying to get you to vote for Rick Santorum, even though you know he has no chance to beat Obama. \u00a0(Though he\u2019s a great Catholic guy, he was so intimidated by the Virginia ballot process that he simply slunk away without even trying to give Virginians the option of voting for him<\/a>.) \u00a0You love Michele Bachmann\u2019s personal story, her faith, and her great conservative ideas. \u00a0Yet, she too doesn\u2019t seem up for the job. \u00a0You briefly flirted with Newt \u2014 that\u2019s okay. \u00a0 Who hasn\u2019t?But after the news of all of his affairs<\/a>, his ethical violations<\/a>, and his incompetence<\/a>, you can\u2019t bring yourself to voting for the guy either.<\/p>\n The most competent candidate, by far, is Mitt Romney. \u00a0He\u2019s more conservative than George W. Bush, he is a champion of traditional marriage, pro-life issues, and \u2014 oh yeah \u2014 he can turn an economy around.<\/p>\n There\u2019s that one nagging little thing\u2026<\/p>\n I\u2019ll never forget the day when my husband David told me about the exciting Presidental candidate named Mitt. \u00a0\u201cHe\u2019s a Mormon.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cToo bad we can\u2019t vote for him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201d David asked innocently, though I was incredulous.\u00a0\u00a0 Wasn\u2019t the answer obvious?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll never vote for a Mormon,\u201d I said, flabbergasted he\u2019d even consider it.\u00a0 After all, I was raised in the Church of Christ, had attended the charismatic Times Square Church in New York City, and \u2013 at the time \u2013 went to the conservative Tenth Presbyterian Church in\u00a0Philadelphia.\u00a0 I tithed, had been baptized in a summer camp swimming pool when I was twelve, knew all the verses of How Great Thou Art, and had Pyrex dishes with my name written on the bottom in Sharpie specifically for benevolence casseroles.<\/p>\n Though I didn\u2019t know many Mormons<\/a> well, I was sure I wouldn\u2019t like them.\u00a0 After all, their commercials on television were ridiculously earnest.\u00a0 Who runs in the back yard with their family while blowing bubbles in slow motion?\u00a0 Please.<\/p>\n However, in a matter of days, I went from objecting to his candidacy to unabashedly supporting it, so I thought I would share how I went from being completely opposed to unabashedly supportive of this particular Presidential candidate.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what helped me:<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>In spite of our theological differences, evangelicals and Mormons are already political allies<\/strong>. In fact, if Mormons weren\u2019t consistently more conservative than their evangelical neighbors, Al Gore would be America\u2019s president now and California Proposition 8, which overturned a state Supreme Court ruling that permitted gay marriage, would\u2019ve failed. In fact, we owe them a great deal for their steadfast consistency on moral issues The sometimes squishy evangelical church, tossed by every trend, is responsible for electing Barack Obama.<\/p>\n 2. Romney\u2019s faith doesn\u2019t indicate that he\u2019s gullible.<\/strong> Let\u2019s face it.\u00a0 All religions require a leap of faith that appears silly to outsiders. If a reporter questioned me about my religion, he\u2019d raise an eyebrow over my belief that Noah was a floating zookeeper, that Jesus was the best sommelier in Galilee, and that he paid taxes with coins from a fish\u2019s mouth.\u00a0 No one belongs to the Church of the Scientific Method, so religion falls outside normal reasoning. Gov. Romney\u2019s beliefs certainly require faith \u2013 including his quite\u00a0miraculous notion that Jesus is his personal Savior. In my experience, evangelicals loathe religious litmus tests.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Democrats do, when they try to disqualify Christian and Catholic judges because of their beliefs. \u00a0The same people who would disqualify a Mormon would disqualify me, citing the same list of \u201cthis person can\u2019t be a serious thinker if she believes this miraculous stuff.\u201d\u00a0 And as far as gullible goes, don\u2019t forget that Mitt Romney has\u00a0two<\/em> Harvard degrees.<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0Baptists don\u2019t have the best track record, either<\/strong>.\u00a0 John Mark Reynolds once wrote that \u201cmy faith in the holiness standards of Baptists survived Clinton and my belief in their sanity survived Carter, though that was a closer call.\u201d In fact, should we taint all Baptist Presidential candidates with the legacy of recent Baptist leaders \u2013 i.e. Clinton\u2019s moral failure, Carter\u2019s weak foreign policy, Johnson\u2019s social programs, and Gore\u2019s use of the word \u201clock box.\u201d Of course not.\u00a0 Evangelicals should evaluate candidates on their own political merits.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0\u00a0Evangelicals do not historically vote for the \u201cmost Christian\u201d person on the <\/strong>ballot.<\/strong> When Jimmy Carter (a Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher) ran against Ronald Reagan, evangelicals correctly voted for the divorced Hollywood actor.\u00a0 After all, he was the one who would best represent their values.\u00a0 Similarly, in 2012, we should look for the candidate who will most effectively represent our values by beating Obama and being a good advocate for our social positions.\u00a0 Gov. Romney is that candidate.<\/p>\n 5.\u00a0Electing a Mormon will not create a surge of support for that religion<\/strong>.\u00a0 My husband David put it best\u00a0when he wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s fair to say that Barack Obama hasn\u2019t done much for Jeremiah Wright\u2019s now-famous \u201cblack liberation theology,\u201d and George Bush\u2019s well-known evangelical beliefs likely repelled as many people as they attracted. In fact, I can\u2019t think of a single president that had a discernible impact on the theological beliefs of our citizens. And that makes sense. Presidents aren\u2019t pastors. We don\u2019t look to presidents for pastoral guidance but instead for national leadership. We don\u2019t think, \u201cI like those Bush tax cuts.\u00a0I think I\u2019ll check out the Methodist church.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n Applying these same lessons to Mormons, does watching\u00a0Harry Reid<\/a> make you want to talk to a Mormon missionary? How about when you fly\u00a0JetBlue<\/a>? During a smooth, comfortable flight do you use the in-flight Wi-Fi to surf\u00a0LDS.org<\/a>? Does a particularly elegant turndown service at a high-end\u00a0Marriott<\/a>put you in the mood to download the Mormon Tabernacle Choir\u2019s\u00a0greatest hits<\/a>? If you\u2019re a sports fan, did watching\u00a0Steve Young<\/a> connect with Jerry Rice make you complete an application to\u00a0BYU<\/a>?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 6. \u00a0You don\u2019t have to agree with the LDS faith to support Gov. Romney<\/strong>.\u00a0 If the Romneys agreed with my religion, they would be conservative Presbyterians.\u00a0 If we believed theirs, we\u2019d be Mormons.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing wrong with definitively saying that there are religious differences between the two.\u00a0 There obviously are, and you don\u2019t have to defend Mormonism to pull the lever for Gov. Romney.<\/p>\n Reports show that Rick Santorum \u2014 the only candidate not to have experienced a surge so far \u2014 might<\/em> be earning the evangelical votes in Iowa.<\/p>\n So, to all of my evangelical friends in Iowa, I know where you\u2019re coming from. I understand that your hesitation comes from a well-meaning desire to protect the gospel and to honor God in all aspects of your life.\u00a0 However,\u00a0God has something to do with salvation<\/a>, can safeguard the integrity of the gospel without our feeble, frequently self-righteous help, and wouldn\u2019t hang the validity of Christianity on whether or not we voted for Mitt Romney for President.<\/p>\n If you still have questions, or are concerned about his track record on\u00a0abortion<\/a>,\u00a0gay marriage<\/a>, or\u00a0Romneycare<\/a>, please visit\u00a0www.EvangelicalsforMitt.org<\/a>, where we have sorted through the issues so you can make an informed decision in 2012.<\/p>\n Please, Iowa Evangelicals, let Bob Vander Plaats know that you can think for yourselves and that you aren\u2019t going to let Iowa select a person who\u2019ll guarantee another four years of Obama.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 To my Iowa Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I get it. \u00a0You have people like\u00a0Bob Vander Plaats who are trying to get you to vote for Rick Santorum, even though you know he has no chance to beat Obama. \u00a0(Though he\u2019s a great Catholic guy, he was so intimidated by the Virginia ballot process […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27,179,23,131,173],"class_list":["post-872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-evangelicals","tag-iowa","tag-mitt-romney","tag-mormonism","tag-rick-santorum"],"yoast_head":"\n