{"id":1716,"date":"2012-11-20T16:41:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T16:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/11\/is-the-mormon-moment-over.html"},"modified":"2012-11-20T16:41:00","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T16:41:00","slug":"is-the-mormon-moment-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/11\/is-the-mormon-moment-over.html","title":{"rendered":"Is the Mormon Moment Over?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

No sooner had Mitt Romney lost the presidential election than various pundits and journalists began to declare that the\u00a0\u201cMormon moment\u201d was over<\/a>. Certainly, Romney\u2019s candidacies in 2008 and 2012 brought about increased visibility and often scrutiny for Mormonism<\/a>. Since its founding less than two hundred years ago, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> has been often ridiculed, attacked and misunderstood by a skeptical and American public. But as Americans learned more about Romney through the campaigns, many wanted to better understand his faith and what impact it might have on his presidency. Owing to that interest, the American media landscape cultivated a robust and largely informative conversation about all things Mormon, including\u00a0its baptismal practices<\/a>, the church\u2019s missionary efforts, the status of\u00a0Mormon women<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0African-Americans<\/a>, and the faith\u2019s history regarding polygamy.\u00a0\u201cWhat Do Mormons Believe?\u201d<\/a>\u00a0has read the headline of numerous articles of late.<\/div>\n
But while Romney\u2019s presidential ambitions no doubt magnified popular interest in Mormonism, observers are wrong to declare the \u201cMormon moment\u201d over now that Romney has been denied the White House. This heightened interested in Mormonism preceded Romney\u2019s bid for the highest office, and the cultural, political and religious significance that modern Mormonism has achieved in the last decade guarantees that this Mormon moment will long outlast the temporary prominence Romney enjoyed.<\/div>\n
Some commenters have quibbled with the notion that this Mormon moment has been a unique phenomenon or even a solely American story. Joanna Brooks, author of the recent memoir \u201cBook of Mormon Girl<\/a>,\u201d observed that \u201cthere have been many Mormon moments, and many more to come.\u201d Brooks also noted to me that whatever public visibility the LDS Church<\/a> has enjoyed in the U.S. of late needs to be considered within the faith\u2019s \u201cnew global reach\u201d that is spreading Mormonism through countries around the world. Indeed, to think of an American \u201cMormon moment\u201d is to lose sight of the much more significant international developments the LDS Church is carrying out through its proselytizing efforts and its institutional expansion.<\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No sooner had Mitt Romney lost the presidential election than various pundits and journalists began to declare that the\u00a0\u201cMormon moment\u201d was over. Certainly, Romney\u2019s candidacies in 2008 and 2012 brought about increased visibility and often scrutiny for Mormonism. Since its founding less than two hundred years ago, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIs the Mormon Moment Over?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"No sooner had Mitt Romney lost the presidential election than various pundits and journalists began to declare that the "Mormon moment" was over.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/11\/is-the-mormon-moment-over.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is the Mormon Moment Over?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"No sooner had Mitt Romney lost the presidential election than various pundits and journalists began to declare that the "Mormon moment" was over.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/11\/is-the-mormon-moment-over.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-20T16:41:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andre E. 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