{"id":1830,"date":"2012-10-02T19:57:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T19:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/10\/would-romney-be-most-religious-president-what-about-carter.html"},"modified":"2012-10-02T19:57:00","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T19:57:00","slug":"would-romney-be-most-religious-president-what-about-carter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/10\/would-romney-be-most-religious-president-what-about-carter.html","title":{"rendered":"Would Romney be ‘most religious’ president? What about Carter?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
If Mitt Romney<\/a> wins the Nov. 6 election, would he become our most religious president? It\u2019s an odd question, but one that has come up in recent days after writer Nicholas Lemann said as much in a profile of Romney <\/a>that ran in the New Yorker magazine. \u201cIf elected,\u201d Lemann wrote, \u201cRomney, scion of an old, distinguished Mormon family (his ancestors had a direct connection to Joseph Smith<\/a> and Brigham Young), would arguably be the most actively religious president in American history.\u201d<\/div>\n
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There are a couple of key qualifiers there \u2014 the use of the words \u201carguably\u201d and \u201cactively.\u201d Still, the claim begs a question \u2014 in fact, more than one. What president would Romney displace from the title of most religious? What, exactly, does that mean? And how can anyone tell? \u201cI have to admit, when I first saw it, I thought, \u2018Really?\u2019 I mean, how do you know?\u201d said Steve Shaw, a professor of political science at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho, and coauthor of \u201cThe Presidents & Their Faith: From George Washington<\/a> to Barack Obama<\/a>.\u201d<\/div>\n

Slate magazine suggested, perhaps not surprisingly, that Jimmy Carter<\/a> might be the current title holder. Carter, a Baptist Sunday school teacher, was the first president to declare himself to have been born again (and to have lusted in his heart) and was known as a president whose policies were often guided by faith \u2014 not always to positive political ends. \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to know the contents of a man\u2019s heart, but historians who study the religious lives of the presidents point again and again to the words and deeds of James Earl Carter Jr.,\u201d Slate wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Who else? James A. Garfield, a member of the Disciples of Christ, was the only president who had been a pastor. When he left his ministry for the White House, he declared, \u201cI resign the highest office in the land to become president of the United States.\u201d Alas, it didn\u2019t go well for him: Garfield was shot four months into his term in 1881, and died several months later.<\/div>\n
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William McKinley<\/a> was an apparently devout Methodist who disappointed his mother when he went into politics, not the ministry. Nevertheless, he remained active in his church throughout his life. Richard Nixon<\/a> was another president whose mother had higher aspirations for her son: Hannah Nixon thought young Richard should become a Quaker missionary.<\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a> <\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If Mitt Romney wins the Nov. 6 election, would he become our most religious president? It\u2019s an odd question, but one that has come up in recent days after writer Nicholas Lemann said as much in a profile of Romney that ran in the New Yorker magazine. \u201cIf elected,\u201d Lemann wrote, \u201cRomney, scion of an […]<\/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-1830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWould Romney be 'most religious' president? What about Carter?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If Mitt Romney wins the Nov. 6 election, would he become our most religious president? 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