Stalking the anti-Mormon voters of 2012<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With the White House race nearing an end, it's time for America's political pundits to face that fact that millions of voters will in fact be worried\" \/>\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\/tmatt\/2012\/10\/stalking-the-anti-mormon-voters-of-2012\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stalking the anti-Mormon voters of 2012\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With the White House race nearing an end, it's time for America's political pundits to face that fact that millions of voters will in fact be worried\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/10\/stalking-the-anti-mormon-voters-of-2012\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-22T10:19:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/10\/stalking-the-anti-mormon-voters-of-2012\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/10\/stalking-the-anti-mormon-voters-of-2012\/\",\"name\":\"Stalking the anti-Mormon voters of 2012\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-22T10:19:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-10-22T10:19:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"With the White House race nearing an end, it's time for America's political pundits to face that fact that millions of voters will in fact be worried\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/10\/stalking-the-anti-mormon-voters-of-2012\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/10\/stalking-the-anti-mormon-voters-of-2012\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/10\/stalking-the-anti-mormon-voters-of-2012\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Stalking the anti-Mormon voters of 2012\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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{"id":2684,"date":"2012-10-22T06:19:39","date_gmt":"2012-10-22T10:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=2684"},"modified":"2012-10-22T06:19:39","modified_gmt":"2012-10-22T10:19:39","slug":"stalking-the-anti-mormon-voters-of-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/10\/stalking-the-anti-mormon-voters-of-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Stalking the anti-Mormon voters of 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Many will be offended by what they believe are the intolerant, narrow teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> on marriage. Others will be worried about Mormonism\u2019s history of opposing abortion rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere really is a large group of people in America who won\u2019t vote for Mitt Romney for president because he is a Mormon,\u201d noted Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes, in a recent Institute on Religion and Democracy lecture. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very large group and there is a name for them \u2014 liberals.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the God-and-politics story most media insiders wanted to talk about during the 2012 campaign, said Barnes, who also works as a commentator for Fox News. The religion hook this time around was supposed to be clashes between Romney and Trinitarian Christians who consider Mormonism, at best, a sect or, at the worst, a \u201ctheological cult\u201d with its own prophet, scriptures and unorthodox doctrines on the nature of God and other eternal matters.<\/p>\n

But a strange thing happened somewhere during the campaign. According to a number of political polls, the overwhelming majority of Christian conservatives quietly decided they could vote for the Republican nominee without endorsing his views on heaven, hell and the mysteries of the Godhead.<\/p>\n

In one Gallup survey this past summer<\/a>, potential voters were asked: \u201cIf your party nominated a generally well-qualified person for president who happened to be a Mormon, would you vote for that person?\u201d While 10 percent of Republicans answered \u201cno,\u201d this negative stance toward Mormon candidates rose to 18 percent among self-declared \u201cindependents\u201d and 24 percent among Democrats.<\/p>\n

Another piece of pre-election research \u2014 the American National Election Studies (.pdf)<\/a>, by a scholar at the University of Sydney \u2014 found that anxieties among evangelical Protestants have actually declined somewhat in recent years, with 36 percent expressing an \u201caversion\u201d to Mormon candidates in 2007 and 33 percent feeling the same way in 2012.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, anti-Mormon attitudes among non-religious voters rose from 21 percent in 2007 to 41 percent in 2012. Among voters who called themselves \u201cliberals,\u201d this aversion to Mormons rose from 28 percent to 43 percent during that same period. Political and religious liberals, according to this study, are now 10 percent more likely than evangelical Protestants to harshly prejudge Mormon candidates.<\/p>\n

The key for many Protestants is that, after decades of trying to Christianize American history, it has become very hard for them not to think of the president as a kind of \u201creligious mascot\u201d instead of as a politician, said the Rev. Russell D. Moore, speaking at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. A recording of this forum, entitled \u201cThe Mormon Moment: Religious Conviction and the 2012 Election,\u201d was later posted on the Internet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard someone in recent days say, \u2018I would never vote for anyone who is not an authentically professing evangelical Christian,\u2019 \u201d said Moore, who leads the seminary\u2019s school of theology. \u201cIf that\u2019s the case, then as far as I can see, you have about three candidates in the last 100 years or so \u2026 that you could possibly vote for: William Jennings Bryan, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of focusing on a shopping list of doctrines, religious voters will need to focus on a more practical question when they enter voting booths, said Moore. They should ask: \u201cBetween these two people \u2014 President Obama and Gov. Romney \u2014 who is going to do the best for the common good and in protecting the United States of America and all the other questions that we\u2019ve got to keep in mind?\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, admitted Barnes, there are \u201csmall pockets\u201d of evangelicals in the Bible Belt who remain convinced that members of their flocks must not compromise by voting for a Mormon. However, most religious conservatives have concluded that they fear Romney\u2019s faith less than they fear a second term for Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

The experts also know that, \u201cjust as a matter of political geography, the few holdouts, if you want to call them that, tend to be in states where Mitt Romney probably doesn\u2019t need their votes,\u201d said Barnes. \u201cHe will carry states like Tennessee and South Carolina and Georgia \u2026 very easily.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"