Can Mormon Romney Become President?

A correspondent of the Dutch newspaper Elsevier, via Watching America, tells the story of his visit by to Mormon-land, and ponders the possibility of a Mormon in the White House. It’s worth a read.

How do we assess the bearing that a candidate’s religious views has on his or her judgment? Certainly the thought that someone who stakes his (eternal) life on certain claims about a guy’s reading some gold plates in a hat, and all the rest of it, will be running the free world, makes a thinking person nervous. Beliefs are cognitive judgments and therefore do speak to a candidate’s ability to lead.

As Galileo said,

“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”

Yet the psychology of Romney’s faith is almost certainly no different from that of any other protestant or catholic – largely a consequence of upbringing and exposure. Moreover, prima facie, is the Mormon myth any more absurd than the pope’s speaking ex cathedra, or the fundamentalists’ history of the world in six thousand years? Probably not. It would be interesting to know whether those who don’t identify with any such religious group are as consistent in voting for their own as are members of the aforementioned religious groups. If not, why not? And would it serve them?

For what it’s worth, the Elsevier article gives us these numbers:

In an opinion poll in 2006, 37% of those questioned answered that they would never vote for a Mormon for president. For a Muslim, the percentage was 51, and for an Evangelical Christian, 21. 15% would never vote for a Jew, while 10% would have insurmountable objections against a second Catholic president

For more, read “Can Mormon Romney Become President?” on Watching America.com