Elsevier, The Netherlands

Can Mormon Romney become President?

By Rik Kuethe

Translated By Dorian de Wind

January 18, 2007

The Netherlands - Elsevier – Original text (Dutch)

After Republican Mitt Romney’s victory,  on Tuesday he won the primary in Michigan, the question at hand is how much the candidate’s faith matters.  Differently put: can a Mormon, because Romney is one, become president of the United States?

In the summer of 1963, my sister Sandra and I stayed with a Mormon family outside of Salt Lake City, “Mormon country capital in Utah.” After talking all night with these warm-hearted people, we wanted to continue on our way toward Reno, Nevada, “the greatest small town on earth.”

Remarkable

When we bid our farewell, we offered our hosts a tin of “Haagsche Hopjes” [traditional hard, coffee-flavored, Dutch candy], as we did everywhere. When the man of the house noticed that there was caffeine in the “hopes,“ he resolutely refused our gift. Pleading with him to accept the gift did not help. The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, as the official name for the Mormons reads, just do not use alcohol or caffeine.

This faith certainly includes some remarkable elements. A Jewish colleague told once that one time at the Princeton station he was approached by two Mormons. They told her, to somewhat to her surprise, that they could still convert her relatives who had been killed in Hitler’s death camps.

Angel

Almost six million Mormons live in the United States. The highest concentrations can be found in Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada. In an opinion poll in 2006, 37 percent 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 percent would never vote for a Jew, while 10 percent would have insurmountable objections against a second Catholic president--John Kennedy was the first Catholic president.

The origins of the Mormons is around d 1820, In that year, in New York State, God and Christ appeared together before the youngster Joseph Smith. During the following seven years he was visited regularly by an angel who listened to the name Moroni. The angel empowered him to decipher a text written on golden plates.

Smith published the “Book of Mormon” in 1830. This writing is held by Mormons at the same level as the Bible. In the eyes of other Christian denominations, that is just a heretical view. Mormons know that God is a creature of flesh and blood and is even married to a Heavenly Mother.

Polygamy

Indeed, only those who are married can fully share in the heavenly bliss. Mormons believe that God is in constant touch with the modern prophets, such as the present head of their church. Outsiders, like most of us, may not enter a Mormon temple.

Because of all these reasons, traditional Christians often consider the Mormon Church more like a sect.. And then there is always the issue that appeals to the imagination, or an issue that can even make one jealous--polygamy. Originally the Mormon faith proclaimed that a person could only reach the highest step in heaven if that person had been part of a polygamous marriage on earth.

The outside world reacted in an unfriendly manner. In 1980 the Church president received a revelation that it had all been a misunderstanding. Since then, the practice has been forbidden by the Church and the state. Still, it is estimated that that in Utah, Idaho and Montana around thirty thousand people live in a polygamous union, whether or not on a religious basis.

Candidate Romney can nicely poke fun with this. When he was last asked what marriage meant to him, he answered: “For me that is the union between a man and a woman and a woman.”

ORIGINAL DUTCH TEXT HERE