DiscussMormonism.com

Film exploring voter aversion to Mormonism screened locally

The public is invited to a free screening Tuesday of a film that explores why nearly 20 percent of the U.S. voting population admits they will not vote for a Mormon in the upcoming presidential election.

The Utah State University Religious Studies program is hosting the screening of the independent film, which will play at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday in room 130 of the Veterinary Science Building on the USU campus.

“The Religious Test” looks at “religious intolerance in contemporary America.” The screening and question-and-answer session with the filmmakers runs from 5:15 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The screening comes on the eve of first presidential debate at the University of Denver between President Barack Obama and GOP candidate Mitt Romney — the first Mormon nominee for president.

In “The Religious Test,” independent filmmakers Trevor Hill and Michael Potter state that “one in five Americans say they won’t support a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the nation’s top office,” according to a USU news release on the film screening. Both men attended college at Utah universities.

Phil Barlow, the program’s director, said the film addresses good political and religious questions, and that attendees should follow-up and ask good questions of the filmmakers.

Barlow himself has become a popular source for major news outlets across the country for his analysis on the Mormon influence on the presidential race — and the fact that he was friends with Romney when they both lived in Cambridge, Mass.

http://news.hjnews.c...1a4bcf887a.html

Phil Barlow, the program’s director, said the film addresses good political and religious questions, and that attendees should follow-up and ask good questions of the filmmakers.

Stormy Waters wrote:Is it really prejudiced to be unwilling to vote for someone for someone because their religion? To Mormons I ask, would you vote for a scientologist? What about an atheist? This idea that a candidates religion should be somehow off limits seems ridiculous to me. After all what influences a persons worldview more than their religion? How can you say that moraltity comes from your religious worldview and then place it off limits? Certainly I think that if people do refuse to vote for a candidate, it should be because of a correct understanding of their faith and not because of misconceptions.

Personally I think Mormonism is especially problematic. If the church were to ask Romney to vote a certain way, how does he turn them down if he sincerely believes that they are God's representatives? I think you just need to look at the the MTC building earlier this year, and see how the church leveraged their ecclesiastical authority over the membership to push a civil matter through. How do you know they won't try to exert a similar type of influence over Romney?

Likewise if a candidates religion instructs him that homosexuals are sinners and deserve some kind of infinite punishment I will take that into consideration when I'm at the voting both. If because of their religious beliefs they think the world is 6000 years old, I will take that into consideration. I can't just ignore it because it happens to fall under the realm of faith.

But if the name of the game is playing the persecution card, I guess I win as 43% say they won't vote for an atheist.

sock puppet wrote:More likely, but perhaps even more pernicious, is that the elected official makes decisions, fearing eternal judgment consequences for those official decisions. It is one thing to know the source of beliefs that have shaped one's moral development and thinking. It is worthy of examination, as a possible predictor of how, if elected, that adherent might decide certain issues that will come across his or her desk. That's what I see the relevance of Romney's faith, as I have seen no indication that he would kow-tow either to the FP/12 if they sought to direct his presidential decision making or that he would, when making a decision, ask himself, "What would (Mormon) Jesus do?"
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That Romney has not towed the Mormon line when it comes to social issues, and social issues ought to be the preeminent of religious concern, I do not see evidence that he would consciously factor the LDS position into his policy making decisions on social issues. His meandering history on social issues might be a concern written off as due to maturation or a willingness to think things through and change his mind. However, if one overlays the political races and places he has been in when and as those changes have occurred, and the direction he tacked, there is more than a mere passing coincidence that one can chalk up to political expedience being Romney's motivation on social issues. On social issues, Romney's past reveals more of a political opportunist than a man guided by principle or his faith.