An email this morning brought up this concern. It’s a concern I’ve heard before, so I thought I would put in my 2 cents.

So one person brought up the Mormon thing with Romney, and being the good little Layman Conservative Shaolin with Christian Tendencies that I am, suggested that is entirely irrelevant. Dear departed Hinkley worked hard for many years to dissuade folks that the Church of Jesus Christ, Latter Day Saints is not a cult, but a modernized Christian religion with a modern era prophet.

I think a person’s religion and or religious cult is entirely relevant. It is their value system. It may not determine every specific decision they make, but it is the metronome ticking away on their piano. I can’t believe that their administration would be too far out of step with their internal spiritual beliefs. So, those religious beliefs are important regardless of whether or not you consider their religion to be a cult.

I tend to think of cults as having charismatic leaders, so I hesitate calling Mormonism a cult. I do still call it a cult from time to time though. And the Catholic Church is a cult in the same fashion. I guess I could consider the Mormon Prophet and the Pope as their charismatic leaders so for the sake of argument I’ll just call them both a cult. So then consider how will the doctrines of their cults impact our nation. In the case of Mormon and Catholic cults I would say that for the most part they are right instep with the freedoms and values that our nation was founded on and in the case of conservatives; the freedoms and values we still cling to. For the conservative and/or Republican, I think the Mormon issue is a non-starter. That simple.

However, if any liberal and/or Democrat negatively brings up Mormonism then I think they first need to be reminded that freedom of religion is a basic value in our nation. And then second they need to be shown this picture of Nancy Pelosi swearing in Keith Ellison on the Koran. For if they consider Mormonism an issue and possibly even a danger, then how to they reconcile their position with their position on Islam. How do they have the nerve to question Mormonism and yet accept Islam with smiling faces.

Islam is both a cult with Mohamed as their charismatic leader and a religion whose values are most definitely out of step with freedoms and values that our nation was founded on. In Islamic nations, regardless of the type of government, the religious leaders sit above the government. In Islamic nations, both the people and government serve Allah. Even if this is not possible with in our nation’s structure, is this the fall back value system we want in our leaders. I don’t think so. And while ex-Mormons may be hounded for life by LDS missionaries, they should consider themselves lucky, because those who turn from Islam often receive a legal death sentence.

Yes, a candidate’s religion is relevant. And in the case of Mitt Romney I think it is of positive relevance.