# More than 50% of Americans polled don't know Romney's religion **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 26, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-50-of-americans-polled-dont-know-romneys-religion/590429 "2011-07-26T21:14:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Rhodes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhodes/32/273_2.png) [@Rhodes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhodes)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-50-of-americans-polled-dont-know-romneys-religion/590429/61 "2011-07-28T17:09:53Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > Sorry if I get the terminology wrong. As I said above, I’m an atheist. But doesn’t rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity as expressed in the Nicene Creed mean that just about all adherents of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant sects are apostates in terms of Mormon theology? Apostates, yes. Non-Christian, no. Mormons talk often about the “Great Apostasy” in which the early Christian church deviated from the teachings and rituals taught by Jesus and thus lost the Priesthood authority. The Book of Mormon calls mainsteam Christianity (or specifically Catholicism, depending on how you interpret it) “the whore of the earth”, but never calls them un-Christian. This is pretty much the official LDS opinion of Protestant sects, from a description of [Joseph Smith’s first Q&A session with God and Jesus](http://lds.org/scriptures/pgp/js-h/1?lang=eng): > [@Official LDS Scripture](#): > > 17 … When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—_This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!_ > 18 My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join. > 19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that **all their creeds were an abomination in his sight** ; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.” > 20 He again **forbade me to join with any of them** ; and many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time… (side note: Joseph Smith wrote this story a decade or so after he had briefly joined the Methodists. But he claims it happened before he joined the Methodists. Go figure.) ---
**Author:** ![gurujulp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba9def/32.png) [@gurujulp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gurujulp)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-50-of-americans-polled-dont-know-romneys-religion/590429/62 "2011-07-28T17:42:51Z")
I barely know who mitt romney is- and that only because my aunt thinks he is a greaseball, so I paid attention to one of his speeches. Why would I care about his religion? I don’t care about yours, or even mine! ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-50-of-americans-polled-dont-know-romneys-religion/590429/63 "2011-07-28T19:56:42Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > From my experience, most Christians would be hard pressed to explain the difference between Christianity and Islam and Judaism much less Mormonism. Their church is like some social club they joined where they never bothered to read the bylaws. > > I don’t know if I’m reading it right, but some of the stuff I’ve come across imply that Mormons believe that Jesus was originally a man who was elevated to godhood. I suspect even an Arian would get very upset on that point. Heh. It’s even worse than that; I believe (to the best of my knowledge… I haven’t thought about this stuff for a number of years, since I had my last faith crisis; this is the kind of thing the average Mormon doesn’t think much about) the belief is that God (the Father) was once a man like Jesus. (Kind of going along with the same idea that our purpose as humans is to grow up to be like God, or gods… now _that’s_ something that doesn’t jibe at all with regular Christian theology. But it’s not something that gets talked about a whole lot.) About Jesus himself, I don’t think Mormons quite fall into the Arian camp. ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-50-of-americans-polled-dont-know-romneys-religion/590429/64 "2011-07-28T20:02:48Z")
> [@Rhodes](#): > > The Book of Mormon calls mainsteam Christianity (or specifically Catholicism, depending on how you interpret it) “the whore of the earth”, but never calls them un-Christian. I feel like I heard in Conference relatively recently, or maybe in one of the manuals, that the “whore of the earth” phrase is not “supposed” to refer to a specific religion, but rather to general-un-Christlike-behavior. But I have no cite (maybe I’ll look it up when I get home). (And yes, I know, from context, allusion, AND Mormon history it’s clear what it actually was meant to mean… but as you know, present-day Mormons are required to scrap all that if a contradictory statement was made in Conference last month.) ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-50-of-americans-polled-dont-know-romneys-religion/590429/65 "2011-07-28T22:04:23Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Ya got proof, or is it because that;'s what you’d do? Come on now, friend. _You_ resorted to invoking “Jay Walking” as “proof” that people are stupid. That is, shall we say, a poorly selected example to support a rhetorical point. Unless, that is, ya got proof that it’s a valid, statistically-controlled and procedurally-sound sampling method. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-50-of-americans-polled-dont-know-romneys-religion/590429/66 "2011-07-28T22:38:19Z")
As it happens, just yesterday I heard a sermon on the radio on the express topic of the Trinity and how all who reject it (Mormons were named, among others including Muslims) categorically were not Christians. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-50-of-americans-polled-dont-know-romneys-religion/590429.md?page=3)