Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Q&A: Jon Huntsman | Swampland
Q&A: Jon Huntsman | Swampland: "And let me say, I’m a very spiritual person; I can’t walk into a church or synagogue without getting a little emotional…"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
If we want others to not rule out a candidate for being LDS, should we hold it against a candidate for looking like a wishy-washy mormon?
Not sure I'm completely understanding your thought. Are you saying Mormons should pretend like Huntsman is a good candidate so that non-mormons will take mormon presidential runs seriously? I thought this quote was mostly just funny because it sounded so pompous. I'm sure he didn't mean it that way.
I've never been a big Huntsman fan. I wasn't impressed when he didn't stand up for school choice in Utah. I wasn't impressed when he decided the head position on the parole board was going to be "rotating" but that it only rotated once--off of Keith Hamilton to someone else. Honestly, I don't know that much about Huntsman, but he seems to me to be kind of coreless.
In my opinion, ideally politicians would have policy views similar to mine, be smart, articulate and principled. But maybe we should actually prefer coreless politicians. A politician that bends in the wind is more likely to represent the will of the people. And isn't that what democracy is about?
I'm not saying we should support any candidate because he's mormon, I'm asking if we should hold it against him if he seems questionable in his commitment to his faith.
I see what your saying. Totally misread you comment. (I'm not sure I read Huntsman's statement as being less than committed to the church, though.)
I can see two questions there. Do we care what a person's religious beliefs are? and do we care how devoted he is to those beliefs?
I'm not supper concerned about a person's religious beliefs except to the extent they influence his behavior in office. It's kind of difficult to know how and to what extent a politician's religious views will influence policy.
Committeemen or lack of commitment to religion does reflect on character somewhat, so I suppose it's relevant. But then, maybe we don't want politicians with character; maybe we want politicians who sway with public opinion.
What do you think?
I'd previously read an article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/amos-and-andy-and-the-book-of-mormon/2011/06/15/AGRlHPWH_blog.html)where the author stated: "No wonder Mormon politicians like Jon Huntsman, bob and weave when asked by bigots if they are part of the LDS church." So that probably shaped my interpretation of the quote.
I'm not sure how I feel about voting for a "not so strong" member of the Church. And maybe Huntsman is a committed mormon, I don't know. I tend to think commitment to one's beliefs generally shows character, but you kind of need to know a lot about their background/upbringing to make such judgments.
If Romney were to denounce the Church, given his family background and the fact that his been a stake president, I think that would strongly influence my opinion of him.
Post a Comment