Sierra Faith

Evangelicals cannot vote for a Mormon.

But, we may have already known that.

UPDATE:

Dan Riehl disagrees.

If one wants to go there, I’d encourage them to visit all the exit polls via CNN. Georgia, Missouri and Arkansas. Yes, the heavy church attending and protestant groups went big for Huckabee. But there’s little if any significant difference as to how they broke for McCain versus Romney. And Romney won regularly over McCain with the anti-abortion group, with Huckabee in first.

Alabama seems to be the exception. But that could be either racial, or perhaps class-based, as much as it is based upon religion, I suppose.

UPDATE II:

John Mark Reynolds says nobody understands evangelicals:

The immediate rush to label anti-Mitt votes in the South”bigoted” or due to Romney’s Mormonism without compelling evidence is grossly offensive.

Why?

He then goes on to say:

Before lightly labeling a huge chunk of the party bigoted, isn’t it wise or at least charitable to consider other possibilities?

OK, sure, but what are they?

It is easy to imagine non-religious reasons for the Huck resurgence.

Mitt is from Massachusetts and Yankee pols have a, well, let’s call it mixed history in the South.

Second, Huckabee is a regional politician, the last Southron in the race in either party, and that is a strong position.

Third, it is easy to find new media and other leaders strongly opposed to Mitt for non-religious reasons. Joe Carter is a good example of the Evangelicals I know who oppose Mitt.

OK, as far as it goes.

In reverse order, first, you can’t say there are new media for Huckabee which helped him win while at the same time say the vast majority of new media did not help Romney.

Second, OK, he is a Southerner, and Southerners are for illegal immigration? Hmmm, I have troubles with that theory, but I’ll let it pass.

Third, if Montanans can vote for a former Massachusetts Governor and the South cannot, I don’t think that makes Montanans dumb. I do think it makes Southerners look like rubes voting for one of their own knowing full well he will not be the nominee. Now, I must say that it makes Louisiana folks look absolutely wise in being able to separate quality from charlatans.

If folks are voting for Huckabee because they are listening to his tripe about being a poor Christian being picked on, then they are simply being led by the nose. The David and Goliath comparisons are grating. Especially after his blatant displays of anti-Mormon bigotry early in the campaign.

Sorry, I just can’t support a bigot for President of the United State.

If folks are voting for Huckabee and McCain because they want illegal immigrants to be able to cut to the front of the line, then fine, we can make up laws as we go along and pick and choose which laws we want to follow.

But, if folks are voting for Huckabee and McCain because they like the preacher and war hero storylines, then we deserve what we vote for and yet do not know.

One more thing, the exit polls were notoriously wrong tonight, so how is anyone using them to argue against the presence of anti-Mormon bigotry in the South?

Again, you can’t have it both ways. . . .

Lastly, will I vote for Hillary or Obama over McCain?

No.

Even though my vote won’t mean much come November in this very bright blue state. . . .

UPDATE III:

Dan Riehl notes a New York Times observation (yes, yes, I know):

Dr. Guth noted that Mr. Huckabee appeared to excel mainly in the counties with the highest concentrations of Southern Baptists, many familiar with his career from church publications. Mr. Huckabee fared less well in counties with more diverse groups of evangelicals. Exit polls showed that he received only about a third of the vote of born-again Christians across the country — roughly on par with Mr. McCain and Mr. Romney.

Baptists effectively voting for John McCain, hmmm.

Again, though, we are trusting exit poll data which I think can be dicey.

I still want to see the data on the question: “Would you ever vote for a Mormon?”

UPDATE IV:

Tom Maguire on Baptists and Mormons:

Baptists and Mormons are competing proselytizing religions that don’t get along. . . .

I’m sure Huckabee would be delighted to be the nominee or even the VP but I suspect that throwing sand in Romney’s gears was a big part of his mission.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 12:12 am and is filed under 2008, Faith, Public Square. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.