Presidents.

This is in no way an offensive post. So I hope. Let me also add, before anyone thinks that I'm a heathen, that I believe completely that Christianity is the way to live my life religiously. Additionally, I have done absolutely no research and this article in no way is referring to anything about my voting. I'm just elaborating on a thought. Now I am going to speak politically.

I've started doing this thing where I work out in the mornings before work. It has the advantage of giving me more time to do nothing in the afternoon, though I go to sleep earlier. During this workout time, I've decided to start watching the news. I'm killing two birds with one stone.. Although the news isn't really improving my brain. Especially the 6:30 news. I'm pretty sure the 7 am news called dibs on the good stories, and we're left with things that are so breaking that they will shock you every time, or things so mundane that you don't know why you're watching the interview. I also read my Discovery news app while eating breakfast, which is much more interesting and much less relevant to anyone's life.

Anyways, today there was an interesting comment. Apparently, there's all these people who want to be president. One of them is Mitt Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Then there are some other people: someone who owns a pizza shop and someone who doesn't like Mitt Romney. I only vaguely paid attention. Now, this one guy decided to remind us all that Mitt Romney is a Mormon, which must mean he is part of a cult, and is completely unfit to run our country.

Now, I am not a member of the LDS church. My best friend, Jess, is. I've met plenty of "them Mormons," in my time. And I want to tell all you Romney-haters out there something. If you want to dislike him on some sort of political grounds or something about the way he feels about running the country, I don't care. However, I see no reason to hate the guy for being part of a church. Firstly, it's not a cult. There are some sects that aren't part of the church, but he shouldn't' be affiliated with them. I'd certainly hate it if anyone affiliated me with any Baptist person who ever did something insane for the sake of religion. I think most people get freaked out cause the Mormons believe in things with which they aren't familiar. Well, to a complete outsider, we'd look pretty odd closing our eyes and raising our hands to a piece of cross-shaped wood with a dying man attached. And don't tell me I'm being sacrilegious with that comment. To us, it's sacred. To an outsider, it might be bewildering. So don't give them crap for having different traditions. (Note: I would have a problem with a religion that involved live sacrifice or arson or something. However, that is most definitely not the case here.)

That aside, what is wrong with the Mormon people, exactly? I've met them. They're awesome! They're one of the most open, welcoming religions I've met. They're kind and friendly and pretty straightforward. If anything, they are more accepting than any other church about the fact that I'm not one of them (Note: I am making no statement about their beliefs or how I feel about the Mormon beliefs. This is because I feel that their beliefs won't hinder them from successfully running a country.) And when it really comes down to it, I think our country could use some of that (among other things.) We need to get out of this idea that Christianity is "the" religion. We all have freedom of religion. We all have the right to choose whatever religion we want. That right gives us the option to be any religion and worship freely, be it Christianity or Islam or Judaism or Atheism. The fact that our country has long had this idea that "Christianity is the only way," is stifling one of the core freedoms that built our country. The fact that someone is using another person's lack of Christianity as a flaw in an attempt to jeopardize his campaign is appalling.

Why is it that the majority always has to hate the minority? We hated the African-Americans. We hated the Native Americans. We hated the Irish Catholics. We hated the Japanese during WWII. We then decided to be more open minded and judge people on their chosen beliefs rather than their genetics. So then it was Islam that we hated. Now, we target LDS. We, the Caucasians, the Protestants, the majority in America, feel the need to hate anyone who is different than us, especially when we feel our majority-ship is being threatened. Have you heard the statistic that white people won't be the majority as of 2020 or some such year? So, what? What difference does that really make?

If you don't want to vote for Mitt Romney because of his political beliefs, that's fine. If you don't want to vote for him because you feel, as a Christian, it's not the right thing to do, I understand that, though I don't agree. If you choose to proclaim to everyone else that he's unfit to be a politician because of his religious beliefs, then I think maybe you need a better campaign argument.

Jess, may you and your fellow LDS people know that you are admired and loved.