Mormons, do you think Romney would disobey the prophet?

Question

In his speech he said, "Let me assure you that no authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions. Their authority is theirs, within the province of church affairs, and it ends where the affairs of the nation begin"

I worry about people who say they are faithful but do not allow faith to guide public decisions. It makes me wonder how real their faith is.

Answer 1

Three things I want to say.
As to your initial question. I think we all have disobeyed the Prophet. I know I certainly have. I do my best not to, because to me, when the Prophet says something across the pulpit it is as though God Himself were saying it.

Now, as to your concern, I have the same concern. My parents are not LDS. My Mother has said numerous times that she does not want to hear ANYTHING about the church, what we believe, or anything concerning it. I do my best to abide by her wishes, although it does limit my interaction and conversation with her as the church is a very, very big part of my life, and so to find something to say or do that does not have anything to do with the church, it's/my beliefs, or the people at church has become increasingly difficult. I visit them primarily after church on Sunday. A lot of times they want to go out to eat, so I time my visits between meals to avoid conflict. They often want me to do some family activity on Saturday, however, I work in the temple 2 - 3 Saturdays a month, and spend the rest of the day either at the temple, or preparing for Sunday. I work weekdays until almost dark and they don't get out if doing so means having to drive after dark. There are many other beliefs I hold that they don't that are usually faith based. I decided long ago that I could either be true to my beliefs and faithful to God as I understand Him, or I could appease my parents and do things the way they do them. Now, they are my parents and I do my best to honor them and limit contintion, but I will not, I can not abandon everything else I hold dear(my principles, my faith, my covenants) which they do not agree with for the sake of keeping God's commandment to honor thy Father and Mother. Ok, so maybe this doesn't sound like it has anything to do with your concern about some not allowing faith to guide public decisions, but to me it's the exact same thing. You're either faithful to the best of your ability or you're not. That doesn't mean it's easy, or that you don't have to decide to make exceptions along the way for the sake of avoiding conflict. But to say that the President (POTUS) is a faithful member of his chosen religion, except when he is acting in a Presidental capacity is frightening. That's precisley WHEN I want him to to be religious. Being President entails such a variety of duties. Everything from shaking hands with perfect strangers and appearing to know them and their family, to knowingly sending members of a 100% volunteer military into harms way knowing that many of them will be killed. From fielding questions from the press core and traveling on Air Force 1 to knowing that if you don't craft your answer in just the right way some terrorist will know too much about things that must be kept secret for the safety of millions upon millions, and knowing WHY you have to only fly on Air Force 1. Knowing what the President of the United States knows about not only the state of the country but of the world and being THE person the world looks to for level headed guidence through the stormy seas the world finds itself in, and NOT have a man of profound faith sitting in that oval office is lunacy, complete and utter caos would ensue. The two can not be seperated or the man would not have an abiding faith to begin with.

Now, do I think that the Prophet would ever say something that would cause a Mormon President to say, as a person I'll obey the Prophet, but I can not force the nation to abide by it. No. A Mormon President would know that not only can you not force someone to do something, but that even trying to do so would be trying to take away that person's free agency and trying to exercise unrighteous dominion over that person. Those are things that are expressly forbidden. The only thing he could do in a situation like that would be to present the information to the public and allow Congress to do their job. We believe in obey the law of the land. That law was set up in such a way that no one person could have 100% control over the way things are done.


[EDIT: So back to your original question. ]

Now I don't know if I'll be voting for Romney to be President or not. But I do have enough faith in him to know that if were elected and if something were to happen and he had to choose between forcing the nation to obey the Prophet or allowing the nation to not follow the Prophet and suffer the consequences of such a decision, then I believe he would choose the latter.

Answer 2

He never said he wouldn't allow his faith to guide what he does. He said that the church would have no influence on what he does. There is a difference.

The church will never tell a president how to make policies, what laws need to be in acted, or taken off the books. They aren't going to tell him that he needs to start pushing their agenda. That isn't the way the church works.

I do think that he will use the faith he has to guide how he does things, as would most people. Our own personal truths, and what we believe to be right is always what guides people. He never said he wouldn't use that to help him to know what to do.

I think that no matter what he would have said, people are going to find fault with it. Why can't people just take it at face value and not try to pick it apart. He said what he meant, he means what he says.

Answer 3

"I worry about people who say they are faithful but do not allow faith to guide public decisions."

Does this mean that, in your opinion, the Mormon prophet SHOULD exert influence in the affairs of the nation? Do you think that Gordon B. Hinckley should run the country, if Mr. Romney is elected? From the context of your question, it would seem so.

There is a difference between being influenced by FAITH and being influenced by CHURCH AUTHORITIES. Mr. Romney has made it clear that he is a man of faith, but that he will not allow presidential decisions to be made by church figures.

Answer 4

Let's face it, if Romney is elected as President, one of his biggest opponents will be Speaker of the Senate, Harry Reid from Nevada. Romney is Republican, Reid is Democrat. Both profess to be active Mormons. Considering this dichotomy, how can one assume that we are robots following the dictates of one man? We learn principles and must judge for ourselves how to apply those principles and morals in our lives.

The General Authorities of the Church are not concerned with the running of the government of the United States, except that according to the Consitution, we have the freedom to practice our religion according to the dictates of our own conscience.

I do agree with you, however, about people who claim to faithfully follow the precepts of their religion, but draw a line once it involves public policy or opinion.

Were you aware that Ezra Taft Benson was the Secretary of Agriculture for President Eisenhower? and at the same time, he was also a member of the quorum of 12 Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? He served at the request of the President for all 8 years of Ike's term in office. There was no question that he received his marching orders pertaining to the Dept of Agriculture from Ike -- [btw, in 1985, Ezra Taft Benson succeeded Spencer W Kimball as the Prophet of the Church upon the death of President Kimball]

Answer 5

Our church has made it policy to not get involved with politics whatsoever. Every election year we are all reminded during our Sunday service not to ask the Bishops about what to vote for and so on because the church doesn't take any offial posiitons and we are encouraged to do the research and vote what we think is right.. Our prophet would never get involved if Romney was elected..

Answer 6

Mitt knows that to say otherwise would be political suicide. I think he would be willing to disobey the prophet if it would help him win the election. He has already expressed dissent with the Church by being pro-choice, not condemning abortion.

Answer 7

his faith is alive and well, an example, our church does not allow voting with in it and does not give the pulpit to candidates for political speeches as other churches do, they do not ask us to vote for specific candidates, they just tell us to research each candidate and vote our best guess. There is no political pressure in our church, the one I share with Brother Mitt Romney

Answer 8

Almost every politician sides with one religious faith or another. When Kennedy was running people said we shouldn't elect him because his policy would be influenced by the Pope. Its really silly. Half of these politicians dont give a damn about religion, and I don't think we should expect Romney to. His qualifications should be judged independent of his religious beliefs.

Answer 9

The prophet will not and would not ever tell him as President what he should do. Just like we as the congregation do not tell the prophet what to do.

We believe in separation of church and state. We are not told how to vote. EVER!

Romney is a good guy and he is getting attacked unfairly.

Answer 10

He wouldn't have to - the basic tenets of the LDS faith, the articles of faith, indicate
"12 We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. "
By being the best public servant he could possibly be, he would be following his faith.