Anyone else notice the bombardment of "I Am a Mormon" ads on TV? The church is trying to improve it's image and claims it's purely coincidental that two members are running for office.

The LDS church has had ads on TV for years, so them having ads on TV is nothing new. I am not the least bit religious, but the folks I know who are Mormon are very family centered.

Yes, there are fringe groups of the Mormons who are in the headlines from time to time, but the run of the mill Mormons I know tend to be pretty down to earth individuals in my day-to-day dealings with them.

Got nothing bad to say about them. I just choose to not talk about religion with them, and all is fine.

The church admits to stepping up this ad campaign recently. I'm not convinced it's coincedence and it's scary just how deep the churches pockets are. I've known mormons too and they didn't have fangs or anything. The reason you hear little that's negative about the church is that leads to excommunication.

Lots of churches have pretty deep pockets. Excommunication exists in many religions. Still trying to figure out a reason to be alarmed.

No reason...the fundies from all the religions ramp it up during elections in their bids to get religion all kinds of intertwined with state...

Fish on...

Todd

Some of the finest people I know are Mormons.

Most the people here aren't that far from M-O-R-M-O-N-S.

Care to explain?

I think AP was referring the spelling, specifically, the dropping a letter; the middle "M"...

Have had Catholics as Pres and that church has some deep pockets.

Only one and he only served 2.5 years.

Typo

Who cares.Good luck,
SZ

Yup. Folks talk about tolerance for some, but then feel free to bash others.

Heck, we have a Muslim prez now.

Nothing to do with tolerance. But it is a fine line under campaign finance. What if it said "I Am A Mormon like Mitt Romney". I'd think the few campaign finance rules that remain would kick in. No outsider knows for sure but the church is rumored to have $30 to $40 billion.

"What if..."

But it didn't happen. Will he likely get a lot of votes from Mormons because he is one? Probably. There were about 5.5 million as of 2004 in the US, about the same as folks in the muslim community.

What if folks voted for someone because the candidate was just like them, race, ethnicity, religion, previous military service?

You usually have pretty good arguments.

How much money the church has really doesn't matter.

This is from a 10/2/11 Reuters article:

""This will help them understand that we follow Jesus Christ," Hawkins told Reuters.

The ads will run in Denver, Atlanta, Phoenix, Seattle, Spokane, Wash., Indianapolis, South Bend and Fort Wayne, Ind., San Antonio and Austin, Texas, and Omaha and Lincoln, Neb., through March 2012.

The campaign first surfaced in several other U.S. cities last year, including New York City.

While two Republican presidential hopefuls, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, are Mormon, their White House aspirations are coincidental to the church's outreach effort, Hawkins said.

A Gallup poll in June found one in five U.S. voters would oppose a Mormon candidate for president."

I'm thinking it's not a coincidence and meant to sway those one in five voters which means it's campaign financing not to mention the whole seperation of church and state.