The Issue: Mormon belief and the USA presidential election

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Mormon beliefs and the USA presidential election

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How is it that the thoughts of a 15 year old farm boy, from the 1820's named Smith, are influencing Presidential politics in the world's most powerful democracy in the year 2012? The answer is of course that the boy's first name was Joseph, and Joseph Smith claimed a vision from God which led to the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly referred to as the Mormons.

The early years of Mormon history read like a frontier adventure novel; shoot outs, lynchings, Wagon Trains across the continent, settlers, and a new world fashioned in the wilderness. Today one spiritual descendant of one of these persecuted pioneers, Mitt Romney, stands on the brink of Republican nomination for the Presidency of the United States of America.

Yet the Mormon faith, the set of beliefs held by Mormons, is not seen by all as the embodiment of the American Dream. And it's not just Smith's early beliefs in such things as plural marriage or polygamy, but on the very foundations of the Christian faith. Does this matter?

Over recent years the power of Republican Party in the USA has relied on support of what's called the Religious Right, principally conservative evangelical protestants, many who hold that America needs to recover its essentially Christian foundations. For these Christians, Mormonism is a heresy; a profound deviation from traditional Christian beliefs. For such as these, some commentators are suggesting, voting for a Mormon is a bridge too far, that here the Religious Right may begin to fracture.

So tonight on Sunday Night, what do Mormons believe, what is the relationship of Mormonism to traditional Christianity, and in what way does it matter? We are joined by a Mormon, Dr Keith Thomson who is both a lawyer and past Bishop in the Church, and by Dr John Dickson of the Centre for Public Christianity.