Mormons for McCain practically non-existant online

First, a big shout-out to the two people I ran into this past week at BYU who recognized me from the blog. Huzzah! And thanks for saying hi.

Now, to the meat of the post.

Dennis at Thinking in A Marrow Bone went looking for an online presence for Mormons for McCain.

The results?

Not a heck of a lot:

Using a Google Search of “Mormons for McCain,” all that came up were some older articles that talked about some Mormons who were rooting for McCain when Romney was still in the race. (And now hopefully this post, hehe.) Combining keywords “Mormon” and “McCain” also yields nothing — simply some articles that discuss McCain’s anti-Mormon mother and how McCain had said “I don’t know” if Mormons are Christians. It looks like there are other news articles, though, that claim that he has accepted that Mormons are Christians.

“LDS” and “McCain”? Not much here. TMB actually has the second and third links! (which is pretty sad). The fourth link is to a recent story (June 22) about a McCain campaign worker who, speaking of Romney, claimed Mormons fund Hamas and also criticized how Mormons treat women. (Interestingly, Jon Huntsman, a pre-Romney-drop-out McCain supporter, said in response, “When we have political discussion debates, let’s keep those to the issues that matter most. And keep out of people’s business when it comes to religion. This is a personal aspect to people’s lives and has no place in political discourse.” Hmm, where was this statement when all the hoopla concerning Jeremiah Wright came out?)

“Latter-day Saints” and “McCain”? Nothing special. “Latter-day Saints for McCain”? No results at all.

What about the keywords “BYU” and “McCain”? Nada. “Brigham Young” and “McCain”? Nope. Certainly “Utah” and “McCain”? Sorry. Nothing. (Nothing significant, that is, for each of these.)

Let’s try Facebook. Using all the same search terms as before…

There is one group! Mormons for McCain … a whopping 6 members … and virtually no sign of life … except one “wall” writing from Feb. 21 from a fellow named Chris: “Well, seeing as Giuliani and Romney (our best candidates) are gone, I guess Im stuck with McCain…Huckabee has no chance in winning.”

He also points out the existence of many Mormons for Obama groups.....

-Bob

A New Obama Book from Joe Vogel

From Mormons for Obama:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- A new book will be published this month that addresses the popularity of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama among the youth and young adult crowd. Created and edited by Joseph Vogel, an author and writing instructor at Brigham Young University, The Obama Movement is a compilation of essays by 25 teens and twentysomethings articulating why they are supporting Barack Obama in his bid for President of the United States.

The book, which is not an official Obama campaign activity, was inspired by Vogel’s frustration that youth interest in Obama’s candidacy was being misinterpreted as shallow or ephemeral. “The media tends to overlook what's really going on, what the real story is here,” said Vogel. “Young people are making history. They're organizing, donating, networking and turning out in unprecedented numbers across the country. They recognize the enormous opportunity we have in front of us.”

Indeed, not since the Kennedys in the 1960s has a politician so energized the youth of America. The key distinction is that today’s generation is mobilizing through technology and online networking in ways unimaginable to previous campaigns. Hundreds of thousands of previously turned off young people have tuned into the vision of the former community organizer from South Chicago. Online groups have swelled into the hundreds of thousands, creative ads by supporters have dominated YouTube, and interest has translated into record-setting donations and massive turnouts in Iowa and New Hampshire, Nevada and Texas.

Organizations such as Barack the Youth Vote, founded in early 2007 by Vogel, have built a network of support with the intent of educating peers about Obama, canvassing, registering young voters and encouraging campaign contributions. The Obama for America campaign has embraced the energy and activism of students and young adults to their advantage, organizing Students for Barack Obama and Generation Obama , which now contain over 550 chapters nationwide.

The Obama Movement contains the personal stories of young people in the trenches of one of the most exciting and significant elections in American history—and reveals why they are determined to make their voices count in 2008.

Vogel, whose book Free Speech 101 was published in 2006, hopes that by giving young people a representative voice in print, he is encouraging all of America to take seriously what its younger generations have to say, beyond the outcome of next year’s elections. "This book is essentially a symbol of a movement,” he said. “Barack Obama has inspired it, but it's bigger than just him. It's not his celebrity or his ‘rock-star" status.’ It's his ground-up message, his challenge for real citizens participating in a real democracy. It’s about transforming America."

VP Cheney at BYU: It's Michael Moore/UVSC all over again

While I like that there is opposition to Dick Cheney speaking at BYU comencement, I do not agree with the calls to cancel the speech or find annother, more liberal, speaker.

Why?

It's looking way too much like the controversy 3 years ago at UVSC.

There has been lots of discussuion on the Mormons for Obama listserv about this. Some of the comments disturb me in their similarity to comments from 2004.

And that scares me.

-Bob

Obama and the Proper Role of Religion in Government

Over the past two months, I have gained an appreciation for Edward Lalone's writings. He is a fellow LDS supporter of Barack Obama. His thoughts are very insightful.

There was recently an email sent out to the Mormons for Obama listserv asking about Mormons and Romney vs Obama. Brother Lalone sent out a reply, which I asked him to repost as a blog entry on the Mormons for Obama blog, which he did.

I'll post the Romney stuff later, but I want to concentrate today on one aspect that he raised as it relates to Obama and the proper role of religion in government.

To begin we should probably take a look at D&C 134 because this section of the Doctrine and Covenants gives special treatment to our beliefs on the role of government and of individuals in relation to government. I want to draw special notice to D&C 134:4 and then to something Obama has said.

D&C 134:4 explains that,

"We believe that religion is instituted of God; and that men are amenable to him, and to him only, for the exercise of it, unless their religious opinions prompt them to infringe upon the rights and liberties of others..." - D&C 134:4

Obama has said,

"Liberalism teaches us to be tolerant of other people's religious beliefs, so long as those beliefs don't cause anyone harm or impinge on another's right to believe differently."

Obama's position on the role of religion in public policy is also consistent with the views which have been expressed by the general authorities. In the words of Elder Oaks,

"Some moral absolutes or convictions must be at the foundation of any system of law. This does not mean that all laws are so based. Many laws and administrative actions are simply a matter of wisdom or expediency. But many laws and administrative actions are based upon the moral standards of our society. If most of us believe that it is wrong to kill or steal or lie, our laws will include punishment for those acts. If most of us believe that it is right to care for the poor and needy, our laws will accomplish or facilitate those activities. Society continually legislates morality. The only question is whose morality and what legislation. In the United States, the moral absolutes are the ones derived from what we refer to as the Judeo-Christian tradition, as set forth in the Bible—Old Testament and New Testament...To avoid any suggestion of adopting or contradicting any particular religious absolute, some secularists argue that our laws must be entirely neutral, with no discernable relation to any particular religious tradition. Such proposed neutrality is unrealistic, unless we are willing to cut away the entire idea that there are moral absolutes."

I'll add here some words of Barack Obama that I think are relevant on the subject that Edward left out:

For one, they need to understand the critical role that the separation of church and state has played in preserving not only our democracy, but the robustness of our religious practice. Folks tend to forget that during our founding, it wasn't the atheists or the civil libertarians who were the most effective champions of the First Amendment. It was the persecuted minorities, it was Baptists like John Leland who didn't want the established churches to impose their views on folks who were getting happy out in the fields and teaching the scripture to slaves. It was the forbearers of the evangelicals who were the most adamant about not mingling government with religious, because they did not want state-sponsored religion hindering their ability to practice their faith as they understood it.

Moreover, given the increasing diversity of America's population, the dangers of sectarianism have never been greater. Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.

And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would we go with James Dobson's, or Al Sharpton's? Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount - a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let's read our bibles. Folks haven't been reading their bibles. (emphasis added)

Click here to read more of Edward Lalone's Post.
Click here to read Barack Obama's Speech on Religion.

-Bob

Utah for Obama Meeting Tomorrow!

The second meeting for Obama Supporters from Utah will be held at 2:00 PM Saturday, March 3, at the Downtown Salt Lake City Library (210 East 400 South) in Conference Room C (Level -1).

On the agenda:

Some of the topics that will be addressed this weekend include:

* Fundraising / FEC Regulations
o We need a volunteer to coordinate this effort.
* Events
o House Parties
o Meet and Greets
o Parades
o Voter Registration
o Book Groups
* Writing
o Press Releases
o Utah-specific talking points
* What do we, as a group, hope to accomplish?

For more on Utah for Obama, please visit UtahForObama.com.

Other Groups of interest:
Mormons for Obama
University of Utah for Obama
Utah Catholics for Obama
Utah County for Obama
Utah State University for Obama
UVSC for Barack Obama
(Utah's) Dixie 4 Obama