For all I know my friends do believe I’m going to hell. My point is that they were never taught anti-Mormon stuff in their churches.

Just throwing that out there.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120243323721852411.html?mod=hpp_us_inside_today

Jon

I have many good and dear friends here in the Upper Midwest who are evangelical (their megachurch had “evangelical” plastered across the sign). In this specific case, they were most certainly presented, either in church or by church leaders, with anti-Mormon dirt. Some of them were very conflicted about it based on their association with good Mormons. One of my girlfriends had to dump me because of it (her dad loved me until he found out who I really was). I’m still good friends with her and some of the others, and I do not believe they hold any animosity toward me because of what they were at one time taught.

But I never meant to say that this specific type of in-church indoctrination is the only source of falsehoods to touch each and every evangelical in America — which is why I didn’t say that, but rather, “evangelicals in general are taught to hate Mormons” (see comment 94) and later clarified that with such sources as “videos, books, pamphlets, blogs, web sites, web rings, etc.” (see comment 101).

Again, I’m sorry if I offended you or your Methodist friends or my evangelical friends, none of whom are among the haters. But my claim stands. In general, evangelicals (through some source, at some point) are taught (by devious and misguided people, but not necessarily by their local pastors) to hate Mormons. There are simply too many books written, too many videos produced, too many Web sites run, too many conferences held, too many people (across the broad spectrum of evangelicalism, and from coast to coast) trying to save my soul from eternal damnation to claim otherwise. It’s everywhere and it’s out in the open and it’s widely accepted by millions of evangelicals. Parallels with obscure passages in ancient journals of discourses are not accurate.

Jon

None of them, in their pastorates, have ever taught nor sanctioned anti-Mormon lessons in their congregations; indeed, the UMC as an institution has never even considered such a thing. One of these congregations even cooperated with the local LDS congregation in charity work. The ‘anti-Mormon’ material you claim is so prominent among ‘all’ evangelicals is the product of only some evangelical networks. Evangelicalism is nowhere near centralized enough to imagine that this stuff gets around any more than, say, Cleon Skousen’s atonement ideas pervade all of Mormonism. Indeed, one of these pastors had never heard of Jack Chick till I pointed him out. Thus, you might imagine I take your blanket, hostile, and frankly angry generalizations as rather extreme.

It’s rather akin to anti-Mormons dragging quotations out of _Mormon Doctrine_ and the Journal of Discourses and stating that, well, racism pervades Mormonism; all Mormons have been ‘exposed’ to it, therefore, they’re all tainted by racist ideology. I’m sure you’d percieve that as anti-Mormon; I hope, perhaps, this gives some indication why I’m percieving you right now as anti-evangelical.

Anyhow, I’m glad to see that you’ve backed off on your earlier statement that “all evangelicals have been taught to hate Mormons.”

Once again, not everybody buys it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not being sold.

Jon

matt b (107), I understand perfectly well that the term “evangelical” is a broad categorization that is sometimes confused with the more specific “Southern Baptist Convention.” (I don’t think there’s any doubt that that particular strain is taught to hate us.) But I live in a “more Northern, historically liberal” area, and here, too, evangelicals, in general, are taught to distrust those dastardly Mormons. It’s not confined to specific regions or specific groups of evangelicalism — it’s broad and widespread.

There might be certain congregations who couldn’t care less about what we believe, and there are certainly many who reject the blatant misinformation on the basis of their personal interactions with good Mormon friends, but (again) in general, at some point in their lives, from some source claiming to have “the truth about Mormons,” evangelicals (as most people in America understand that term) will encounter false teachings about our faith.

I’m sorry that this side debate has drawn away from my original point, which was that Romney wasn’t attacked only with veiled anti-Mormon material (some of it not-so-veiled), but that he also suffered from anti-rich and anti-Northern sentiment, as Matt Donaldson (in comment 10) so astutely noted.

Jon

I don’t think most of us are saying they were all buying it. We’re simply saying that Huckabee was trading in it, and it was just effective enough.

And, I am not here to defend Mormonism per se. I am here to decry the abuse of religion and religious rhetoric in American politics. I also didn’t think that much of the pseudo-Kennedy speech by Romney. Still, it doesn’t hold a candle to the way Huckabee has used bigotry against Mormons and Catholics (remember the Brownback episode?) to appeal to his base.

bbell: Obama’s denomination, the United Church of Christ, formed in 1957 from a merger of the Congregational Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Churches, identifies itself as evangelical in the historic sense; Obama’s congregation is evangelical in the mission sense.

The post has been full of examples of Huckabee’s use of Anti-Mormonism in his campaign. I think that is obvious for anyone familiar with views on Mormons in the south (incidentally #51, those stats on evangelicals are not favorable to Romney as you state — at least in the south. Most Southern evangelicals more than doubled their votes for Huckabee, the Northerers just tend to be more tolerant). it is obvious that there is a difference between southern evangelicals and northern evangelicals.

I for one know of the discrimination that comes from church membership, but I also realize that it exists to other groups and that i’m not special in being discriminated against. That said, it is still wrong.