Mormons should judge Reid by faith, not politics

It is ironic the way Mitt Romney and Harry Reid are represented in the Mormon faith. On one hand, you have the ever-loveable Mitt. Good looking, charming and most importantly, Republican-the kind of guy Saints like…no, love to proclaim as one of their own. But on the other hand, you have the redheaded step child Reid. You see, "Dingy Reid" as "Bro. Limbaugh" refers to him, isn’t even close to good looking, not very charming (see latest quote on President Bush, Republicans, Evangelicals etc.) and worst of all (get ready to scream!) a…Democrat.

Unfortunately, the problem Latter-day Saints and even this writer face, as a result of Harry Reid proclaiming himself as a Mormon-Democrat is, we blur the lines between faith and politics. Such an attitude not only causes a haze to be put over the aforementioned lines, but results in one obtaining the belief that political stance affects ones eventual eternal standing with God.

Reid’s recent address at BYU should thwart such a deceiving thought. A couple of weeks ago, the Senate Majority Leader came to BYU for a forum speech in which he did two things, one of which was typical for a politician, the second of which wasn’t so characteristic.

First, he bashed on President Bush, the Iraq War and Evangelical Christians from the far right, calling them the "most anti-Christian people I can imagine." Second, he declared his faith much in the same way he states his views on politics, with feeling. 

"I have a testimony of God, his son Jesus and the restored gospel, now led by the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley," he declared. But that isn’t all; he told of his boy’s missions, his daughter’s temple marriages and his reason for being a Democrat. "I am a Democrat because I am a Mormon, not in spite of it."

Consequently, because Mormonism’s conservative majority, active members tend to put off such statements from one such as Reid. Or as one opinion letter to the Deseret Morning News stated, he "is two different people," in other words, a hypocrite.

But if Harry Reid is two-faced because he is a Democrat who declares his faith with pride, what does that make Mitt Romney who seems to avert such topics and stay silent? A denier of the faith? When it comes to faith, I’ll take Dingy Reid