Other weird religions

Why does no one seem to care that Mitt Romney is Mormon?  I have been asking myself that question for months, thinking that some wild-eyed fundamentalist Christian or some sarcastic atheist somewhere would surely bring it up.  But that hasn't happened, and it puzzles me.

I would be ecstatic to think that the majority of Americans have suddenly grown up and realized that a political figure does not have to share your religious values to be a good leader.  But that is moonshine and madness, we all know it.  The majority of Americans view any religion that varies two degrees from their own with extreme suspicion, frequent disdain, and all too often hostility.  We will skip for the moment the ridiculousness of that attitude, considering the "love and brotherhood" message of most religions in the whole dang world......  But I digress.

Here's the thing.... my personal beliefs aside, I have to say that ANY religion, viewed objectively, is just goofy.  If you just start reading the "what we believe" section of any religious group's website or handbook,  some of that stuff is just going to sound weird.   Yeah, even my own Sunday-school class made me occasionally think "say WHAT?" as a child.   You learn to take it on faith, because, hey. That's what makes it FAITH and not, you know.... science.  So I have no personal objections to Mormonism other than the ones I would have to any patriarchal, oppressive religious sect.

I have a strong personal belief in God, and almost none in organized religion.  Which is why, as a rule, I couldn't give a fig newton what religious background a person has, preferring to measure them by their own character and behaviors.  Unfortunately that is not, as I mentioned above, the view of most Americans. Witness, if you will, the uproar when a non-Protestant white boy was elected president in the sixties.   Then there is that whole piece of ridiculousness about our current president having ties to Islam.  Apparently any religion that varies from Christian Protestant is a big hairy deal.  Until it just isn't.  We got right over Kennedy being Catholic, and the uproar about Obama being a "secret Muslim" seems to have mercifully faded as well.  But at least during an election season, there was a small but vocal and somewhat vicious segment of the population that made a big noise about having a president with a different brand of religion.  So why is Romney getting a pass?

Folks, Mormonism is NOT mainstream middle-class Christianity.  It differs from regular old Bible Belt  Sunday School teaching as a pineapple differs from a watermelon.  Far more so than Catholicism from Protestant religions.  Equally as unlike as Christianity and Islam.  Yeah, I know, that is going to get a lot of panties in little wads.  But they are both Abrahamic religions, along with Judaism.   Despite the fact that followers of these three religions frequently declare themselves anathema to each other aside, they are fruits from the same family tree.  Dysfunctional siblings, if you will.  We can consider Mormonism a genetically drifted son of Protestant Christianity, and therefore a troublesome nephew to the other two.  But there are many more differences in cosmology between the three big guys and Mormonism, than there are between any two of them.  

Let me say again, I have no personal objection to it, but why is it NOT an issue for those who would normally be wild-eyed and bushy-tailed about it? Is it because it is considered an alternate form of Christianity?  Maybe, tho Catholicism didn't get a free pass.  Maybe it is because the people who would ordinarily make a big fat hairy deal out of it would rather have a rich white Republican in office with an admitted allegiance to an unusual religion, than a black Democrat with loose ties to another one.  Yeah, that IS ugly, isn't it?

I hope I'm wrong.  But the next time these same froth-brained tribal monkeys start screaming about some candidate's religious views being incompatible with the values of our country,  well, I guess we will know the truth, won't we?  Because if Mormonism is acceptable, there is no reason to object to any brand of Christianity, Islam, Judaism or even Scientology in a political candidate.  In other words, oh ye of so very much vociferous and vocal faith .... if you are going to let this go by without a squeak then you should shut the hell up for ever.  Because now we know.