mormonism

April 12, 2017

What Christians can learn from Utah’s economic success

How do we move closer to ending poverty and expanding opportunity in America? Does a single solution or road map even exist? In a widely cited study, the Brookings Institute’s Isabel Sawhill and Ron Haskins famously argued that at least one predictable path is evident. Continue Reading...

January 12, 2012

Looking Back at the 1976 North Carolina Primary

With media attention focused on the Republican presidential primaries and how the race could change as it moves South, I thought it would be good to add an update to my 2007 post, “The Spirit of 76: Reagan Style.” Continue Reading...

October 12, 2011

Mitt Romney, the Mormon Question, and Presidential Elections

Mitt Romney’s faith made headlines again at the Values Voters Summit in D.C., where Robert Jeffress, who is the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, proclaimed last week, “Do we want a candidate who is a good, moral person, or one who is a born-again follower of the Lord Jesus Christ?” Continue Reading...

December 20, 2007

Romney and the Racism Charge

One element that came out in the aftermath of “Romney’s religion speech,” an event highly touted in the run-up and in days following, was the charge that Mormonism is essentially a racist faith (or at least was until 1978), and that in unabashedly embracing the “faith of his fathers” so publicly (and uncritically), Mitt Romney did not distance himself from or express enough of a critical attitude toward the official LDS policy regarding membership by blacks before 1978. Continue Reading...

December 10, 2007

Mitt Romney Speech Analysis Roundup

Acton has been called upon from several different outlets to provide commentary and analysis on Mitt Romney’s December 6 “Faith in America” speech. Following is a quick list of links to our various responses (which we’ll keep updated): Audio: Religion and Politics Romney and the Role of Religion in the Presidency Romney’s Faith and the Presidency Analyzing Mitt Romney’s Religion Speech Reflections on Romney’s Religion Speech News: Rev. Continue Reading...

May 21, 2007

The (civil) religion test

Commentators call it “The Religion Test.” What does it mean when the Constitution says there should be no religious test for holding office in the United States? Historically it has plainly meant that no candidate, be they a Quaker, a Baptist, a Pentecostal or a Mormon can be barred from office because of their religion. Continue Reading...

November 28, 2006

Hugh Hewitt and the Mormon Question

In a plenary address a couple weeks back to the Evangelical Theological Society, law professor and journalist Hugh Hewitt spoke about the religious affiliation of political candidates and to what extent this should be considered in the public debate (Melinda at Stand To Reason summarizes and comments here). Continue Reading...