State lawmaker: Mitt Romney ‘a nice man, but I’m afraid of his Mormon faith’

Today’s Marietta Daily Journal carries evidence that the GOP will yet have a debate over presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney’s faith, quoting state Rep. Judy Manning of Cobb County, a Newt Gingrich supporter:

“I think Mitt Romney is a nice man, but I’m afraid of his Mormon faith,” Manning said. “It’s better than a Muslim. Of course, every time you look at the TV these days you find an ad on there telling us how normal they are. So why do they have to put ads on the TV just to convince us that they’re normal if they are normal? … If the Mormon faith adhered to a past philosophy of pluralism, multi-wives, that doesn’t follow the Christian faith of one man and one woman, and that concerns me.”

- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider

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320 comments Add your comment

mark

January 4th, 2012
7:13 pm

I wonder how she feels about the Fly Spagetti Monsters! They are the real Gods. Or was it Clapton. thats right, Clapton is God. or was it Isis, or Thor. Maybe, it is ME!!

I am not sure who to vote for, but drop this God or your God stuff. This is how wars begin!

Chicagojeff

January 4th, 2012
7:18 pm

Here’s my question to Romney concerning his faith.. Explain to me how you were a high ranking member of a faith that up until you turned 37 believed that African-Americans were cursed people and unworthy of either church membership or church ranking??

Gfyhimr

January 4th, 2012
7:27 pm

Really Chicago Jeff. Do you realize that you are wrong? Do you realize that the founder of the LDS faith was an abolitionist and that is one of the reasons he was murdered? My fiancées father was Mormon and African American. He was unable to hold the priesthood until 1976. I was there. Look back at all of the other Christian religions in the 1800’s and forward. Same thing goes for their hierarchy. Ask any African American member of the LDS church how they feel about it and what the truth is. You are misinformed and spreading hate about something you know nothing about. Back on track…….we need to fix AMERICA.

jojoagogo

January 4th, 2012
7:27 pm

I say Mormonism is a cult. Don’t care how many adds they run.

KC

January 4th, 2012
7:30 pm

As long as someone can turn around this “Bush – Republicans & Obama – Democrats” economic mess, they can worship whoever they want to! Judy, “It’s the economy STUPID!”

Brian

January 4th, 2012
7:33 pm

@ Chicago
If you expect an honest answer, you better start by asking an honest question. African-Americans have always been accepted into LDS church membership since the 1830’s. It’s true they didn’t hold many leadership positions until 1978.

YaNeed2readITagain

January 4th, 2012
7:33 pm

@lawdawg : go back and read the book again. 1 man 1 wife – very definite obligation by god.

not that many people obeyed what was said. Not even the “patriarchs”.

td

January 4th, 2012
7:37 pm

tired of this country

January 4th, 2012
7:04 pm

The world was not laughing when GWB was President, especially the terrorist nations. They are laughing now because Obama is in charge.

Hide-n-seek

January 4th, 2012
7:44 pm

It is the USA!!!!! for Pete’s sake. Did John Kennedy make us all Catholics? or did any other President make us convert to his religion. Did we all become womanizers because some Presidents were? Why preach freedom of religion if we can’t practice it?

KeepAllreligionOUT

January 4th, 2012
7:45 pm

guessing her point was how much he’d rely on his religion in passing laws and running the country.

Keep ALL the religion out of the public discourse. Everyone is free to worship as they choose, but even in the US there have already been a couple civil cases by which judges relied on sharia law to let men off the hook for spouse abuse. Sorry, that’s bad news for everybody. Whatever she meant she was right about the massive change and loss of civil rights to certain citizens if the US embraces islam in considering the passing of laws.

while the repubs should have spent the last two years making sound policy towards the countries economy, the first thing they had to do was get all messed up with the whole abortion thing all over again.

NEITHER PARTY of the standard two party system represents the vast majority of the country. Including the mormon candidate fixated on the bondage of women. His record on his religions views of women and his disdain for letting what he does come to light by his example of destroying the records of his tenure in office disqualify this dude from running as pres of the PTA let alone the highest office we have.

You read it here first, but I guarantee you by 2020 repealing laws that prohibit one wife will be facing the court. And it will create the same underclass of citizens by men who procreate beyond their ability to provide or even care just as it does in countries that allow it now. The class of unwanted and uneducated poor kids who are where the ranks of terrorist organizations find their adherents.

OneFreeMan

January 4th, 2012
7:51 pm

The most hateful and narrow-minded people I ever met considered them religious.

Guinness

January 4th, 2012
8:00 pm

This is precisely why I would & could never be republican cause it seems like all the idiots gravitate to this party – no exception!

shamu

January 4th, 2012
8:06 pm

Clapton is God!

elreyjones

January 4th, 2012
8:13 pm

The article was probably put on here to get the debate started. remember that Odumba was a Muslim and went to a racist black man’s church (Jeremiah Wright) that gave the Khadafi loving black racist supremacist Nation of Islam’s own beloved Louis Farrakkklan an award? All was proved untrue but what the heck.

wishing

January 4th, 2012
8:18 pm

Cobb County, we are being represented by this woman. We shouldn’t just be embarrassed, we should be angry. Get her out of office before she opens her mouth again.

Neil

January 4th, 2012
8:18 pm

What an idiot,,, would you rather have a non-believing communist in the WH? Give me a break,,, go bury you head in the dirt…

Now you've done it

January 4th, 2012
8:22 pm

Soon living in Georgia will be just as embarrassing as living in Florida or Texas.

Mike

January 4th, 2012
8:26 pm

I think she should have said, ‘equal to being Scientologist’.

missing the point

January 4th, 2012
8:33 pm

@#%$ my neighbors for voting for this clown in office. This lady truly believes in what she’s saying. Is there one out here that will second what she’s saying??

rawmilkdrinker

January 4th, 2012
8:52 pm

And how many wives did Solomon, et al have?

ConcernedGeorgian

January 4th, 2012
9:00 pm

Lawdog, in your 1.42pm post you made a statement about what the Bible states or doesnot state. Look at Chapter 19 of St, Matthew’s writing and read where Jesus Christ stated that it was not so from the beginning that married people were to divorce but because of the hardness of the individual’s heart Moses not God suffered it to be so. So yes one wife or one husband is a requirement of the Scriptures. I would prefer a political leader that has been married just one time because it shows he/she is willing to work hard at seeing their marriage lasts therefore they have shown they are willing to work hard to get the job done they have been elected to do. It also shows they know how to compriimse to find a solution to any problem. Unlike our present day Republican/Tea Party zealots who cannot see the need to comprimise even though they actually have no concrete idea on how to find a solution, they just know nobody else but them has the solution.

Mb

January 4th, 2012
9:03 pm

People, people, people…

Mormons may be great people but their religion is fake and unless they accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, then they will ultimately die and spend eternity in a literal place called Hell. A place completely separated from God.

Cash $ Player

January 4th, 2012
9:11 pm

I guess it would be funny if people didn’t judge me for being from this backwater state.
Anyway, I guess you can all go cry my a river of your sweet precious Christian tears when President Obama gets re-elcted in November.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Wade

January 4th, 2012
9:14 pm

@David….

Your list of Mormons believe this, and Christians believe this is interesting….

How about this…. there are probably 999,999 different christian denominations in this world, and I’ll bet you couldn’t get many of them to agree on all aspects of their religion.

Here is what I think…. Anyone who believes in Jesus is a Christian.

I don’t think I want to face Jesus after this life and tell him that it was I who decided who could rightfully call him their own. I’ll leave that to him.

Instead of spending twenty minutes thinking and typing differences between your definition of Christianity and Mormons, how about you take that same time and think of someone you don’t like or think you have differences with and think of something nice about them and call them up and tell them. I think Jesus would appreciate a Christian act like that.

PCGOPExaminer

January 4th, 2012
9:22 pm

I see some stupid comments rage here as usual. Liberals…pfft.

Sally

January 4th, 2012
9:25 pm

WOW!! That’s embarrassing.

Southern Man

January 4th, 2012
9:26 pm

This is my representative. This is why I am not represented within my government at any level. This is why I am under constant threat of being ruled by the mob. This is why I am grateful that we have a Republic and not a Democracy. For now, my one pathetic vote is my only line of self-defense.

David

January 4th, 2012
9:27 pm

Hey Brian,

It’s interesting to me that I can sit down and talk with visting Elders or a High Priest and discuss these different beliefs. They have no problem saying we believe differently on these issues. It is the doctrine of the LDS. Joseph Smith founded Mormonism on the belief that Christianity was apostate.

But when the discussion about these different beliefs is public there are lots of denials.

My guess is that the LDS is aware that the doctrines that separate them from Christianity are not easy to accept without “proper preperation”. I can talk with a practicing Mormon about the doctrine that teaches Heavenly Father was at one time not a god but was able to become exalted and achieve his god state and have them say I’m lying and then come back a week later after talking to someone at Temple and tell me I was right; they just hadn’t been taught that yet.

I believe the point of this news article is not whether Mormons believe the right thing, or whether or not they are good, hard working people, but whether or not the teachings of the LDS church can have an effect on the chances of a leading member of their faith to be elected to the highest office.

Eric Cardon

January 4th, 2012
9:28 pm

Judy, bless your heart, ignorance and fear go hand in hand. How someone as dense as you became elected to public office is far more scary than the mormon religion. The reason they run those ads is to battle ignorant negative PR by people such as yourself. You truly are an embarrassment to Georgia.

Wendilynn

January 4th, 2012
9:37 pm

Interestingly enough, the mormon ads got started because Mormons don’t advertise about how religious they are. shouting about how religious you are is actually considered poor taste and bad religion. So Mormons in general don’t go bragging about how Jesus is their Savior. In the LDS faith, how one lives their life is indication of how well they follow the Savior, not how loud they talk about it. And because of that, there are probably lots of people that have no idea they even live next to Mormons. The “I’m a Mormon” ads are to counter the idea that we’re living in sects and compounds. We’re normal people just living our lives and helping our communities.

Sadly, I run into people who spout stuff like this unfortunate woman all the time.

David

January 4th, 2012
9:37 pm

Wade,

I agree that it is faith in Jesus that matters. However, if all of historical Christianity (Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Catholics, etc) teaches about a different Jesus than what Mormonism teaches, do both faiths believe in the same person?

Isn’t different to believe in a person who is and always was God than to believe in a man who was created, lived a life good enough to be exalted and became a god?

td

January 4th, 2012
9:39 pm

Now you’ve done it

January 4th, 2012
8:22 pm
Soon living in Georgia will be just as embarrassing as living in Florida or Texas.

I promise you that you will not be missed if you decide to leave and go live with people you agree with politically. Now, ND has help wanted signs everywhere if you are looking to get off welfare.

George Farmer

January 4th, 2012
9:42 pm

Really people? Do you think Mormons really aren’t Christian? That show the ignorance that has enveloped our country. Last time I checked, Mormons do believe in Christ. They believe in the teachings of Christ. Doesn’t that make them Christian? Truth is, every religion is different from each other. But no other church has been attacked like the LDS church for being different. There are many variants of Christianity. And the LDS church is one of them. Get over your ignorance, and stop believing everything everybody tells you. The reason the LDS church is attacked so much is because of its rapid expansion. And if you wanna attack Romney for his religion, just look at JFK. And he wasn’t the most perfect guy either.

Steve

January 4th, 2012
9:45 pm

Men with more than one wife:
Abraham (Father of Israel)
David (wrote most of the Psalms)
Newt (dumbass Judy Manning’s candidate of choice)

B.S. in Journalism Condensed for Your Convenience

January 4th, 2012
9:46 pm

MON – Bash Newt for jewelry shopping.
TUES – Bash conservatives as desirous of killing elderly.
WED – Bash Christians using local lawmaker du jour.
THURS – Paint Conservatives as anti-education (”closing 4 colleges to save money”).
FRI – Bash Newt for his divorce.

Next week: REPEAT

harry humphrey

January 4th, 2012
9:53 pm

Mormons..the food we keep in our basements and the genealogy track we have to Adam..you people best understand…. Mormon is not the mainstream, we focus on procreation, $$ and if you are not one of us- – a MOTT (”member of the tribe)…that’s ok, but no heaven for you….. now go to bed!

Look before I leap...

January 4th, 2012
9:57 pm

Mormons consider themselves Christians and I suppose that is good enough for Jesus.
For all those who have posted so vehemently (and in a couple of cases articulately) that Mormons are NOT Christians, I refer you back to my first sentence.

Not So Casual Observer

January 4th, 2012
9:58 pm

An elected official makes a statement and this then becomes:

Embarrassing to GA,

Embarrasing to those who wished they lived elsewhere,

Somehow a Republican Party issue – remember this is one person who is not speaking for her party.

A Tea Party issue – please keep those idiotic thoughts to yourself as you ask of Judy Manning.

Judy Manning would vote for the KKK candidate – really? now that is a stretch.

This has been a condemnation of Christianity by those who apparently do not understand Christianity or are just looking for an excuse to vent their own ignorance and frustrations.

Most here need a reality check. Ms. Manning speaks only for herself, not Republicans, not Georgians and not Christians. If you truly wish to take someone to task other than Ms. Manning then go to her district and abuse her constituents. Or even campaign against Ms. Manning if she stands for office in the future.

harry humphrey

January 4th, 2012
10:04 pm

Look before I leap…

shhhhh…now go to bed. I am a MOTT. I tell you I have a basement full of food ready for rapture. Let the others speak, but I am one who will ascend. Perhaps one day we may open up our Temple- – no different than others, but not until later.

Miss Mamie

January 4th, 2012
10:05 pm

Of course there will be a discussion. Romney thought he was pretty slick to start airing those “I’m a Mormon” ads, but the truth is in the pudding: Mormonism is a cult and the group has beliefs that are weirder than Islam or Hinduism. Namely, how is Mitt gonna convince evangelicals in South Carolina that Christ survived execution and ended up preaching to the ancient Aztecs a few days later?

Deacon Doright

January 4th, 2012
10:15 pm

I think Representative Judy Manning is a nice woman; at least from her picture, I think she’s a woman, but I’m afraid of her Presbyterian faith. I suppose it’s better than the Zoroastrianism that is sweeping the South, but every time you look around, they’re having some fundraiser, or coffee or dinner to raise money and outpace the other Protestants in building gyms and things. I know they’re not really normal. In fact, if the Presbyterians adhered to a past philosophy of infant damnation, it doesn’t follow its own present doctrine and that should be of concern to all. They’re no better than those awful Papists and both should be burned at the stake or stoned.

DGreggor

January 4th, 2012
10:23 pm

Who needs a governor or the Georgia legistlature when we have Queen Manning The Bigot to decide what’s right for all of us.

Progressive Humanist

January 4th, 2012
10:24 pm

What I find most amusing is that members of one cult, Christianity, are accusing members of another cult, Mormonism, of being cult members. The former cult members, Christians, are comparing the beliefs of the two cults with the intention of showing how their mythical beliefs are clearly so much more logical than the mythical beliefs of the other. They think their myths make sense (talking snakes, animals on an ark, believing in one god yet also being polytheistic [the father, son, & holy spirit], believing in a god who is his own son who is his own father who was born without the use of sperm and was allowed to be tortured to death by the father who is the son who is the father, etc.). And they don’t even realize the only reason that foolishness makes sense to them is because they were brainwashed into believing it from a very young age and that all myths (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Mormonism, etc.) are equally false and equally fictitious. But yet they try to argue that their myth is more valid than the other. Hilarious, really.

Mb

January 4th, 2012
10:31 pm

@look before I Leap

Simply because someone considers themself a Christian does not make it so; however, if they have accepted Jesus as personal Lord and Savior of their life then they are a Christian (Christ Follower).

3 words

January 4th, 2012
10:36 pm

many wives…yum!

NoObama

January 4th, 2012
10:46 pm

Can’t wait to see how JIm Galloway lights the fire in his next article.

Let Freedom Ring

January 4th, 2012
10:54 pm

I know of no other people who center their religion on their Savior, Jesus Christ, more firmly than those who are member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons). Judy if you genuinely do your homework (or if anyone else does who has this concern), you will be pleasantly surprised.

JMG

January 4th, 2012
10:56 pm

No, what’s truly amusing is to see the posts by anti-religious bigots who so enjoy playing the role of amateur-theologian as they exhibit their zealous, almost mindless adherence to obsolete pseudo-academic positions.

Having never really bothered to read the Biblical record for themselves, they happlily recite what others they consider more knowledgeable than themselves have spoon fed them, or they pre-judge the record as fictional and use their lack of understanding of what it actually says as a pre-tense to make it say whatever they wish to assume it says. Talk about brainwashed mumbo-jumbo!

Jed

January 4th, 2012
11:36 pm

ALL Mormons are Christians. Mormons take upon them the name of Christ at baptism and renew that relationship weekly as they take the sacrament.

Mormons not only believe in Christ, they try to teach and do his sayings. I think that qualifies them as followers of Christ, if not whatever she calls “Christian.”

Nothing to fear, lots to love.

Look before I leap...

January 5th, 2012
12:09 am

JMG 10:56P

By changing 3 words in your manifesto, I make the case AGAINST your position. Not that either one is right or wrong, just pointing out the total weakness of your argument.

No, what’s truly amusing is to see the posts by RELIGIOUS ZEALOTS who so enjoy playing the role of amateur-theologian as they exhibit their zealous, almost mindless adherence to obsolete pseudo-academic positions.

Having never really bothered to read the Biblical record for themselves, they happlily recite what others they consider more knowledgeable than themselves have spoon fed them, or they pre-judge the record as FACTUAL and use their lack of understanding of what it actually says as a pre-tense to make it say whatever they wish to assume it says. Talk about brainwashed mumbo-jumbo!