Would you vote for a Mormon?

I'll give you two sentences that sum up what I want to say about voting for a Mormon. A person's religious beliefs are important in so far as they affect that persons political ideology, and I will vote for the person that has a political ideology that most closely resembles my own, regardless of where that political ideology came from. When a Christian requires that the President of the United States also be a Christian, that implies to me that they are putting their faith in the United States Government to be the Bride of Christ, instead of the rightful Bride: the Church.

I do not think that voters should submit Presidential hopefuls to religious tests, but I do believe that a persons religious beliefs can affect their political ideology, and it is appropriate to test a candidate to see how their orthodoxy affects their politics. Just because someone is a Christian does not mean that their political ideology will match your own, and just because someone is not a Christian does not mean that their political ideology will not match your own. If Fred Phelps, a Calvinist (as am I), ran for President I would say that his religious beliefs are incompatible with the values of the American people and those beliefs disqualify him from serving as an elected official. Personally, I don't think he's fit to be a crossing guard, let alone an elected official. The point is that even though Fred Phelps and I agree on some of the tenets of Calvinism, our agreement on some matters of theology are totally inconsequential when it comes to the Presidency. Pretty much the whole fleet of Democratic contenders are ostensibly Christians, but they are all shaky on abortion (if not staunch supporters). Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and we disagree completely on a wide variety of theological matters, but none of those theological differences have anything to do with how Mitt would govern as President.

Second point, the United States government is not the Kingdom of God. The government has a role in our society, as does the church. I think that many Christians have become frustrated with the church because they feel it is either not powerful enough to turn the world into the Kingdom of God (you can read that "make the world a better place") or it is not working fast enough, or hard enough. The temptation is to turn to the state to do what the church can't or won't do. It is a shortcut, and often times I think it is an inappropriate shortcut. I think that this is the same mistake that the Jewish people made when they expected the Messiah to be a political and not a religious leader. So, as a Christian, I will vote for anyone that I think will give the church the necessary elbow room to do what it is called to do. If a Christian were running for office, and I felt that they planned to usurp the role of the church and give it to the state, then I would oppose that candidate. I believe that the state is called by God to fulfill a certain calling, but I do not think it is necessary for the President to be a Christian to govern in a way that fulfills that calling.