When the Mormons go, you’ve really got a problem
Is there anyone left outside the White House who supports the war in Iraq? For some time now, the last large block of holdouts were the Mormons. More than any other religious group, Mormons have consistently told pollsters over the last couple years that invading Iraq was the right thing to do. As recently as ...
Is there anyone left outside the White House who supports the war in Iraq? For some time now, the last large block of holdouts were the Mormons. More than any other religious group, Mormons have consistently told pollsters over the last couple years that invading Iraq was the right thing to do. As recently as last October, support for the Iraq war among Mormons stood at around 65 percent. Since then, however, that figure has plummeted some 21 percentage points—a massive shift. A poll by the Salt Lake Tribune shows that today, just 44 percent of Mormons back Bush on the war in Iraq.
Is there anyone left outside the White House who supports the war in Iraq? For some time now, the last large block of holdouts were the Mormons. More than any other religious group, Mormons have consistently told pollsters over the last couple years that invading Iraq was the right thing to do. As recently as last October, support for the Iraq war among Mormons stood at around 65 percent. Since then, however, that figure has plummeted some 21 percentage points—a massive shift. A poll by the Salt Lake Tribune shows that today, just 44 percent of Mormons back Bush on the war in Iraq.
What accounts for such a huge shift in group thinking? Officially, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has no position on Iraq. A spokesman for the church says there is “no additional statement, clarification, changed policy or announcement that can account” for the change in the opinions of the church’s members.
However, in an unprecedented break with Bush and the conservative cause, several prominent Mormons have in recent months begun to speak out against the war. In late October, the president of the LDS Church, Gordon B. Hinckley, gave a speech at Brigham Young University that condemned “the terrible cost of war,” albeit without mentioning Iraq specifically. “What a fruitless thing it so often is,” Hinckley continued. “And what a terrible price it exacts.” Then, in November, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr., an LDS Church member, said upon returning from Iraq that, “the security situation is Baghdad is out of hand …. I am less optimistic about a successful outcome.” Senators Harry Reid and Gordon Smith, both Mormons, have also expressed similar skepticism.
Former Massachusetts governor and presidential contender Mitt Romney appears to be the last of the prominent staunch Mormon supporters of the war. Just last week, he said the United States should stay in Iraq “as long as there is a reasonable probability” of helping the Iraqis calm the country’s raging sectarian violence.
When he goes, who’s left?
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