As a journalist, I believe it’s my duty and responsibility to take in as much political jargon as possible this election season (not like I have a choice – it’s everywhere on newsstands this fall).
As a blogger, I believe it’s my duty and responsibility to inform the general public of my opinions on most everything, whether they’d like to hear it or not.
So, the point of this post is to proclaim to the world that I, as a nondenominational, evangelical Christian, have chosen to vote for a Mormon president.
Initially, this seemed like a bad decision: “Mormons want to take over the world!,” “They all have three wives!,” and “It’s a cult!” are all sentiments that jumped out at me from friends mouths’ and various forms of media after I made my choice to support Romney as the next President of the United States.
However, after reading TIME Magazine’s October cover story, my mind was changed. Here are three simple reasons why I’m voting for Willard Mitt Romney:
1) He’s devoted to his faith. No matter what the church has done in the past (everyone makes mistakes – Crusades, anyone?), Romney is firm in his commitment to charitable giving and tithing (according to TIME’s article, the Romneys personally give 10 percent of their income to the church faithfully – $3 million total to charity in 2010, $1.5 directly to the church). Also, he held a leadership position in the church of Massachusetts as a bishop, where, as a Mormon, he became familiar with how to handle conflict and strife – two things far from foreign to an Oval Office-holder.
2) He received a joint JD AND MBA from Harvard University. So he knows the law, constitutional rights, AND corporate America firsthand. Not to mention he’s a millionaire in his own right, thanks to worthy investments and corporate “smarts” (sure, there has been controversy about evaded tax returns – read all you want in this August 2012 Vanity Fair article).
3) He loves his one and only wife, Ann, and has for years. Here’s a photo printed in TIME Magazine’s cover spread, documenting Mitt on a beach in France in 1968, faithfully proclaiming his love for his soon-to-be-wife while carrying out a two-year missions trip with the Mormon church in Europe.
So, there it is – call me crazy, but I feel like these three things are really all I need to know about my potentially-soon-to-be Mormon president. In God’s opinion, I think that’s more than enough – it’s nice to remember his will will be carried out, no matter which box I check on my ballot.