Weekend America

A Mormon Moment in Politics

Bill Radke

Karen Fritsche

DECEMBER 8, 2007

GOP Presidential Candidates Debate Economic Issues

(Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)

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Clytee Gold: My parents were very upset. I'm the youngest of five. I have two brothers and two sisters. Apparently at one point my brother who was in law enforcement at the time, there was a discussion of him coming to rescue me from the cult or something. Right now it's kind of like it's the elephant in the living room that we don't talk about.

Bill Radke: Well you were raised Methodist, you're the only convert in your family, what appealed to you so much that you converted?

It just felt right, I don't know. It felt more accessible. Or Deity felt more accessible. The LDS church you're just taught to address heavenly father as your father. Just speak to him, just have a prayer. Also, I think, the idea of everybody in the LDS church has a job, a calling, contributes, and that rotates, and I liked kind of the lay ministry, everybody serves idea.

So how would you say Romney's candidacy has affected your relationships with your family?

They ask questions and they ask a little bit about the church, and that was a direct result of Mitt Romney announcing.

What did they ask you?

What do you believe, what's different, and you're always ready for the question about, you know, do you really believe Joseph Smith saw an angel, do you really believe that there were gold plates in the ground and they translated the Book of Mormon from them, you know, and why did they allow polygamy. I can't answer why they allowed polygamy. There's just the hot button issues that you sort of don't want to deal with, but that's what people go after.

How does your Mormon faith affect your political views?

I really think we should be caring for the poor, and we should be watching out for others, and that everyone should have universal health care, and I think that's part of my religion.

So are you going to vote for Romney because he's Mormon?

No. I'm not going to vote for Romney, because I feel like he's too close to Bush, and I'm dissatisfied with the administration, but how much of that is because I listen to a lot of NPR? I don't know.

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