Why I Don't Think A Mormon Should Be President

Nathan Nebeker is a technology executive and entrepreneur. He was born in Salt Lake City, and his family descends from some of the early Mormon pioneers. The opinions expressed below are his own.

The founders of the United States had a lot of good ideas, but undoubtedly one of the best was the decoupling of religion from government. 

In principle, someone from any religion can be President of the United States.  So even though all but one president has been a member of some flavor of Protestant Christianity, Mitt Romney’s Mormonism doesn’t disqualify him from the presidency in the eyes of the American public.  This is a good thing.  In principle.

At the risk of sounding like a mullah, I believe there are deeper reasons that a Mormon should be disqualified from being president.

Romney’s candidacy, along with a Broadway smash musical and a few other things, have come together to create a “Mormon moment.”  But despite this, public knowledge of Mormonism is limited to some superficial cultural impressions, with an underlying feeling of vague suspicion.

If Romney were to win, you could say Mormonism is a fringe branch of Protestant Christianity, and therefore he wouldn’t be charting any new territory.  Mormonism is actually kind of a hybrid between Protestantism and Catholicism.  They embrace the most basic Protestant idea of a personal relationship with God, (for men, anyway), but have the hierarchical power structure, rigid dogma, and the expectation of obedience of Catholics. Read more.....