It’s official: Mitt’s ‘The Better Mormon’

Just when we’ve gotten used to mud slinging in this religion-infested election cycle, we get to witness the casting of the first stone.

In a bodacious blog in the Jewish Journal, of all places, Mark Paredes, a Mormon and a member of the Jewish Relations Committee of the LDS Church’s Southern California Public Affairs Council, actually made the call on who’s the BETTER Mormon–Mitt Romney or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

I have to admit I was stunned to see a Mormon of some stature actually presume to rate the spiritual credentials of two co-religionists. I’ve got to wonder if he ran his blog up the heirarchy in Salt Lake City?

According to Paredes’ score card, that includes the mens’ stands on gambling and abortion: “Mitt wins the Better Mormon Award, though not by a landslide.”

Paredes writes that Reid falls especially spiritually short on gay-marriage yardstick [note: Reid supports gay marriage].

…since LDS prophets have repeatedly and publicly opposed state-sanctioned gay marriage. Romney agrees with the church’s position; Sen. Reid recently announced that he opposes it [the LDS church position]. In other words, men whom the senator regards as modern-day prophets have officially spoken on one of the major moral issues of the day, and the good senator thinks that they’re wrong. It is not possible for a faithful Mormon to support state-sanctioned gay marriage because it entails rejection of prophetic authority. On this issue Sen. Reid’s stance is not a liberal Mormon position; it is an anti-Mormon one.

Ouch.

Citing theological ignorance, Paredes declined to rate the the quality of Roman Catholic faith held by Vice President Joe Biden and Mitt’s veep candidate Paul Ryan. Presumably, both are lousy Mormons.