The first issue of why Mormons ignore Ron Paul can most likely be answered by looking at how most people approach politics–they don’t. Most people in the United States do not vote. Of those who do vote, many of them choose who they vote for based on superficial reasoning “I’m voting for Obama because he’s black,” or “I’m voting for Romney because he’s a Mormon” or “I’m voting for Huckabee because he’s a Baptist” or “I’m voting for McCain because he’s a vet and so am I”. Just as bad, many vote for a certain party as though it were a football game and they were choosing their team, “I always vote for Democrats because my parents were Democrats and I’ve always been a Democrat.” How many voters take the time to educate themselves, even minimally, on the stances politicians have on various issues and the policies they would enact? To claim that Mormons aren’t just as bad as the rest of the country at doing their homework is to exercise great faith indeed. Thus, I would say that many Mormons have still never heard of Ron Paul, or if they have, they don’t know a thing about him. They might not even be aware that he was a candidate in 2008, or that he’s a Republican. They simply have not really been exposed to even the barest hint of information that might perk their curiosity enough to take a closer look at him.

Second, there are a few stances Ron Paul has that would almost certainly turn off a Mormon who isn’t determined to find out what Ron Paul really is saying. For example, if all they hear about Ron Paul is that he voted against the war in Iraq and that he’s in favor of legalizing drugs, that would be enough for most Mormons to write him off right then and there and declare him a kook. And why bother looking any closer when we’ve got Romney, and he’s a Mormon!

I am not yet a Ron Paul supporter. I’ve only read two of his books and that’s the sum total of my exposure to him. I need to do more research. But based on what I’ve read so far, I like him. I like him a lot, although I say that conditionally because I don’t know if I know everything about him yet. If he continues to be the person I’ve seen in the two books I’ve read, then I’ll continue to like him. And when it comes to examining the Mormon faith and how that would theoretically play out in politics, I believe Ron Paul’s policies can be said to match those held in high esteem by the majority of Mormons better than any other potential candidate for US President, including Mitt Romney.

I believe Mormons would support Ron Paul en masse, if they were to take the time to get to know him. But that’s the challenge. Putting up signs over freeways saying “Ron Paul Revolution!” might hurt just as much as help. The more effective plan will be for those Mormons who do support Ron Paul to take the time to educate their fellow Mormons, one at a time, by discussing Ron Paul’s views and by sharing his books and articles. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, our country has reached the point where if we want it to remain a free country, it’s going to require a lot of time, effort, skill, and knowledge. Gaining that knowledge means reading books and articles and  listening to people talk. It’s not going to happen overnight, and but it can happen in a few years. I’m encouraged to see so many people who were never interested in politics or economics becoming interested and educating themselves. I wouldn’t be surprised if by 2012 we see as many Mormons supporting Ron Paul as we saw supporting Romney in the last round.

But why did Utahns vote to repeal Prohibition? Sure, it was difficult to enforce in any effective way, and there were probably some imbibing Mormons, but certainly the majority of the state population was against the consumption of alcohol. Was it because it wasn’t working? Was it the cost of enforcement? Was it some sort of libertarian leaning, or the fear that restricting the freedoms of others might come back to bite Mormons someday? If the latter, could we equally ironically see Mormons come out in favor of repealing current drug laws and ending the “War on Drugs”?

I don’t have any answers, but I’m looking for them. If you have a clue, enlighten us all.

So, do Mormons hate gay people? No. If Mormons don’t hate gay people, why are they against gay marriage? Why are they forcing their religion on other people and taking away their rights? Why would they want to rob committed couples of the opportunity to legalize that commitment?

Mormons don’t hate gay people any more than they hate people who steal batteries. Mormons see the homosexual act as a sin, but they don’t hate people who sin. Mormons recognize that everyone is a sinner, and nobody has the right to say “I’m good and you’re bad” because we all fall far short of perfection. We are all “bad” if you want to look at it that way.

But there are two ways we can look at “badness”. We can either say “I’m bad, but I want to be good” or we can say “There is no such thing as being bad.” Mormons want to be good, and want to help others be good as well. Mormons believe that legalizing gay marriage is a way of saying that there is no such thing as bad and good or right and wrong, and Mormons believe that if people think something that is truly bad is accepted as being good, then that will lead to increased levels of general unhappiness. Legalizing gay marriage doesn’t change what it is. It forces society to accept it, but doesn’t make it acceptable. If California legalized stealing batteries we would all be forced to accept battery thieves, but we would all know that it’s still stealing, whether it’s legal or not.

Or would we? What message would it send to our children if we legalize stealing batteries? What if a child’s parents teach them that stealing is wrong, no matter what, but then at school they learn that stealing is usually wrong, except for batteries? In at least some cases might this not result in the child doubting the teachings of the parents? And if everyone else believes stealing batteries is ok, but my parents don’t, what else might my parents be wrong about? And what’s the difference between batteries and music CDs? Why is one ok and the other wrong? What about cars? If it’s ok to steal batteries, isn’t it ok to steal anything?

Of course legalization of the theft of batteries wouldn’t result in every child becoming a thief. But what if it negatively affected the actions of 1%, 2%, or 5% of the population? Might the actions of that small percentage be enough to negatively effect the entire population?

Likewise, the legalization of gay marriage will send a message to children that what their parents teach them at home and what they learn outside the home are at conflict. This will force them to either doubt the legitimacy of the government, or the legitimacy of their parents as authoritative figures. It puts parents at odds with the government in the education of their children.

Of course this isn’t the first time this has happened, but can you expect parents to not oppose anything? If the government wanted to legalize stealing cars would you oppose it? Of course you would. Why? Because stealing is wrong. It hurts people. Making stealing acceptable would hurt all of society. Mormons and others see legalization of gay marriage the same way. The only difference between you and them–assuming you were against Prop 8– is that they’ve drawn the line in a different place. You are willing to accept things Mormons aren’t. But we all believe discrimination is good, we just don’t always agree on what should be discriminated against. We can all agree that discriminating against negative behaviors like murder and theft is good for society (except for some real nut-jobs), and we generally agree that discriminating against inherent characteristics like gender and skin color are not good for society. But homosexuality falls into a gray zone where we’re split. Some think it is a similar issue to skin color, and others see it as a behavior, like stealing things.

The question has been decided democratically, by the vote of the people. I don’t oppose the right of those who are trying through legal means to stop Prop 8 or overturn it. I think they have every right to try as long as they don’t circumvent the laws of the state and country. If they win someday, as I’m afraid they may, I won’t react the same way they have with protests and hateful words, nor will I hate them. I’ll be disappointed and frustrated but I’ll deal with it.

While these are clearly my own opinions I believe they’re held by a majority of Mormons. In my 33 years as a member of the LDS faith I have never heard any hateful talk about gays. On the contrary I’ve heard much about love and compassion and I expect to see more of it as time goes on and Mormons come to understand the issue more thoroughly.

The same can’t be said for other religions due to their de-centralized leadership. If you wanted to picket the head of the Baptist religion, where would you go? What about the Methodists, Presbyterians, or evangelicals? I can see the Prop 8 protesters assigned to picket those religions meeting at a parking lot in the morning and then all looking puzzled as they try and figure out where they’re supposed to go, and then finally giving up and saying “But we know where those Mormons are! To the Los Angeles temple!” and then they all go storming off in that direction like villagers with pitchforks running after Frankenstein.

In addition, Mormons were quite active in fundraising for Prop 8. The estimates I’ve heard hover around 40%, which is obviously disproportionate when you understand that Mormons make up only 2% of the population in California.

So in light of those facts, it’s no surprise to me to see that Mormons have been targeted more than other faiths in the backlash against Prop 8.

The fight to pass Prop 8 has been a bright beacon of hope as religions with conflicting doctrines have joined together to promote a common cause. Our opponents have tried to divide us based on our doctrinal differences in order to defeat us, but they failed. But they’ll try again, and if they can succeed in turning us against each other, then eventually they’ll win and we will all lose. But if we can continue to come together on the causes that unite us, we can maintain the society that has provided us with the freedom we currently have to have differences of doctrine and each worship as we please.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of Mormons are moving towards being independents these days. No, not because they’re mad at McCain for beating Romney, but because the Republican party seems to be trending more liberal lately, and McCain does happen to be a representation of that fact.

Much of what I liked about Romney wasn’t based on information I learned from the media, but from people I’ve met and talked to who know Romney personally. It’s from being here in Utah when he came here and straightened out the 2002 Winter Olympics after a huge scandal and made it into arguably the most successful Winter Olympics of all time. Here’s a tangential story or two for you from people who were there.

Mitt Romney comes in to take over the Olympics. Up to this point, the organizing committee had been having fancy catered lunches, despite being millions of dollars in debt. Perhaps their logic was “Hey, we’re millions in debt, what’s another $10K for catered lunches?” But Romney wouldn’t have any of it. He canceled the catering, ordered Dominos Pizza for the lunches, and charged everyone a dollar per slice or let them bring their own lunch. When there was a traffic jam at a training event for the volunteers, Romney got out and started directing traffic. He didn’t wait for someone else to do it because it was beneath him, he saw a problem, realized he could do something about it, and he did.

Here’s another story that was reported in the media although I heard it from someone who was working with Romney at the time. One of Romney’s employees at a company he was managing had a teenage daughter who went missing. I don’t remember the details but I think it was a runaway situation. Romney closed the business down and organized the employees to go out and search for this lost girl. It would have been admirable if he told his employee “Gee, that’s horrible, please take as much time as you need and let me know what I can do to help.” Some employers wouldn’t even go that far. But to do what he did was above and beyond was could have been expected. Did he do it because he thought “Hey, someday I’m going to go into politics and this will be a great story to make me look good.” Maybe, but I doubt it. I think that’s who he really is. I think he cares that much about people.

It’s hearing stories like that from people I know and trust, and seeing people I know and trust who are associates of Romney that made me like him, in spite of the doubts I had. Not to mention I think he’s a proven expert when it comes to business and economics and making things more efficient, so I think he really could do a lot to clean up the bureaucratic mess in Washington. I’d love to see McCain put Romney in charge of this 9/11 style commission he wants to set up to analyze what has gone wrong with the economy and what can be done to fix it so that it never happens again.

So that’s how I feel about Romney. Would I feel any different if Romney weren’t a Mormon? Maybe, maybe not. As a Mormon it’s fun to see Mormons who have been successful and made it as far as Romney has, but I wouldn’t vote for someone just because they’re Mormon. Harry Reid is also a Mormon, but I’d vote for just about anybody before I’d cast a vote for him.

Is he a religious bigot? I don’t know. Is he ignorant? I don’t know. I know he made statements which, if they are sincere, would certainly seem to indicate that he’s a bigot and ignorant. But my hunch is that he’s neither a bigot nor ignorant, but just a typical politician. He thought he could win if he took out Romney, and he thought he could take out Romney by turning evangelicals against him by bringing up Romney’s religion. The press, who saw Romney as the best contender for President were only too happy to help, and so everything worked according to plan, except that Huckabee couldn’t get many votes with anybody except a subset of evangelicals, and that wasn’t enough to win in the primaries.

Could I ever vote for Huckabee? Mmmm, maybe, if he were the best candidate available. But I somehow doubt I’ll ever feel that he is. I would have voted for Thompson, Giuliani, Brownback, Romney, and probably even McCain before Huckabee. Heck, I’d vote for Palin for President before I’d vote for Huckabee. But I do think he’s a great public speaker and I think he has some good ideas. I just don’t see him as being presidential material.