History’s Highest Ranking Mormon

Mormons have already held key positions in Washington. During President Eisenhower’s administration he appointed a Mormon to his cabinet. Today, in the Bush2 administration a former Utah Governor is secretary of Health and Human Services. There are presently five senators and about a dozen congressmen who are members of the LDS church, and two federal departments have Mormon chiefs of staff. However, no Mormon has attained such a high rank in Washington, until now.

He is the highest-ranking Mormon ever elected to office in U.S. history. Most observers seem to believe it to be a good thing; a sign that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is becoming mainstream. “It’s an important symbol,” says John Green, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. “That has always been a mark of religious groups in American society, that in some important sense the group has become part of the mainstream.”

He is not just a Latter-day Saint, but a devout member of that faith. He attends services at a Mormon ward house where he has served his congregation in various capacities throughout the years, including being a home teacher who visits members of the ward to check on their well-being. He keeps a copy of the Book of Mormon, along with a King James bible on his office bookshelf. He is the father of five boys and is anti-abortion, pro-death penalty, opposed to same-sex marriage and gun control.

“His faith clearly affects who he is,” says Kai Anderson, his former deputy chief of staff. “It’s a big part of what makes him a decent, kind, loving man. But he doesn’t legislate it.”

“It’s a historical milestone that I’m sure LDS scholars will note,” says Senator Bob Bennett, a Mormon from Utah. “Interestingly, in the Senate no one seems to care.”

Interestingly too – in all of Washington, the American Media and the entire United States, no one seems to care that such a high ranking Mormon sits in their government. Why?

Because he is NOT a Republican. He is NOT Mitt Romney!

He IS Democrat, Harry Reid, elected by his fellow senators to be their leader in Washington. These Democrat solons elected Harry Reid, a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Saints, as the Senate majority leader of the United States Senate. What a difference a party affiliation makes in America!

Reference: The Daily Herald

Recommended: Fear of Mormons

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