The director of “The Other Side of Heaven” has started a campaign to help counter anti-Mormon bigotry. Mitch Davis has started a web site RunMittRun.org and is hoping to raise money and awareness to counter the large number of people who say they would not vote for a Mormon for president.
Davis, a graduate of Brigham Young University who lives in San Diego, has already invested his own money in a poll of South Carolinians. One-third of the respondents said they could not vote for a member of the LDS Church for president.
The results are similar to a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll of registered voters nationwide, released earlier this month. That poll found 37 percent of those questioned would not vote for an LDS presidential candidate. But the South Carolina poll went further.
Half of the respondents in South Carolina said LDS Church members don’t believe in the Bible, Davis said, and 44 percent thought members of the church still practiced polygamy. One-fourth believed that Mormons aren’t even Christians.
“The level of ignorance appalled me. I was embarrassed for our church and for our country,” Davis said. He proposes an advertising campaign that would possibly feature prominent members of the LDS Church, including quarterback Steve Young and singer Gladys Knight.
I applaud Mitch’s effort, but I still think such polls are overplayed. They only measure a person’s theoretical opinions and are not necessarily a reliable marker for individual voters’ responses to individual candidates. Imagine the following poll among Republican primary voters: “Would you rather vote for A)A man who’s been divorced three times and is pro-choice and pro-gay rights, B, A man who has consistently opposed the religious right and supports loose immigration laws or C)A man who is a loyal father and husband, has the been successful governor of a blue state and supports conservative values?” If you were to word the poll this way, A (Giuliani) and B (McCain) would never have a chance against Romney (C) in a Republican primary.
Having said that, any efforts to support the Church and overcome ignorance about Romney are welcome.