Mormon Life - Jon Huntsman tag

The Mormon way of business

Thu, 03 May 2012 10:25:00 -0600

source: economist.com

Mormon Life says: A look at the large number of successful Mormons, and some thoughts on the reasons for it. Jokes about sacred underpants have reached epidemic proportions, thanks to Mitt Romney’s presidential bid and the musical masterpiece by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, “The Book of Mormon”. But the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, to give it its full name, is fighting back. A huge advertising campaign features ordinary people doing ordinary things—a white man sporting a beard, a black man sporting a moustache and a young skateboarder flying through the air—with the tag line: “I’m a Mormon.”

The snag is, not everyone will buy the idea that Mormons are just like the rest of us. They don’t get drunk. They have large families, stable marriages and a three-month supply of food in the larder in case of Armageddon. They are usually clean-cut and neatly dressed (the facial hair in the “I’m a Mormon” ads is thankfully atypical). And they have a passion for business.

CNN Poll: Mormon candidate not a problem for most Americans

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:14:00 -0600

source: cnn.com

Mormon Life says: After all that's been said, it's nice to hear poll numbers from this point of view. Americans overwhelmingly say a presidential candidate being Mormon wouldn't affect their vote, according to a CNN/ORC International poll released Wednesday.

The survey, which was taken after a controversial pastor said Mormonism was a "cult" and that GOP voters should support a "competent Christian," also shows a majority of Americans believe Mormons are Christians.

Eighty percent of respondents in the survey said a candidate's Mormonism wouldn't make a difference in their selection process, while 17% said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who was Mormon. Three percent said they would be more likely to select a Mormon candidate.

A Mormon billionaire with distinct ideas of philanthropy and presidential politics

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:47:00 -0600

source: nytimes.com

Mormon Life says: Jon Huntsman Sr., known for his philanthropy (seemingly 80 percent of his wealth), talks about his efforts against cancer. Jon M. Huntsman Sr. — billionaire industrialist, father of a presidential hopeful, four-time cancer survivor — has no patience for the Scrooges of the world. Even the philanthropist club of billionaires started by Mr. Huntsman’s friend Warren E. Buffett that is trying to enlist the world’s richest to give away half their wealth seems tight-fisted to him.

“I suggested 80 percent,” he said. “A tremendous number of wealthy people haven’t given much of anything.”

While protesters from the Occupy Wall Street movement camp out across America, excoriating what they see as the greed of the affluent, and Democrats push the idea of a surtax on millionaires, a voice of soft-spoken but resolute insistence about the obligation to share can be heard here in the West.

Utahns give twice as much to Romney than Huntsman

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:34:00 -0600

source: sltrib.com

Mormon Life says: I forgot for a moment that Romney turned the 2002 Winter Olympics around; people in Utah still remember him for that. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is still king of fundraising in Utah, drawing twice as much for his presidential bid as the state’s ex-governor, Jon Huntsman.

Utahns forked over nearly $659,000 for Romney’s White House bid in the past three months while Huntsman, who was twice elected to statewide office, pulled in just under $300,000, according to finance reports filed Saturday.

Utah has always been a cash cow for Romney, and his latest report shows residents are still big fans of the man credited with turning the scandal-ridden 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City into a successful venture.

Jon Huntsman's rock star ambitions: GOP candidates once aspired to be musician

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:04:00 -0600

source: huffingtonpost.com

Mormon Life says: Apparently his former band mates made adjustments so the songs fit better with Huntsman's religion. Whether or not Jon Huntsman will face off against President Obama in the 2012 presidential race remains to be seen, but if all had gone according to plan, the 51-year-old GOP candidate would've actually been rocking a much different type of arena.

As NPR is reporting, Huntsman -- a former Utah governor and Obama-appointed U.S. ambassador to China -- originally dropped out of high school to be a rock 'n' roll star with a garage band called Wizard. The man who's been described as “a conservative technocrat-optimist with moderate positions” has certainly made no secret of his adolescent passion ("My initial passion in life was to be a rock 'n' roll musician," Huntsman is quoted by The Los Angeles Times as having told graduates at the University of South Carolina). But now, his former bandmates are coming forward, telling NPR that Huntsman, a devout Mormon, found ways of adapting his passion for rock music with the guidelines of his religion.

Opinion: The question of faith for candidates

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:48:00 -0600

source: ledger-enquirer.com

Mormon Life says: An interesting article about a time when the writer regrets witnessing (and taking part in) making a big deal over a candidate's Mormonism. Love what he says about voters being fickle about which religions they obsess over. Most of us think all young Mormon males wear short-sleeved white shirts and ride bicycles and we enjoy the 400 melodic voices that make up the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Ask us about Brigham Young and we’ll tell you he has a pretty good football team this year.

But when two practicing Mormons want to be the president of the United States, we suddenly become experts on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The fact that we know the church of choice for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman speaks volumes. Quick now. What religion is Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota? We know Herman Cain used to sell pizzas but where does he go on Sunday mornings?

Jon Huntsman Jr. debate performance praised for, hurt by 'truth-telling'

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:17:00 -0600

source: deseretnews.com

Jon Huntsman Jr.'s "forceful performance" at Wednesday night's presidential debate elicited an interesting comparison from veteran political analyst Jeff Greenfield: Huntsman deserves the equivalent of the National Hockey League's Lady Byng Trophy.

One of the NHL's premier annual awards, the Lady Byng Trophy is given to the player "adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability."

Opinion: Can Romney win by embracing his Mormon masculinity?

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 10:33:00 -0600

source: religiondispatches.org

Mormon Life says: The writer previously questioned whether "Mormon masculinity" (based on loyalty, duty, sentimentality) could match up to Perry's cowboy masculinity in the debates. After last night, she asserts Romney (and Huntsman) had the edge. I'll admit it: I was nervous. I thought last night's debate would feature a machismo standoff between Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, and that the bow-legged Texas governor would inevitably prevail. After all, as I've argued before, Mormon men do masculinity differently than their non-Mormon rivals.

And last night, that difference (as well as as some clear gaps in Rick Perry's preparation) worked to Romney's favor.

Perry came out of the gates strong, then got bogged down in sexually transmitted disease (his executive order to vaccinate girls against HPV), garbled intellectual history (on science), threw some wild punches (not backing down on calling Social Security a "Ponzi scheme"), compared himself to a "piñata," and then stumbled to the finish--again raising questions of electability in a general contest.

Romney, Huntsman face challenge of winning over evangelicals

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:44:00 -0600

source: latimes.com

Stan Craig, a Vietnam veteran and fundamentalist Baptist preacher here, winces at the idea of a female president.

Yet he hesitated when he was asked recently to make a hypothetical choice between Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

"I probably would cast my vote for Michele," Craig said.

His thinking: Romney is Mormon. Mormons, in Craig's view, are not Christian.

Jon Huntsman Jr., wife will appear on 'The View'

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:35:00 -0600

source: deseretnews.com

Mormon Life says: In case anyone wants to see a personal interview with Jon Huntsman . . . Jon Huntsman Jr. and his wife, Mary Kaye, will appear Oct. 6 on the popular daytime television show "The View."

Reporting for ABC News, Sarah Kunin notes the back-story to this booking: in an Aug. 4 Politico article, an internal campaign source attributed the following quotation to Mary Kaye: "Why isn't (Huntsman) on any of the talk shows yet? Why isn't he on 'The View?' "

The politics of the Saints

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:52:00 -0600

source: boston.com

Mormon Life says: A similar idea as recent articles, but this also explores interesting history of the politics of Church members, and how Mormonism has already influenced America for some time. WITH MITT Romney’s candidacy for president, the Mormon church approaches an epochal moment in its deep engagement with American politics. The nation, too, is at a threshold - entering, perhaps, a more spacious public understanding of many once-marginal groups.

In the Mormon case, it’s been a long time coming. Romney may be a front-runner for the Republican nomination, and his father George may once have been a serious candidate for president, but the first Mormon to run for president was the first Mormon himself.

In 1844, as the head of a burgeoning new religious movement that identified the US Constitution as a sacred text inspired by God, Joseph Smith saw politics as a mode of missionizing. He was the mayor of the Mormon enclave in Nauvoo, Ill., where he proposed, to cite one position, that the freedom of slaves be bought with sums raised by the auctioning of public lands. But Smith’s real concern had to be the protection of his own movement from harassment by mobs, which were abetted by local and federal authorities.

Jon Huntsman, Jack Mormons, and the question of faith

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:19:00 -0600

by Kate Ensign-Lewis
source: ldsliving.com

Mormon Life says: We've seen a lot about Jon Huntsman's particular variety of faith (or, as some have posed, lack of it) in the news. What does this mean about where he stands with Mormons, and should it really matter? This morning, while going through recent news articles tagged for their relation to Mormonism, I came across an article titled, “Is Jon Huntsman a Jack Mormon?” This was one of those articles I knew would be interesting from the get go. It didn’t disappoint.

I was intrigued by this article for a couple different reasons.

The first (and I wasn’t expecting this) was that it explored the term “Jack Mormon.” Until reading this piece, I didn’t realize that the term referred to people who aren’t really active but still have favorable views toward Mormonism and cultural ties as well. (By this definition, someone like actress Katherine Heigl would be considered a Jack Mormon.)

This term also helps explain what some recent articles (almost all of them covering Jon Huntsman’s Mormon meter) have said about “unorthodox” Mormons being a growing class among members of our faith. Is it really a growing phenomenon for Mormons to be ambivalent, like some Catholics or Protestants?

In short, as this article explains, no. These kinds of Mormon adherents have been around for a long time, but have simply been called Jack Mormons. (The “Get Religion” columnist says this term is not pejorative, but I think I disagree. It at least carries with it some latent negativity.)

But the second (and more important) reason I found this article interesting was for its continued obsession with classifying Jon Huntsman’s faith. I’ve seen a lot of articles come up about this issue since he made his famous “I get satisfaction from many different types of religions and philosophies" statement over a year ago. Perhaps most notable were those in the Boston Globe and CNN (though the topic of his religion also appeared in everything from The Huffington Post to Vogue).

We continue to include some of these articles on Mormon Report because they’re of interest to Mormons (including me), but I’ve started to wonder why. Why does this issue intrigue us so much? Why does it matter? One obvious answer is that we Mormons simply like reading about other Mormons who have influence and how they live their faith. But I think there’s another, slightly darker possibility: we like reading about these things because it gives us something to positively compare ourselves against (as in, “well, I’m doing better than he is”).

I’d like to take it one step further. When we read about Jon Huntsman and unorthodox Mormons like him, are we subconsciously harder on them than we would be on any other person because of a kind of a "you have it but you don't appreciate it" mentality? I would certainly hope we would treat everyone—the active of our faith, people of other faiths, and people of our faith who are on the spectrum between less active and completely dissociated from the gospel—with the same respect. But once again, I wonder.

A testimony is a deeply personal thing—so should we really get hung up on how strong someone else’s is?

I can understand pure curiosity. I can also understand a desire to know just what a “representative” of our religion is really representing. But I also think it’s time to question our motives in this spiritual gossip.

Candidates' Mormonism allows them to take pro-science stand

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:30:00 -0600

source: thedailybeast.com

Mormon Life says: An LDS columnist discusses his belief that Romney and Huntsman's "shared faith has made them science believers" (though he acknowledges not all Mormons agree). “To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy."

For Jon Huntsman Jr.'s fledgling presidential campaign, that was the Tweet heard 'round the world; the bold declaration that finally gave the oft-forgotten candidate a little traction in the 2012 race. But while commentators are gleefully showering Huntsman with congratulatory titles like “the GOP’s truth-teller,” the punditocracy has overlooked the fact that at least one other Republican presidential candidate has staked out similarly pro-science positions: Huntsman’s fellow Mormon, Mitt Romney.

During a 2007 primary debate, Romney, who was then competing heavily for the conservative Christian vote, surprised many by declining to join former governor Mike Huckabee and others in denouncing evolution.

Why the national media writes more about Jon Huntsman Jr. than others

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:57:00 -0600

source: deseretnews.com

Mormon Life says: I didn't realize Jon Huntsman had been the subject of so many high-profile pieces . . . The national print media simply loves covering Jon Huntsman Jr., and the profile of Utah's former governor in the new issue of Vogue magazine is just the latest in a long line of articles illustrating that phenomenon.

(Prominent past examples include New York Magazine in January; Time magazine in May; and, in a three-day window in June, long pieces from both New York Times Magazine and Esquire.)

GOP rivals have different takes on Mormon faith

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:29:00 -0600

source: boston.com

Republican presidential primary rivals Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman are both Mormons whose ancestral roots run deep into the church’s pioneer history - intertwining, in fact, several generations back. Relatives of both men have served near the top of Mormonism’s global hierarchy.

But in public remarks they have drawn strikingly different religious self-portraits. Romney is highly active and orthodox - he was a top local lay leader in Massachusetts for years, and he has embraced his church unequivocally: “I believe in my Mormon faith and endeavor to live by it,’’ he said in a major speech in 2007.

Huntsman has called his adherence to Mormon practices “tough to define.’’ He has described himself as more spiritual than religious and as someone who gets “satisfaction from many different types of religions and philosophies.’’

Jon Huntsman Jr. picks up a Bush endorsement

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 11:06:00 -0600

source: deseretnews.com

Mormon Life says: The latest news on one Mormon candidate's campaign. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. picked up a Bush endorsement in Florida in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination.

Jeb Bush Jr., youngest son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, said Wednesday he's backing Huntsman. The younger Bush said he supports Huntsman's focus on turning around the faltering economy and creating jobs.

Opinion: Will Mormons Save the GOP from Xenophobia?

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:34:00 -0600

source: citywatchla.com

Mormon Life says: Another example of someone who thinks the Mormon candidates could be good for American politics. Two growing forces in conservative politics are on a collision course: xenophobic nationalism and Mormonism.

The Tea Party movement, with its rejection of Chamber of Commerce-type Republican elites, rose-tinted view of America’s past, and belief in self-reliance and small government, has reinvigorated isolationist nationalism within the GOP. Though much of the movement’s rhetoric has lately focused on public spending, suspicion of all things foreign—be they immigrants, overseas military missions, or Obama’s family roots—is one of the Tea Party’s animating forces.

At the same time, we’re in the midst of a Mormon political moment, with two active Mormons vying for the Republican presidential nomination. Though conservatives, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman are internationalists whose backgrounds suggest they must find it very distasteful to have to pander to the isolationist crowd in their own party.

CNN: Mormon presidential politics

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 10:14:00 -0600

source: cnn.com

America is not ready for a Mormon president, according to Christian author Tricia Erickson. On Wednesday she told CNN's Tom Foreman on In the Arena that she believes a practicing Mormon should not be president because of their theological views on the afterlife and governance.

CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor Eric Marrapodi jumped into the fray on the topic with Foreman as well. He said while religious views shape Mormon politicians on a macro level, there is no evidence Mormon politicians have a "bat phone" to Utah and take orders from the leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the church is formally known.

While the U.S. Constitution says "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States," Republican candidates for the White House Mitt Romney and John Huntsman – who are both Mormons – may have more ground to make up on this issue than previously thought.

Mormons Duck Romney-Huntsman Political Duel

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:46:00 -0600

source: newsmax.com

The Mormon Church, with two candidates running for the GOP nomination for president, is on alert for signs of religious discrimination while at the same time taking a hands-off approach to campaigning, The Wall Street Journal reports.

"We not only don't want to cross the line" between religion and politics, Michael Purdy, director of the church's media relations office told the paper in an interview at church headquarters in Salt Lake City. "We don't want to go anywhere near the line."

Why are Mormons rising in business, politics?

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:04:00 -0600

source: christianpost.com

Mormon Life says: An intriguing question. What do you think? For the first time America has two Mormon candidates for president, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, which has drawn the media’s attention to how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has managed to churn out some of the country’s top business and political leaders.

The spotlight has turned on the Mormons’ Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah, which sends out more than 50,000 Mormon graduates around the world at any given moment. Recent media reports say almost all Mormons who have excelled in business and public life have been trained at MTC.

“I don’t think there’s any more demanding profession than being a Mormon missionary,” the Business Insider website quoted Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christenson, a Mormon, as saying last Friday.