Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Huntsman's Religious Vacillations

Jon Huntsman has been making puzzling statements about his religion over the last several months.

From an article in Time

...whether or not Huntsman still belongs to the Church of Latter-day Saints, I know less than I did before I asked him. ("I'm a very spiritual person," as opposed to a religious one, he says, "and proud of my Mormon roots." Roots? That makes it sound as if you're not a member anymore. Are you? "That's tough to define," he says. "There are varying degrees. I come from a long line of saloon keepers and proselytizers, and I draw from both sides.")

The follow up and some analysis

Asked about the comments, Tim Miller, the spokesman for what's been called Huntsman's "campaign in waiting," said in a statement that Huntsman "remains a member of the church and proud to be part of the fabric of a large, vibrant faith."

It's not clear how Huntsman's apparent attempt to distance himself from his faith will play with Republican voters around the country, including those evangelical conservatives who don't consider Mormons to be fellow Christians.

"The only thing worse than being a Mormon is being a nothing," said David Woodard, a political science professor at Clemson University in South Carolina, a key early primary state. "That might work in California, but it's not going to work very well in South Carolina. They're suspicious of people who are not believers."

Further support for the argument that Huntsman really doesn't have a core religious belief comes from the fact that he is raising his adopted daughter from India as a Hindu. Apparently he doesn't believe strongly enough in his own religion to share its truth with his daughter.

Nevada (US), July 02 (ANI): Hindus have welcomed Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, Jr. reportedly raising his adopted daughter Asha Bharati in the Hindu faith, to which she was born.

Why does this matter? This screams to me that Huntsman cares only about ethics for a given situation. When the stern winds of political, media, and societal norms blow crosswise to Huntsman what will he do? Will he turn America over to an ideology that is alien to all he has known? Will he view all ideologies as being equal? Will he placate his opponents by forsaking what his party has held dear for decades, even centuries? I am confident to say that he will.


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Update: Correction: The sentence “Huntsman and his wife, Mary Kaye, are raising their five-year-old adopted daughter from India, Asha, in the Hindu faith she was born into, reports the Salt Lake Tribune” has been removed from this piece. CNN, which reported the same fact last week, was told by the Huntsman campaign that Asha is not being raised in the Hindu faith, although Jon and Mary Kaye Huntsman are raising her “to learn about and appreciate her native culture and the faiths associated with it.”

13 comments:

hamaca said...

Sounds like religion is just an academic exercise for him.

BOSMAN said...

Excellent Post Dan,

Huntsman sure is a strange one.
Perhaps he believes in everything or perhaps nothing.

At any rate, I want a President who has a belief system and isn't afraid to take stands both personally and professionally.

marK said...

Wow! Just...Wow!

Hamaca, you hit it on the head. So did you, Bos. If you believe in everything, you believe in nothing.

I knew I felt uncomfortable about Huntsman. Now I know why.

Anonymous said...

Just an FYI Dan. They are not raising their daughter in the Hindu faith. NRO printed this correction:

Correction: The sentence “Huntsman and his wife, Mary Kaye, are raising their five-year-old adopted daughter from India, Asha, in the Hindu faith she was born into, reports the Salt Lake Tribune” has been removed from this piece. CNN, which reported the same fact last week, was told by the Huntsman campaign that Asha is not being raised in the Hindu faith, although Jon and Mary Kaye Huntsman are raising her “to learn about and appreciate her native culture and the faiths associated with it.” Desert News has been switched to Deseret News, and a reference to Mormon “temples” was switched to Mormon “churches.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/270615/how-mormon-jon-huntsman-katrina-trinko

These religious vacillations are a huge unforced error for Huntsman, IMO. He's either shamelessly pandering, or unsure of himself in one of the most important aspects of life. Either way, I don't know what he was thinking.

-Martha

marK said...

Good, Thank-you, Martha.

Just goes to show you that you can't believe everything you read in the papers.

Anonymous said...

As I understand it, Huntsman didn't finish high school because he joined a rock band. Now, I know he has managed to become more educated, but I think his mind is so open that his brains fall out. He seems to vacillate over everything in his life. He can't stick to his political party, he can't seem to stick to his religion; everything seems to be an open-ended question to him. I think he is far to weak-minded to be a good POTUS.

AZ

Noelle said...

When I was in 9th grade our Social Studies course was on African and Asian culture. This included a study of religions of that region, so I learned a little about the Hindu religion. My expertise comes from my 9th grade class, and that was a long time ago, but one thing that I remember clearly my teacher pointing out was how the Hindu religion takes from other religious traditions too. It is therefore very difficult to convert a Hindu to another faith because if they like different concepts in other faiths they just adopt it into their Hindu religion.

Jon Huntsman seems to fit this mold perfectly. While he does not turn away from his Mormon background, he just adds religious concepts from other faiths to his own. As a Mormon myself, it is hard for me to comprehend his religious thought. I don't understand him.

Anonymous said...

AZ, I don't think your assessment is exactly fair. Jon Huntsman seem to be very sure of his family commitments, and has a great resume of experience. Yes, he did drop out of HS, but went on to obtain a great education. He's a very decent man, with no ethical questions that some other candidates might have.

I honestly don't know much about his record, so there might be other issues.

I do agree that he's wishy-washy about his faith, and maybe about who he wants to work for.

-Martha

Anonymous said...

I also fail to see a reason for anyone to support him in 2012, other than he's probably not as bad as some of the other choices.

-Martha

Noelle said...

Martha, everyone else also fails to see a reason to support him. That's why no one (except a few people in the media) supports him.

Anonymous said...

He's ObamaLite!

Anonymous said...

He has also flipped a lot on environmental issues. I should do a post about it, but it would take hours of research, so I'm not sure if I'll get around to it.

DanL

nana2012 said...

He sounds most eveolved(spiritually) out of the whole lot...someone truly tolerant and pluralistic...afterall religions are simply different paths to the same goal..and huntsman seems to understand that better than anyone else..god bless him