It seems to me that the Mormon version might be more problematic (an understatement for a president) because it seems to more often drive decisions and actions in opposition to reason and evidence, while the regular evangelical version more often seems sort of a post hoc rationalization. Would that be right?

Here are the sources that got me thinking about these things:

“Under the Banner of Heaven” by Jon Krakauer, (which I think ought to be read or re-read by all voters this year).

“When Giants Fail,” from the May 24, 2012 New Yorker magazine in which business consultant and professor Clayton Christensen is said to have found through prayer that the Book of Mormon is true.

“…he decided he’d better figure out for sure whether his was the true church. Each night at eleven, he knelt down and told God out loud that he needed to know whether the Book of Mormon was true.
…
“One evening in October, 1975,” he wrote later, “as I sat in the chair and opened the book following my prayer, I felt a marvelous spirit come into the room and envelop my body. I had never before felt such an intense feeling of peace and love. I started to cry, and did not want to stop. I knew then, from a source of understanding more powerful than anything I had ever felt in my life, that the book I was holding in my hands was true.”
…
… the Latter-Day Saints, Christensen believed, had restored the true early Christian tenets, the ones that had come straight from Christ, such as the belief that there is a mother as well as a father in Heaven. But mainstream Christianity was a synthetic religion, its God a synthetic god.”

“Romney’s Faith, Silent But Deep” In the May 19, 2012 New York Times, which includes this bit:

“Mr. Romney also prays before taking action on decisions he has already made, asking for divine reassurance, a feeling that he is “united with the powers above,” Dr. Hassell said. Sometimes Mr. Romney would report that even though he had made a decision on the merits, prayer had changed his mind. “Even though rationally this looks like the thing to do, I just have a feeling we shouldn’t do it,” he would say, according to Grant Bennett, another friend and church leader.”

And last, reviews in The New Yorker and the New York Times of ‘When God Talks Back,’ by T.M. Luhrmann, about Vineyard church members and their communications with God.

Guys, you should get permission to put this up on the YouTube page.

Which isn’t to say that the current offerings are lacking, just that this would give the viewer something to look at in addition to listen to.

The other reason their numbers are so high is because of the huge family size. I come from a family of 18 (one marriage) and of the 6 of us whom are adults, half of us have “defected”. (It is not a coincidence that all three of us are males, but that’s another story) But the thing is, they baptize you into the religion at 8 years old. At that point you are counted as a member until you get your name removed. Their reasoning is that at age 8 you are old enough to make the decision on your own. That is ridiculous, obviously. When I was 8 years old I hadn’t the slightest idea that it was even an option that I could not get baptized. I hadn’t even read the book of mormon, it was just one of those things you do as a kid.

When my older brother removed his name from the church records, it was basically as if he was convicted of murder. We weren’t allowed to be alone with him and we were told he was of the devil. He was disowned by half the family. Even though I hate the idea of them potentially getting tax benefits by counting me, I have chosen to delay going through the process for now. Mostly just for the sake of my parents’ health. As you can imagine, they don’t really need any more stress.

I could honestly go on for hours about the problems I have with the problems I have with the LDS church and Utah culture. (Whats the difference?) But for now I’ll be done.

PS About the part where you said that it is young people are becoming less religious. I’ve personally noticed that within this “hipster” movement thats going on right now that it is really not cool to believe in God or to be religious. Reason and philosophy are “in” right now, and those things don’t really work with religion. Of course, I live in Utah which is an anomaly. In college towns/religious strongholds like Provo you end up seeing a lot of young people trying to reconcile popular culture and their religion. But for the most part, I see a very obvious trend in young people rejecting religion, which makes that statistic not at all surprising.

Thanks!

Far more interesting than apologetics or questions about the existence of a god.

presentation + audio [...] up on the youtube page