Evangelicals in Idaho...

[BigLoveRocks!]

Even if there was a ballot referendum banning gambling in Idaho... Why would that have anything to do with the reservation?

I live in Arizona... Gambling is illegal here... But the native americans may do as they wish on THEIR land, so there are many casinos on the reservations...

So why would Jerry and Tommy even be concerned with Marilyn Densham's little pitch?

[biglovegirl]

I think making it illegal will make more Mormons not want to do it- whether they can legally gamble on the reservation or not. The practicing Mormons I know are very concerned with keeping the law, etc. If it were to be made illegal, somehow that would be saying it's "bad", even if it can be done legally some places. These are just my ideas. I did think it was funny what Barb said about the mormons vs. the evangelicals. I was raised evangelical (not evangelical anymore) and she couldn't be more right. If you would have asked me as a kid what a mormon looked like, I might have mentioned something with horns! (Obviously I know now this is not true.)

[BigLoveRocks!]

That is a good idea... But mormons gambling anyway is something they already know they aren't supposed to be doing correct?

I live in Arizona and have a lot of LDS neighbors and people I am aquainted with and they look down on the gambling going on at the indian reservations.

I suspect Marilyn Densham enlisted that religious group herself to put a scare in Jerry and Tommy in order to secure her place.

[roughwood]

Quite right, BLR. The Native Americans are considered sovereign nations. Of course Bill could introduce liquor and smoking sections and other people might be drawn there. He needs a lot of money to run that Senate campaign.

[ladykc]

The Mormons and the evangelicals are uneasy political bedfellows...they support some of the same conservative causes but don't trust each other much. I think this is one reason Mitt Romney did not get the Republican nomination.

I'm a deacon at my church and I have to say that although I find LDS sort of fascinating I don't think they're really Christians. Mormons believe that the Book of Mormon is another testament of the Bible which updates and supercedes the New Testament, kind of the same way the New Testament updates and supersedes the Old Testament for Christians. I think that saying Mormons are Christian because they read the New Testament is sort of like saying Christians are Jews because they read the Old Testament.

Mormon beliefs differ in some significant ways from traditional Christian beliefs. Their beliefs about the afterlife are quite different - in the New Testament, Christ describes the afterlife as having no male or female - quite different than the Mormon version of little celestial families with women having celestial babies.

Then, of course, there's the whole bit about how the deacons of the church must be "the husband of one wife"!

[missingkathy]

Mormons believe that the US Constitution is divinely inspired, and therefore like another message from God, which is why being law-abiding is so important to them.

[JJ77]

Mormons believe that the US Constitution is divinely inspired, and therefore like another message from God, which is why being law-abiding is so important to them.

Is that true??? I'm not mormon and know little about the religion aside from what I have read in books about it, but i have read a few books about the religion and can't recall anthing like that (or ateast that specific) being said.

Are you LDS? Or , if not, could someone who is confirm / comment on this?

[missingkathy]

I'm not LDS (actually I'm a liberal atheist), but I'm an American Religion scholar with a double major in criminal psych and I focus on Mormonism (I'm pre-law and I want to work for a women's rights organization to reform laws that fail to protect women in cults like the FLDS). They do indeed believe that it was divinely inspired. Here's an article from Ensign, the LDS church magazine.

www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=729d94bf3938b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____

And here's a specific quote from the article, written by Elder Oaks:
"As the Lord declared in modern revelation, constitutional laws are justifiable before him, “and the law also maketh you free.” (D&C 98:5–8.) The self-control by which citizens subject themselves to law strengthens the freedom of all citizens and honors the divinely inspired Constitution."

So obeying US law is akin to obeying God.

[cherylr6]

Even though Idaho might not be able to close them down, they could make things difficult.

I live near a casino in Minnesota, whenever the state or city or county get ticked at the tribe, they close the road to the casino for "road work". The kind that never gets finished until they pony up.

The Blackfoot do need a lobbyist and they do need to find a way to work with their state legislature. Mormons or no Mormons, they need to play ball. And they need to get used to being shook down by the government, because that is the way it happens in real life.

[marigoldmama]

I think that Marilyn cooked up that little problem herself, just to make herself more needed.

[JJ77]

Thanks for the info missingkathy! Really interesting article.