8/3/2019 Fox & Friends' Gary Lawrence Interview Transcript - Mormons Believe... What?! (first aired 10-10-11)

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FOX & FRIENDS / OCTOBER 10, 2011

GRETCHEN CARLSON: Mitt Romneys faith is in the spotlight right now after

Texas pastor Robert Jeffress called the religion a cult. So what exactly doMormons believe? Here to separate fact from fiction, author of MormonsBelieve What?! Gary Lawrence. Good morning to you Gary.GARY LAWRENCE: Good morning, Gretchen.GRETCHEN: Let me start out with what that pastor had said, that he believesthat Mormons belong to a cult. How would you answer that accusation?GARY: Well, thats an unfortunate choice of words. In religious circles, theC-word is equivalent to an ethnic slur. It simply has no place in civil Christian

dialogue.GRETCHEN: One of the things that you wrote about in your book is that theresa lot of confusion in the American public about exactly what a person whobelieves in Mormonism is. And so I want to go to one of the questions thatyou asked in your polling. Which was, when asked whether Mormons practicepolygamy, only 14% knew the correct answer, which is, No. Why is there somuch confusion about polygamy and being a Mormon?

GARY: Whenever you have Mormons and polygamy brought up in aconversation, the main thing to remember is a simple sentence: Yes we did andno we dont. A certain small percentage of Mormons practiced polygamy in the1800s, but since 1890 that has not been the practice. So people still rely a littlebit on history for that point. Now, with that, weve had some breakaway groupsfrom our religion. Were 14 million people and theyre less than 50,000. And yetsome of them practice polygamy and we get tainted with their illegal actions.GRETCHEN: So when someone asks you, Are Mormons Christian? how doyou respond?GARY: Absolutely. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and those first five words really tell you that we are Christians.That whole point of dispute arose in the debate about the Trinity. We believein the Godhead, but we do not believe in the Trinity as it was described in theAthanasian creed in the fourth century.GRETCHEN: Right. And thats where the disparity is because Christians alwayssay they believe in the Trinity, so well leave that up to our viewers to decideon that. I want to get to the point of being elected President, though. Do youbelieve that Mormon can be elected President? Should it matter?

8/3/2019 Fox & Friends' Gary Lawrence Interview Transcript - Mormons Believe... What?! (first aired 10-10-11)

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GARY: Yes, I do believe a Mormon can be elected President. The factor ofreligion in the vote decision is really a second level or third level factor. Forexample, Mitt Romney is known by 85% of the people, but only 41% knowhis religion. Similarly, only 11% know Jon Huntsmans and 6% know Senate

Majority Leader Harry Reids religion, which is also LDS or Mormon. Bycomparison, Michelle Bachmanns Lutheranism is known by 7% and only 1%know that Rick Perry is a Methodist. What these small numbers tell you is thatif religion were a greater factor in the vote decision, more people would knowpeoples religions.

GRETCHEN: Very interesting. You have written a book, Mormons Believe What?! Fact and Fiction About a Rising Religion. Thank you so much for yourthoughts this morning.GARY: Thank you, Gretchen.