It appears that “Finn” may become the GOP nominee for vice president of the USA.
Such a ticket, though, would lose to the Democratic nominees–big. To some Evangelicals, those “bigoted Mormons” would be the scapegoats, since they don’t see “Finn’s” anti-Mormon cracks as the reason for the lack of LDS enthusiasm. Moreover, I imagine that these and other Evangelicals would see this loss as yet another instance of being persecuted.
Unlike militant Evangelicals who claim that Latter-day Saints lie about being persecuted, I categorically affirm that Evangelicals are also victims of persecution. As Glenn Beck might put it, “Here’s how I got there:”
Some years ago, some people sued the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to block construction of the Orlando and Boston Temples. Their claim was that the Temples were “attractive nuisances” that would make nearby homes “unmarketable.” After the plaintiffs lost their suits, I tested their thesis, and found that, far from making local homes “unmarketable,” the Orlando Temple, for instance, added roughly $53,000 to the value of each neighbouring home within one mile.
I have just completed follow-up research. (All that’s left is to actually write the article!) I reasoned that if Evangelical “megachurches” detract from local home values, as their opponents charge, I could see why people would reason that the same would happen with LDS Temples. However, if such detraction did not occur, the case for anti-religious bias would seem strong. My regression analysis showed that Lakeland, Florida’s 10,000-seat Without Walls Central, for example, adds almost $40,000 in value to nearby homes. While its impact is less than the Orlando Temple’s, it is still significant–and substantial.
What is particularly telling from my two-part research is that there is absolutely no evidentiary basis for claiming that large religious buildings make homes “unmarketable.” Furthermore, I wonder why this claim isn’t echoed for large non-religious edifices. As I recall, Raymond James Stadium in Tampa was marketed as a revenue enhancer. The fact that both Protestant megachurches and LDS Temples are entirely self-financed, while local citizens finance sports venues only highlights to me the anti-Christian (including the LDS!) bias.
More and more, a large subset of Evangelical Christianity seems like an abused child beating up his little brother, who is also abused.
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