Mormon of the Year

Vote for Mormon of the Year 2012!

by  •  • 22 Comments

This post opens the voting for Mormon of the Year. Votes will be taken until midnight Eastern Time on Monday, January 7th, at which time the voting will close.

The voting mechanism will attempt to restrict votes to one per person.

The order of the choices is set at random, and is different each time the form is presented.

THE WINNER OF THE ONLINE VOTE IS NOT NECESSARILY THE MORMON OF THE YEAR!!!

The results of the vote will be considered by the bloggers and editors here at Times & Seasons (and anyone we invite to participate) as part of the process of choosing a Mormon of the Year. I imagine that the results will likely be the deciding factor in anything close to a tie, for example, as well as in any number of possible scenarios.

BECAUSE OF THIS, PLEASE VOTE! We will announce, in any case, the results of the online vote, as well as any indication we have that voting was stacked, fraudulent or otherwise problematic. So please, vote only once.

Feel free to announce the vote where ever you wish. Since many have asked, non-Mormons are free to vote (I can’t see how we could prevent non-Mormons if we wished to anyway).

But above all, please use judgement. Remember this is NOT about popularity. It IS about judging the impact that these nominees had on the world and on Mormonism.

If you need further information about any of the nominees, please take a look at the post in which the nominations were discussed.

[The vote is being collected by third-party software. Please let us know of any problems you encounter.]

 

22 comments for “Vote for Mormon of the Year 2012!”

  2. Based on the selection criteria, I had a hard time deciding between Mitt Romney and the Givenses. At first Romney seemed like the obvious choice (for better or worse), but the facts that he often downplayed his Mormonism, that it’s still hard to know who the real Mitt is and that he has all but been abandoned by Republicans since the election all suggest to me that his impact wasn’t as great as might be supposed.

    Although it is certainly far too early to tell, I see more lasting impact on the faith from the Givenses in that their somewhat expansionist view of Mormonism received a semi-official imprimatur, thus making it accessible to a broad range of church membership. It seems to me that somehow their book (which I hope to read soon) is more than just a book.

  3. I’d second that nomination for Lindsey Stirling if it weren’t too late (but it is, so I won’t).

    No surprise in how the voting is going. The interesting thing this year will be to see who’s 2nd place.

  4. I don’t know how anyone but Mitt Romney would win this one. Even if he downplayed his Mormonism, it was a constant factor of media discussion and questions from the beginning of his candidacy until the end and it was his presence in the race that made that happen. A lot (but not all, I know) of other Mormons who were prominent or became prominent were riding the wave his candidacy created or at least experiencing some lift as a result.

  5. I can think of a category other than Mormon of the year for John McNaughton!!! But it’s not very Mormon…

  6. I voted for Brandon Flowers. Not only do I have a giant man-crush on him, and absolutely adore his music, but to see him stand up to a fundamentalist goon like Richard Dawkins made me really proud. His after-interview where he called Dawkins a “sour old lemon tree” and himself “a peach” was also classic.

    After that, I was going to vote for Neon Trees. I discovered their music just a few months ago, and fell in love instantly.

    J. Spencer Fluhman remarked at a meeting at BYU that he thinks the new “Mormon Moments” are going to come from the increase in Mormon writers, musicians, and actors. Brandon Flowers and Neon Trees, I hope, will just be the the beginning of such.

  7. I voted for Mitt Romney because if he hadn’t run again, people like Joanna Brooks and Terryl and Fiona Givens (awesome as they are) wouldn’t have generated such a wide, national interest in their work. This was the year of the “Mormon Moment” not because there were so many high-profile Mormon scholars and athletes and artists talking about Mormonism — but because people (1) noticed they were Mormon and (2) were interested in it. It seems fairly clear that that can chiefly be attributed to Mitt Romney’s candidacy.

    If, however, we were voting for coolest or most admirable Mormon of the year, I would go for one of the others. Probably Brandon Flowers for not backing down from Richard Dawkins. It still gives me warm Mormon fuzzies every time I think about it.

  10. I voted for Romney, who IMO should easily win this year’s MOTY. That said, I wish Ralph Hancock had made this list. (Garnered less publicity than the rest, but arguably has displayed more depth in intellectual thought.) Meanwhile, my second vote (had I had one) would have gone to Terryl and Fiona Givens–a brilliant and inspired couple. In any case, thank you T&S for the yearly MOTY fun!

  12. I voted Mitt, not that I was overly impressed by him, but it was his candidacy that sustained the Mormon Moment. As said above, Joanna and the Givens (and others) would not have been noticed, except for the Mormon candidate for president.
    That said, given a second choice, I would go with the Givens.

  13. During the 2008 primary campaign, Evangelical ministers said over and over again that the political success of a Mormon presidential candidate would “legitimize” Mormonism, something they did not want to see. Even though Romney did not win the presidency, the great majority of conservative Evangelical voters clearly supported him, first as the primaries progressed and then as the national Republican nominee. As in many other things, most of the membership of Evangelical churches is much more religiously tolerant than their pastors, and that is a good thing for Mormons in American society. The argument made by the intolerant that Mormons are only second class citizens and do not deserve full participation in democratic government took a major hit from Romney’s campaign and the tens of millions of votes it attracted. The contrast with the three year trial the Senate held over the seating of Senator Smoot could not be more stark. The brag of South Carolina Southern Baptists that their rejection doomed Romney to not be the national nominee has demonstrated that religious bigotry is the path of losers.

    I don’t expect that this will make an observable difference in the number of people willing to hear the missionaries, but it will affect the ability of Mormons, if they choose to do so, to be accepted in civil society, and participate in democracy in a positive way. We will be more able to join with our neighbors to do positive things in the larger society, better fulfilling our duty to care for our neighbors in need as explained in Matthew 25, the Epistle of James, and King Benjamin’s sermon.

  14. Prince Caspian (14), the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve are not eligible — and I think we would have to say that the Lord is not eligible for the same reason; i.e., that he would win every year and make the whole effort pointless.

  15. I voted the Mormon presidential candidate of the year – that is: Yeah Samake.
    I know no one, who knows his story and isn’t filled with admiration.

  16. it’s a bit odd voting for something after being told that the vote and result won’t necessarily count.

    however it’s hard to see how anyone could beat Mitt. He’s run for president put the term mormon onto the front pages of newspapers all over the world. Now even news readers in middle eastern countries have read about them ‘mormon’ and their polygamy!

  17. Always enjoy reading this post every year. Won’t be suspenseful this year so not as fun as others. Can you expand the write-up on the runner up this year…or perhaps that would jeopardize that person’s shot at being MOTY next year. I think Ann Romney should also be mentioned…clarifying Mormons in the military for Whoppie Goldberg, not that she would win this over Mitt.

  19. @ Steven Smoot

    I voted for Brandon Flowers. Not only do I have a giant man-crush on him, and absolutely adore his music, but to see him stand up to a fundamentalist goon like Richard Dawkins made me really proud.

    i have a question about Flowers that maybe you with your giant man-crush can answer: i know he self-identifies as Mormon, but is he an ‘orthodox’ chapel-attending mormon? he seems pretty NOMish, plus he’s supportive of gay rights. i know this is irrelevant to the ‘Mormon of the Year’ award — i’m just curious.

  20. Orthodox? What defines orthodox? He’s certainly not orthodox if we go with Gene R. Cook’s “all rock music is of the devil” orthodoxy. I don’t know much about his position on gay rights, but even the LDS church supported extending gay rights in Salt Lake City (with legislation that made housing and employment discrimination illegal).

    But he’s got an in-depth profile on the “I’m a Mormon” ad campaign. So yeah, I’d say he’s probably pretty Mormon–chapel-attending and all.

  21. question: i left a comment here last week but it isn’t showing up now. what’s happened? have I being banned? cause no reason was ever given for that, not to me at least.

Comments are closed.