How can harry reid be a mormon

Later, when Harry Reid gave him a Book of Mormon and challenged him to read it, Pressler realized he needed to gain an answer through the Holy Ghost. After meeting with full-time missionaries, he was baptized by Christensen on April 15, Reid talked at his baptismal service.

The Daily Universe. Former senator Larry Pressler looks out at Y Mountain. Now, a year later, he serves as a Sunday School teacher in the Washington D. He is one of the moderate voices around here who tries to get things to work. He is the first Mormon to serve as majority leader and is the highest ranking elected Mormon in American History.

In spite of his success, he still calls Searchlight his home and lives there with his family, when he is not in Washington. Our blessings are many. We have five children and soon will have twelve grandchildren. All five of our children have attended BYU , and all have been married in the temple. Each child has been a positive example for us. After these many years I believe that the Church has been a steady, positive blueprint for my life.

Yes, absolutely true. I was also in the high priest group leadership with [Republican pollster] Richard Wirthlin. He always stood up for me. Have you had any faith dilemmas during your time in Democratic leadership, wondering if maybe you didn't fit in this Mormon church? When I first was in D. I was so upset I wrote a letter to church headquarters. I got a letter back from [Mormon apostle] Hugh B. Brown, who said the leaders "were terribly disturbed that any priesthood holder would say such things.

I have watched [church] President [David O. We have a large congregation or two in Africa [whose participants] do not have the priesthood but are living the gospel better than anyone in the world. It was a difficult issue for me. When [church] President [Spencer W. Even today, I can't explain how happy I was. How do you handle it when fellow Mormons say nasty things about you, like that you should not be allowed to speak at an LDS fireside or in an LDS chapel?

I understand the teachings of the church pretty well. That is their problem, not mine. Why do you think Latter-day Saints are so overwhelmingly conservative and Republican?

It goes back to some past leaders of the church like Ezra Taft Benson [an LDS apostle who served as secretary of agriculture in the Eisenhower administration and was supportive of the ultraconservative John Birch Society]. Also, the abortion issue has been extremely difficult for members to accept. The sad part about that is if church members really understand standards of the church, leaders are totally opposed to abortion except if the life or health of the mother is threatened.

That's what it says. Have you ever been chastised by church leaders for your politics? Nothing even close, not even any intimation or suggestion. I have not had any meetings with church leaders who were discouraging of me. I'm no fool; I understand they might not be happy with some of my positions.

Senator Bob Bennett, for example, was a huge supporter of [ Republican presidential nominee and fellow Mormon] Mitt Romney. I wasn't, but that didn't affect our friendship. If they think it's important, I think it's important. Hardy cited several instances where Reid, who along with his wife Landra joined the LDS faith while attending Utah State University, went to bat for the church.

Reid was instrumental in gaining congressional approval for the LDS Church to secure a controversial lease with the Bureau of Land Management for an historic site in Wyoming known as Martin's Cove. Many members of a group of Mormon pioneers headed to Utah frozen or starved to death there in after being trapped by a snowstorm.

Reid really did take a central role in that and was so very helpful and helped bring the parties together and find a mechanism where we could do that," Hardy said. The senator also helped the church work through a long, complicated process with the Israeli government and the city of Jerusalem to build the BYU Jerusalem Center, which hosts a study abroad program for college students. He's been very kind and helpful to the church," Hardy said. Just as he didn't care to talk about his work on behalf of the Mormon church, Reid didn't want to reflect on his legacy in the Senate.

He said he did what he did and that he's not going to write his own history. He said he is gratified to have worked in government. The son of a miner and a laundress, Reid grew up in a shack with no indoor toilet, hot water or telephone in the tiny town of Searchlight, Nevada.

He said he didn't even know what senator or a majority leader was as a kid. Reid said "surviving" was his best accomplishment in the Senate, acknowledging he was being a little facetious. But they chose me. Others could have perhaps done a better job, but they didn't have that chance, I did. So I did the best I could," he said. Boyd Matheson, president of the conservative Sutherland Foundation, said Reid probably had as tight of a fist on the Senate as any majority leader in history, except for maybe Lyndon Johnson.

Reid, he said, not only controlled his side of the aisle but the entire operation. During the government shutdown when congressional Republicans refused to pass a budget bill that did not include a provision defunding Obamacare, they introduced smaller spending bills to fund parts of the federal government. I never tried to be everything to everybody. I knew how to say no, and that's hard to do.

They knew I knew how to say no, but I also knew how to say yes. I had patience," he said, adding that he learned from his wife how to be a good listener. But Reid also politicized the workings of the Senate, bringing to the floor things that would have been "blasphemous" in days past, Matheson said.

Reid went after fellow Mormon Mitt Romney in , accusing the then-presumptive GOP presidential nominee on the Senate floor of not paying any taxes for 10 years.

Romney stated categorically that he had paid taxes and that Reid was wrong. The senator said his issue with Romney was that he hadn't made his tax returns public.

He said he had nothing against Romney but was right in complaining about that.