WI: A President Converts to Mormonism While in Office

As the tin says, what if a President converted to Mormonism while in office prior to the OTL Mormon migration westward? Obviously a President converting isn't the same as a monarch converting but I'd imagine it would make the religion at least a little bit more popular.
 
Rather than make Mormonism more popular, I think it'd make the president highly unpopular.

This. I suspect there would be a (probably) unsuccessful attempt at impeachment but either way it would throw Washington into utter chaos. It also depends heavily on when it happens. 1890s, it's career suicide and the President is told that the party would not support his campaign for dog catcher. 1840's, it wouldn't surprise me if there were significant riots and assassination attempts.

It's hard to underestimate just how unpopular the Mormons were in the 19th century.
 
Remember that Mormonism=heresy to most Christians at this time. Either you'd need Mormonism to be more popular, or far different than OTL.
 
Lincoln, as a young lawyer was one of the people responsible for inviting the Mormons to Nauvoo, IL. He later became disenchanted with their militancy.
 
Imagine a ATL where this is one simple change- Lincoln becomes Mormon as a young man in Springfield, IL. That one simple change, changes the entire world and could delay or prevent the Civil War with no other PODs needed simply because it means Lincoln never becomes President
 
Imagine a ATL where this is one simple change- Lincoln becomes Mormon as a young man in Springfield, IL. That one simple change, changes the entire world and could delay or prevent the Civil War with no other PODs needed simply because it means Lincoln never becomes President

Polygamist Mormon Lincoln?
 
Imagine a ATL where this is one simple change- Lincoln becomes Mormon as a young man in Springfield, IL. That one simple change, changes the entire world and could delay or prevent the Civil War with no other PODs needed simply because it means Lincoln never becomes President

Not necessarily, Fremont or some other Republican, perhaps one even more radical than Lincoln, could still reasonably get elected in 1860.
 
To make this easier, you need to avoid 1838 Mormon War and having avoid the death of Joseph Smith in the Mormon War in Illinois.
 
If any President converted to something 'unacceptable' while in office (Mormonism, Buddhism, Hinduism, or some of the odder Christian offshoots, I think there would be a huge furor, and that he'd seriously damage his party's standing. Thus, I suspect what he'd do is not formally convert until after his term was over. Note that even Tony Blair thought it more politic to wait until after stepping down before converting (officially) to Roman Catholicism, and that was in the 21st century!!
 
Yeah in that time frame I don't see a president converting benefiting anyone without having a tl where the Mormons don't get chased out of every place they stop between new York and Utah (exageration, but work with me). Even then, the mormon theology is so different from protestant or catholic theologies that I don't see it workin well in those days.

Having an ex-president convert could have interesting implications in the long run though. Let's say a president converts some time after leaving office, and makes a few public appeals to the religion. They focus on thing like the constitution being godinspired or holy (I think it's one of those) and play down polygamy as a minority thing frowned upon by the mainstream(I don't know when the Mormon church aband one polygamy) he could make it more palatable to many people. Being assassinated could actually be a huge assett to the Mormons for proselytizing in the US, especially if he is killed by a KKK member or some other group that is easy to portray as a villain of the state/public. If they were popular while in office, and charasmatic enough, I could see mormonism being commonly accepted much earlier, and being a visible minority in many more places than it is. Uhhhh, that being said, Mitt Romney wasn't really hampered by his faith when he ran.....right? If so, how early could a mormon seriously run and win? When otl did it become mostly accepted?
 

Zioneer

Banned
What about something involving this guy becoming president?
I've actually thought of making Thomas L Kane a president in a TL idea of mine. He was very favorable towards the Mormons, and helped the Utah War from turning into a complete bloodbath. Good credentials, especially if he is more successful serving the Union in the Civil War.
 
Romney was hampered by his faith. I know it's anecdotal evidence, but I know a lot of people that simply would not vote for him because of it. Not bigotry, but simple logic in this case.
1. He follows the tenets of his religion, and thus, is someone many I know would not want for president, or
2. He doesn't follow all the tenets, and is thus a hypocrite.

Of course, any candidate can be hampered by religion using that logic.
 
As the tin says, what if a President converted to Mormonism while in office prior to the OTL Mormon migration westward? Obviously a President converting isn't the same as a monarch converting but I'd imagine it would make the religion at least a little bit more popular.

I think the President would likely resign to join the Saints unless he were specifically asked not to by Joseph Smith/Brigham Young. However, if the President is in communication with Joseph Smith et al. at all, they are much more likely to tell him that it is not the will of the Lord that he join the Church yet, that he can do more good for the Church and for the nation at large by remaining unbaptized but friendly.

Edit: for context of how Americans in the 1830s and 1840s viewed Mormonism, it would be like a modern US President announcing his conversion to radical Islam and pledging his loyalty to the Caliphate.
 
Imagine a ATL where this is one simple change- Lincoln becomes Mormon as a young man in Springfield, IL. That one simple change, changes the entire world and could delay or prevent the Civil War with no other PODs needed simply because it means Lincoln never becomes President

That rocks. Obviously the real effects would be at the US national level, but imagining Abe Lincoln as a Mormon apostle or even as a Mormon prophet is delicious. He actually would be a very good fit in lots of ways. His irreverence and his humor and his frontier pragmatism, combined with his mystic and spiritual strains, would make him a natural.

Awesome. I need to repurpose the House Divided speech as either a sermon on marriage advice, or else a warning against dissension in the ranks.

Note--and this should please Zioneer--ATL Abe Lincoln is probably still pretty anti-slavery, though of course still fairly racist like most folks of that time and place.
 

Zioneer

Banned
That rocks. Obviously the real effects would be at the US national level, but imagining Abe Lincoln as a Mormon apostle or even as a Mormon prophet is delicious. He actually would be a very good fit in lots of ways. His irreverence and his humor and his frontier pragmatism, combined with his mystic and spiritual strains, would make him a natural.

Awesome. I need to repurpose the House Divided speech as either a sermon on marriage advice, or else a warning against dissension in the ranks.

Note--and this should please Zioneer--ATL Abe Lincoln is probably still pretty anti-slavery, though of course still fairly racist like most folks of that time and place.

Remind me to show you my ideas for a Mormon Wikibox TL (that is, based on fake Wikipedia style infoboxes that tell a story mostly by themselves, with little commentary).

And Abe Lincoln would be an awesome Mormon apostle; he voted to create the charter of the City of Nauvoo, and that vote was an easy indicator of showing if you were anti-Mormon, or neutral/de facto pro-Mormon.

I also think Allan Pinkerton, who also worked in Illinois around the Nauvoo time period, might be an interesting apostle.
 
In ATL, Brigham Young is simpatico with President Douglas and sends Elder Pinkerton back east at the head of the Nauvoo Legion, with Elder Lincoln as his second in command . . .
 
FYI: Polygamy was given up for Utah statehood.

Abraham Lincoln freed only the slaves in the states that had withdrawn from the union. He was hoping for an uprising to support his cause, not doing it out of the goodness of his heart or because he thought owning human beings was wrong.
 
Top