Harry Reid Oct 11th Original Post

Senate Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid spoke at BYU this past Tuesday during our devotional hour. They called his speech a forum instead of a devotional (that's what they do when it's not a religious speech). Harry Reid is a Democrat but also a member of the church and his speech was far more religous based than politically based so i'm surprised BYU didn't label it a devotional. I guess he's not a general authority so not a devotional. Anyways i shouldn't care what the speech is labled. I didn't go (keeping my streak alive of never attending a single real BYU devotional during my time at BYU) but I read his speech last night and I thought it was amazing. He mentioned in his talk that many members of the church always ask him how he can be a Democrat and a good standing member of the church. I know especially my uncle Dave and cousin Brad (who was in his ward for a while when he lived back in DC) are strongly against him and confused at his faith. I've never cared that he's a Democrat i just think it's cool he's LDS. However, i have way more respect for him now after reading his speech. This is a guy who came from absolutely nothing including no religious background to become currently one of the country's most influential political leaders no matter what the party affiliation. He is strongly pro-life which is one of the few political stands I think LDS Members should take regardless of party line; however, in his talk most of his political stands were about global warming, employment, etc. which certainly shouldn't threaten anybody's church standing. His only mention of Mitt Romney was that he hopes he is elected based on politics and not religion. I can agree with that statement especially considering I feel Mitt Romney is avoiding as much as possible confronting the giant issue that is his religion in this political race. I'll write about that another time because that is an entry in itself. I wanted to note that having such a distinguished Democratic figure come to BYU was a big step for BYU in my opinion, even if he is a member of the church. I would say in a general scale i consider myself rebuplican even though i haven't always voted that way, but i am a fan of Senator Reid after reading about his success in life after coming from such humble beginnings.