Bill Clinton: Almost the First Mormon President
Back in 2012, former President Bill Clinton was on the campaign trail to help Barack Obama defeat Mitt Romney and win a second term in the Oval Office. Clinton had been delivering speeches across Florida that week to help secure the closely divided state for the Democratic Party. While leaving his hotel room Clinton was approached by several reporters and asked his thoughts on the status of the campaign. The former president addressed the issues quickly and smoothly as any seasoned politician would.
In addition to talking about the campaign, Clinton went on to discuss his encounter with Mormonism earlier in his life. He recalled attending recruiting presentations that he had attended at a local Mormon church in Hot Springs, Arkansas. As he described it, two or three Mormon missionaries had approached him to share the gospel. They explained the varying degrees of heaven in terms of a pyramid where people like Hitler and Stalin were at the bottom, faithful Mormons were situated at the top and everyone else fell in between.
This idea didn’t resonate with Clinton, a Baptist, who didn’t like his friends and family being left out of the top kingdom of heaven.
“I didn’t want to leave all these other people behind,” he said.
Though seemingly this wouldn’t have been a problem for Clinton, considering how the church feels about infidelity.
Mormon Culture 