A Utah state Representative, Craig Frank, recently suggested that Jon Huntsman's new position might give him the chance to win converts to the Mormon church in China.
It seems Frank's blog has now been scrubbed (www.underthedome.org), but I found Frank's alleged post from Hot Feeder, and the Salt Lake Tribune records a few sentences verbatim, which matches up with Hot Feeder.
Rep. Craig Frank.
This is a big deal for the Governor, Utah, the United States, and…the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).
Although the LDS church’s missionary program has an ecclesiastical presence throughout many parts of the world, the countries with the largest population bases (China and India) are not currently open to the church’s missionary efforts. Huntsman served his LDS mission as a 19 year old young man in the Taiwan Taipei Mission in the early 1980’s. He has since been back to the Far East on a number of occasions. Huntsman not only takes to China his political acumen but also a lifetime of membership in the LDS church. This should bode well for the LDS church’s mission to spread the gospel throughout the world, since all members of the LDS faith are under divine mandate to…”Go ye therefore, and teach all nations…” (Matt 28:19)
Huntsman’s ambassadorship not only puts him in an excellent position to address US-China relations, it puts him in an even better position to teach the gospel…in Mandarin.
Matthew Christensen, a professor teaching Chinese at Brigham Young University, says that's not likely.
"[Huntsman will] be careful and cautious in anything he says about the church or to further the church's presence in China."
