Let Me Repeat: Mitt’s Mormonism Matters
This morning, Andrew Sullivan penned what I think is a devastating post about Mitt Romneys Mormonism. In short, Neither Mitt nor Anne nor his parents spoke against their church when it was rabidly racist for decades. Mitt claims that his parents wept with joy when a new revelation led church leaders to begin including African-Americans in the 1970s, but what led him to stay so silent for so long?
As Sullivan notes, all churches have their dark histories. But even the powerful and relatively monolithic Catholic Church to which Sullivan belongs allows for public dissent. Just drive around Minneapolis this week and see the lawnsigns that read, Another Catholic Voting No, in direct defiance of the stated position of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis on the marriage amendment.
Heres the lede of Sullivans post:
Imagine for a moment that Barack Obama had never attended Jeremiah Wrights church in Chicago and had decided to attend services, and proselytize for, a black separatist, nationalist church that refused to allow whites to participate in crucial religious services because white people had been condemned by God for their iniquity in the ancient past and had been for ever marked white so black Americans would know instantly to keep their distance. In fact, the definition of white in this black supremacist church was just one drop of white blood in a black person. It was Nazi-like in its racist precision and exclusion. Whites were denied the rites that made a person a full member of the church. Even blacks with a tiny strain of white DNA were kept from full participation.
Imagine further that backing this racist church was not a youthful folly on Obamas part, but a profound commitment that he went on a mission abroad to convert Christians to a new religion based on black racial supremacy, and has often said that the most important thing in his entire life to this day is a church whose sacred scripture declares white people to be cursed by God for their past sins and the sign of this curse is their white skin.
A simple question: Do you think this issue would not come up in a general election or a primary? If Obama was subjected to news cycle after news cycle of clips of Obamas actual former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, can you imagine the outrage if Obama had actually been a part of a black supremacist church that denied whites equal access to the sacraments for over a decade in his adult life?
I raise this because it is a fact that Mitt Romney belonged to a white supremacist church for 31 years of his life, went on a mission to convert Christians and Jews and others to this church, which retained white supremacy as a doctrine until 1978 decades after Brown vs Board of Education, and a decade after the end of the anti-miscegenation laws.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/tonyjones/2012/10/24/let-me-repeat-mitts-mormonism-matters/
DollarBillHines
(1,922 posts)Google it, you'll see.
For the life of me, I cannot fathom why none of the MSNBC'ers have not touched on this.
Tutonic
(2,522 posts)This lying for the Lord tactic is very troubling. Seems that he would continue to do so while in office. Problem in dealing with world leaders--need forthright honesty.
liberalmuse
(18,672 posts)The thing is, people tend to brush off ex-Mormons. I was very devout, and am all too familiar with the way this church works. Believe me, you don't want this man to be your next president. He's not even a good Mormon, which makes this ultra scary, though Reid is an exception, I think. Romney is a lying chameleon who will say anything to get his way, but do anything to appease the extreme wing of his party. He'll simply hand his foreign policy over to the neocons like W did, but I'll tell you, as much as I hated W, I would go back to him in heartbeat if given the choice between him or Mitt.
Raster
(20,998 posts)...your statement. We DO NOT WANT a mormon in the White House and ESPECIALLY NOT THIS MORMON!
NOT THIS MORMON! If we thought the cheney*/bush* years were America's worst, we haven't seen anything compared to what Rmoney will do to this country.
And don't believe the bullshit -- yes BULLSHIT -- about Rmoney being a competent businessman. I work in the financial industry and understand far too well how Bain Capital made Rmoney his fortune, and I tell you: it was on the backs of men and women like you. Rmoney NEVER THOUGHT TWICE about loading companies with debt to "harvest" their wealth for himself. Goodbye pensions, goodbye good jobs, goodbye lives.
In addition, the WORST of cheney*/bush*, at least 15 members of the NeoConJob scourge that brought us to the brink with two illegal and immoral wars of vanity and greed are already part of the Rmoney/Lyin' foreign policy team. Rmoney is a major war just waiting to happen. And you can be guaranteed it will not be his kids or grandkids fighting and dying: IT WILL BE YOURS!
Blue Idaho
(5,049 posts)Forth generation Mormon here with roots dating back to the establishment of Salt Lake. One of my great grandfathers had four wives which he collected during four missions to Europe. The Mormon church has made a concerted effort to hide its past and obscure its modern beliefs and rituals. I can't begin to tell you how toxic this organization is and how dysfunctional it's members are. Bishop Willard is typical of the sanctimonious and shallow men you will find in the LDS church.
It is a mistake to think the Mormons are like other Christian religions - they are actually closer to Scientology in their beliefs and the way they use secrecy and propaganda to put a mainstream face on a fringe doctrine.
Raster
(20,998 posts)Also as the 19th century cross between Scientology and Amway.
Again, no Mormon in the White House and especially NOT THIS MORMON!
regnaD kciN
(26,044 posts)To continue Sullivan's idea: Imagine, not only that Obama had belonged to a black separatist church that banned whites from membership, but one whose most important rituals and teachings were kept under a veil of secrecy, where non-blacks weren't even allowed to enter their most-important places of worship once they had been "dedicated?" Can you imagine that not, for all intents and purposes, disqualifying him from the presidency in the eyes of a majority of the electorate?
Cherchez la Femme
(2,488 posts)You see, Kolob is a much more milder star than our sun, so all Kolob's people are "White and delightsome" 'cause that God's (our own Father God's home planet, I think, before he sent his totally separate Son (Trinity?!! Hahaha!) to come to this solar system or to claim Earth or something like that)
Um, anyow, Kolob's solar system is nicer than ours; and that's probably because the REAL God of Kolob (no Goddesses in that religion, thank you very much!) had many more wives than the God (Adam, I think, of Earth) Jesus had to suffer and die here to get His OWN solar system. It's pretty complicated, so maybe Hinckley or whoever's the infallible --until the NEXT Revelation-- Prophet can straighten that all out.
So you see DUer's? All mere coincidence.
So it's not racism, it's just like enjoying vacations in France over Saharan Africa: it's just the Clement weather! Just like Kolob's planet!
Glad I could set that all straight!
Oh, and Temple handlers? I sure could use a vacation just to clear my head (and rest a bit before DOMA hits the Supreme's) so if you can expedite the latest invoice I sent I'd be Celestially grateful.
I'm thinking a couple weeks in Sweden at this time of year... wouldn't want to get a tan or lose my job or anything
...not that the two are related in any way!
In my Most Saintly (Latter Day) Manner,
Cher. (& yeah I'm still under that Rainbow cover, never you fear!)
Shanti Mama
(1,288 posts)Because a prominent Salt Lake Mormon businessman wanted to buy the then-New Orleans Jazz.
It's despicable.
Not only did the "revelation" come just in time for this acquisition, but it did not state that the previous stance was wrong, just that it was no longer true.
Look it up. I have several times, when explaining it to people. Posted the dates earlier on DU. The Mormon church does what's expedient, just as Romney does. In Mormonism, the end justifies the means.
Cherchez la Femme
(2,488 posts)If the L.D.S. Church continued to 'ban' blacks from it's temples and priesthood (I.e. 'going to the 'right' heaven and being able to be God's in/on their own planet, being 'sealed' for eternity to their (Earthly) families, etc.).
Things changed in a hurry then.
I''ve even read where white "Saints" would deliberately donate as much blood as they could to individually hurry along blacks and Native Americans to quickly become "white and delightsome" (as specified in at least one of their Bibles as the mark of being worthy to be Holy to God.)
This, at least in Utah, was a pretty common thing.
I just wonder if white women's blood was able to perform the same miracle... probably not, as no woman of any color can attain the priesthood even now in the L.D.S. Church, while men of color have been able to since 1978.
BTW, loved your history -- can't wait to start reading up on it.
moobu2
(4,822 posts)I grew up in Mississippi around a bunch of nutty (in my judgment) evangelicals. I remember my uncle beating my aunt for not wanting to attend church services when she was pregnant and the guy my father worked with let his wife die of an otherwise non-life threatening condition because they objected to the treatment for religious reasons. So I'm familiar with the very real consequences of these crazy religious ideas.
I read Romney was a bishop in the church, is he still a bishop?
jsr
(7,712 posts)SlimJimmy
(3,180 posts)proper or necessary to discuss his religion as a test of his fitness for office - period. We have plenty of other ammunition to use that shows he's not fit to serve.
MissMarple
(9,656 posts)libodem
(19,288 posts)But I haven't been active since I got divorced in 1984. My full conversion never actually came about. And I tried. I couldn't believe the most basic tenants. I tried.
They used to consider dark skin the "mark of Cain". You know Adam and Eve's bad seed.
Frequently in their writings, you see the terms 'light and delightsome', when describing a female..
siligut
(12,272 posts)I know that the church uses mind-control technology and view a Mormon presidency to be a huge threat to our nation and the world. I cannot believe we are in this position, but the voter fraud that favored Romney is only the start of the mind-fucking we are in for if he makes it into the White house. I think the ex-Mormons on this board would be able to tell you how Mormons are already positioned in DC.
dkar
(22 posts)i would not vote for a moron or a catholic. not too sure about a methodist either, but mormon defintitely not. catholics always listen to the pope and no telling what they will do. methodists and lutherans are almost as bad cause they act like they love everybody but if you go to the church they act like you are not good enough to join them and pray. i would rather elect a presbyterian or because they are open to everyone even if you are poor, gay, old, young, fat, skinny dont care. every body is welcome.
SharonAnn
(13,776 posts)on things like birth control and other sex related issues.