The American Spectator

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Mormonism Spelled Out

12.19.05 @ 12:01AM

(Page 4 of 6)

Without a doubt, many Southern Baptists will not be excited about voting for a Mormon. Mormonism is highly regional, unlike the nationwide practicing of Catholicism and Protestantism.

McCain doesn't have to worry.
-- Robert Ellis

Joseph Smith was also an epileptic and I personally think that he used his "visions" and visitations-by-a-spirit episodes to help cover and explain them. He was also a horse thief. The Book of Mormon is written with grammatical errors throughout. The territory they staked out in the west was patrolled by pony soldiers. They even bred a horse with a bigger lung capacity to go the distances. Oftentimes wagon trains and other pioneers had to sneak or fight their way through the Mormon territory to get to California. Lincoln not only had to deal with the secession of the South, but the threat of secession of the Mormons and their territory as well.

I grew up with Mormon girl friends and spent many slumber parties listening to them talk about their life's goal -- getting married in the temple. I always thought that was sad.
-- Sue Ellen Hirtle
Eagle, Idaho

I live in predominantly Mormon SE Idaho. This part of the state can arguably be described as a Mormon theocracy and it isn't easy living here as a non-Mormon. The LDS religion is not Christian and has its suspicious origins and practices very similar to Islam. I have been a staunch Republican voter for decades but will not vote for Romney no matter how he is dressed up and presented to the American people. I have seen his inner core and it's ugly.
-- Don M.
Idaho

I read with great interest David Holman's article on Mitt Romney and our mutual problematic religion. Being an aficionado for the occasional anti-Mormon rant, I understand Holman has legitimate concerns, and I certainly don't lump him in with the fanatical Mormon bashers... yet. I can't help but get the feeling, however, that his mindset is in league with our detractors, as many of his arguments have a familiar ring to them. Permit me then, as a Mormon of average intelligence and looks, to try and dissuade some of the more obvious misinterpretations and (benign?) suspicions.

Let's start with the easiest: abortion. Holman states, "LDS moral teachings will likely displease social conservatives when they learn the church's position on abortion sounds more like a political compromise than a well-reasoned moral teaching." The church's teachings concerning abortion are identical to the majority view of the pro-life lobby. Most pro-lifers would agree that abortion should be allowed in cases of rape, incest, endangerment of the mother's life, or the inability of the unborn to live outside the womb. I take my views on abortion restrictions further, but the church's official stance is perfectly respectable to most pro-life warriors.

Now let's get into the more hairy issues. How 'bout our "racist" past? If Brigham Young banned blacks from receiving the priesthood, he was in line with what is written in The Pearl of Great Price (another book of scripture to coincide with The Bible and the Book of Mormon, and like the Book of Mormon, translated from an ancient record by Joseph Smith). In the Book of Abraham, we read that Ham, a son of Noah, married Egyptus, a descendant of Cain. From these two people was born the line of Pharaohs. The first ruler (whose name was Pharaoh) ruled Egypt in righteousness, and as we read in Abraham 1:26, was blessed by Noah "with the blessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the Priesthood." Undoubtedly, a learned man like Young would have been familiar with this passage. It is a pity that Mr. Holman is not as familiar with The Journal of Discourses he cited in his article, or he would have heard this from Young:

God has created of one blood all the nations and kingdoms of men that dwell upon all the face of the earth: black, white, copper-coloured, or whatever their colour, customs, or religion, they have all sprung from the same origin... When the residue of the family of Adam come up and receive their blessings, then the curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will receive blessings in like proportion...

Done in 1978, when the church spanned every continent but Africa. What wasn't done in 1978, however, is the apparent tendency of some of the American people to exclude a political candidate on something as flimsy as religion. As Holman says, "[A] 1999 Gallup poll found that while only 6 percent of Americans refuse to vote for a Jew and 4 percent a Catholic, 17 percent rule out Mormons on their ballots." So much for voting your conscience, or for the candidate with whom you agree the most.

Holman also states, "In his Journal of Discourses, Young affirmed the 'curse of Cain,' the Mormon doctrine that blacks bear the fallen brother's punishment." This seems to insinuate that Young wished to punish black people, or that Young thought that they, for some reason, were punished for some crime by nature of their birth. With his intimate knowledge of the most basic Mormon doctrines, there is no conceivable way that this would be what Young felt, or preached to anyone else. Children born in crack houses, broken homes, poverty, or any other horrible circumstances are unaccountable before God, yet does this not seem like a curse (or "punishment") to them? The idea of being cursed, or damned, goes to the heart of all Christianity. It is the reason for Christ. We are cursed with death and misfortune. But a curse is not "punishment." The Atonement of Christ is the victory over the curses of this world. Our repentance and desires for forgiveness, combined with His grace, are the means to obtaining that prize. But all this is lost, I suppose, on a sophisticated, highly color-conscious, and politically correct nation like modern-day America, 17 percent of whom are free to discriminate against Mormons....

It is quite possible that Mr. Holman's article is not meant, in the slightest, to be a slam against a church that teaches marital fidelity, honesty, integrity, physical health, financial responsibility, industry, education, the importance of family, the equality of all before God, and oh, yes, Christianity. I will concede the point, but only on the condition that my reply will not be taken for an endorsement of Brother Romney, a man who strikes me as little more than another Compassionate Conservative, which is our fresh new term for Socialist. A Libertarian like myself would never do that, though he is probably an admirable fellow in his private life (which is where I say he belongs). No, I would rather watch Romney's campaign crash and burn, if only to save face for our church. But I cannot stand by while rumors, innuendo, and misunderstanding take a stab at an institution as fine, as upstanding, as willing, as amenable, and (dare I say it?) as true as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Oh, and congratulations on finding the only unflattering photograph in existence of the Washington, D.C. Temple.
-- Brendan R. Merrick
Budd Lake, New Jersey

The real problem Mitt Romney faces is that he's as conservative as, well, a Governor of Massachusetts. When the grand diktat came down to equate homosexual relationships with matrimony, did the morally centered Romney cause all state business to come to a screeching halt while the impeachment, conviction and removal from office of the power-crazed judicial thugs proceeded apace? Well, of course not. Did he go on TV and simply give the mental flatulence that such black-robed ravings represent the horselaugh they deserve, followed by a clear statement that anyone who actually tried to act on such nonsense would be ignored initially, and if they persisted they'd be removed from office/arrested/shot down where they stood?

Not the Mutt. Instead, he just muttered some low-decibel nonsense and half-heartedly supported a facade of action that he knew would allow things to meander on the path that they have. He, of course, merely follows the lead of our current Two-Faced-in-Chief, who occasionally babbles something that sounds mildly moral or ethical, while focusing on wasting hundreds of billions of our tax dollars and thousands of lives on attempting to reform the failed and ignorant dregs of humanity, who nevertheless are smart enough to leech off our national stupidity and our leaders' corruption. Both these hacks provide yet more evidence that there's not a dime's difference between Republicrat and Demopublican -- both pimp for the globalism and multiculturalism their handlers desire.
-- Peter Jacobs

You are probably right in implying that Mitt Romney's membership in the LDS Church will make him unelectable. If, by some miracle, he does get the Republican nomination, he stands a decent chance of being elected President. It is the getting the Republican nomination that will prove impossible. The Republican Party is basically the captive of the evangelical religious right. More than any other group within the Republican Party, the evangelicals will strongly oppose a Romney candidacy on purely religious grounds. Of course, the opposition will be cloaked in political language to make it seem like something other than religious bigotry. Dr. James Dobson and his group enjoy the benefits of religious tolerance and openness by having his program "Focus on the Family" broadcast by KSL, a large AM radio station owned by the LDS Church. He and his group, however, will not reciprocate by allowing a Mormon to offer a prayer at a National Prayer Day function. Such is the intolerance of the religious right.
-- Robert W. Brown

Letter to the Editor

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