Tucson Citizen.com

Arizona's Unapologetic Liberal

Does Willard Have A Mormon Problem?

by on May. 30, 2011, under Uncategorized

The Mitt Romney buzz is getting louder. I guess some people like him because he’s a successful businessman and they want to believe that a country should be run like a corporation. I think a lot of these people are the same ones who bought into the Donald Trump charade. I have some news for those who are of the mindset that a successful businessman would make a great president. If we ended up with a business owner as President we would probably see all the social programs currently in place eliminated and a further elimination of the middle class. I mean, most bosses don’t want to give anything back to their employees let alone their customers.

Nonetheless, there are some people out there that are genuinely excited about Romney. Those are primarily the people that are willing to forego his religion. I for one, am not predisposed to judge anyone based on their religion. However, there are plenty willing to speak up and reject Romney because of his religious beliefs. There are those who call it a cult. You might hear that more from the conservative Christian right, the evangelicals. You know, the “moral” majority.

If Barack Hussein Obama sat in a Christian church for twenty years before taking the reigns of this great country, and people still call him a Muslim, what can Willard expect? I hope you don’t have a problem with my use of Romney’s actual first name. I figure if the Tea Baggers and many on the right use Obama’s middle name to invoke sentiments of Saddam Hussein or Muslim tendencies, then it’s OK to use Romney’s name to identify him. Although I realize for many my age, it invokes the the 1970′s movie about rats named “Willard.” In the movie, “Willard is a meek social misfit with a strange affinity for rats.” In 2011, Willard is an outgoing wealthy social butterfly with that same affinity for rats. The Republican and capitalist type.

So my take is that the Conservative Christian right, in particular the evangelicals, aren’t going to let this guy survive to win the GOP nomination. The religious conflict is too great to overcome for many evangelicals. According to the Mormons, prophetic revelations are acceptable in their religion, and the evangelicals see that as a no no. The evangelicals believe the bible has been written and although you may receive messages from God, you cannot rewrite your biblical journey as you see fit. The evangelicals also claim that this constant changing of the Mormon religion is the reason that Romney finds it acceptable to flip flop on so many issues. Making him not just unacceptable because of his religion, but additionally because of his constant change on his political views. So who’s more powerful? The evangelicals or the Mormons? This could turn out to be another holy war packaged as a political battle for the GOP nomination.

Willard Explains His Mormon Problem

Romney has one other glaring problem. Romney passed a state form of Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act while he sat on the high throne as chief executive officer of the state of Massachusetts. It was the precursor to what some call Obama Care. Romney would have to do an about face to what he considers one of his crowning achievements. Perhaps he can use a sudden prophetic revelation as his reason to abandon what some coin as Romney Care.

Well, either way Romney is in the mix and he’ll be announcing his candidacy formally on a 300 acre farm in Stratham, New Hampshire. It’ll be interesting to see what will ultimately take Willard down, his Mormon problem or his Romney Care problem. The name of the farm where he is launching his campaign seems apropos, It’s “Bittersweet.”

Carlos E. Galindo is a radio talk show host & political analyst conducting radio shows in both English and Spanish on four radio stations in Arizona. Mr. Galindo is a weekly contributor to KPFK 98.7 FM Los Angeles and has appeared on CNN, Univision and Telemundo as a political analyst. Mr. Galindo is also an Op-Ed columnist on Prensa Hispana Arizona. www.nospinonair.com/http://www.carlosgalindo.com
Listen to our live radio broadcast every Friday from 5-7 PM on The JOLT Tucson 1330 AM or via the web on www.nospinonair.com

This entry was posted on Monday, May 30th, 2011 at 8:44 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • http://facebook Margarita Eaton

    This is soo hilarious ,but you are quite right , 40 yrs ago i got converted to the Mormon Faith ,at that time ,the Blacks could not be ordained ,because the prophet had a “revelation ‘that the blacks were excluded from the Priesthood because of the “curse ” put upon them by god  ,the civil rights demonstrations happened & Voila !the curse was removed . good for the blacks ,i am all for equality . but , you see the contradictions .

    • Mike

      There is nothing more pathetic than a self-proclaimed expert who isn’t one. The “Curse of Cain” doctrine was a left-over doctrine from Christianity that was used to justify slavery for centuries.
      However, “the Book of Mormon” revealed that “all are alike unto God, black and white, bond and free” and so Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith ordained a black man to the priesthood in 1836.  He was the first white leader of an all white Christian sect to ordain a black man to the priesthood in America before the Civil War ended in 1865.
      One of those black men ascended to the Quorum of the Seventy and remained there until his death in the 1880s.  A ban on priesthood ordinations occurred generally between 1848 and 1978.  However, there were many exceptions, including some who were ordained up until 1930.
      The Civil Rights movement occurred in the 1960s, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Historians know that the “Act” didn’t change centuries-old bigotry, prejudice, and segregation (voluntary and involuntary) overnight.
      Mormon leadership met several times between 1930 and 1978 to lift the ban.  However, decisions in the Church could only be rendered if decisions of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, were unanimous.
      When the attitudes were dispelled generally and enough time had passed after the Civil Rights act, the revelation to change the Church occurred in 1978.
      Since then, hundreds of 1000s of black families have joined the LDS Church.  Famous black Mormons included Gladys Knight, Thurl Bailey, and LeRoy Eldridge Cleaver, the Minister of Information in the early Black Panther Party.
       

      • SG

        Mike, Mormons are bigots…I should know, because I was one for most of my life.  Of course, Mormons do not think they are bigots…

        But just because Black people can be full members of the Mormon church now, does not undo decades of discrimination.  If they Mormon church was run by God directly, why did he have to wait until he got a unanimous vote from the quorum of the 12.  

        The undoing of the Mormon Church, will be their ancient leaders….they lag far behind the youth..and it will only get worse

        • http://classicmomscorner.blogspot.com/ SixMom

          I wonder why God only allowed one tribe out of 12 to have the priesthood in the Old Testment?

          Mike is right, you can look up Cain’s curse in Wikipedia.  It was all of America, all faiths, as well as in Western Europe.  If you’re going to badmouth Mormons for it, intelligently you have to badmouth all organizations for it.  Thank goodness we all grew up, right?

          • Ken Dahl

            To Mike & SixMom: The Book of Mormon is replete with example after example of skin color as a curse from God. The whole nation of the Lamanites (American Indian) carry a curse from God according to the Book of Mormon and Mormon leadership. “Their skin will become white and delightsome” once they become Mormons.

            The vote to allow blacks into the priesthood came from several pending discrimination lawsuits involving the Mormon church and the Boy Scouts of America. Since blacks couldn’t hold the Mormon priesthood they were also prohibited from holding any leadership role in the Boy Scouts troops sponsored by the Mormons. The Catch 22 left the Mormon elders with little choice: either abandon the Boy Scouts or let the blacks have the priesthood, and leadership roles in the Boy Scouts. Follow the money. It answers questions about Mormonism every time.

            • line by line

              You have not truly studied the Book of Mormon.  A dark skin was only a sign of the curse of no priesthood, not the curse itself.  In the Book of Mormon, if you keep reading,  the darker skinned people eventually became more righteous (and priesthood holders) than those with fairer skin.

              Should we discount the entire New Testament because Jesus withheld the gospel from the Gentiles until Peter had his revelation?  Maybe you haven’t read the book of Acts either.

        • jn3792

          @SG – Did you really stop and think about how ironic your opening sentence is.  “Mormons are bigots” . . . you are classifying 14 million people and calling them all bigots.  Sounds like a somewhat bigoted point of view, don’t you think?

      • https://profiles.google.com/DuwayneAnderson#DuwayneAnderson/about Duwayne Anderson

        The Book of Mormon is conflicted on the issue of race.  On one hand it does say that all people can come to god.  But on the other hand it teaches racist theology like the idea that god uses black skin as a “curse,” later removing this “curse” when the person repents.  Here are actual verses from the Book of Mormon, along with links to the official LDS Internet site where you can read them in full context.
        “And he [god] had caused the cursing to come upon them …  wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.”  [2 Nephi 5:21]
        http://lds.org/scriptures/search?lang=eng&query=skin+of+blackness&x=0&y=0
        ” …  those Lamanites who had united with the Nephites were numbered among the Nephites;  And their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites;”
        http://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/3-ne/2.15?lang=eng#14
        As for the Civil Rights act, here is a link with numerous quotes from the Mormon prophet at the time, showing how LDS leaders actively fought against the act:
        http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon409.htm
        The church’s behavior during the Civil Rights act was a reprehensible act for which the church has steadfastly refused to repent.  In fact,  (as the comments above illustrate) the church actively tries to cover its sin by lying about its racist past.
        Duwayne Anderson
        Author of “Farewell to Eden: Coming to terms with Mormonism and science”
         

      • Ken Dahl

        The Mormon bible is replete with example after example of skin color as a curse from God. According to that book, the Lamanites (American Indian) carry a curse from God and will do so until they accept Joseph Smith’s gospel. “Their skin will become white and delightsome” once they become Mormons.

        The vote to allow blacks into the priesthood came from several pending discrimination lawsuits involving the Mormon church and the Boy Scouts of America. Since blacks couldn’t hold the Mormon priesthood they were also prohibited from holding any leadership role in the Boy Scout troops sponsored by the Mormons. The Catch 22 left the Mormon elders with little choice: either abandon the Boy Scouts or let the blacks have the priesthood, and leadership roles in the Boy Scouts. Follow the money. It answers questions about Mormonism every time.

        • Peter

          @ Ken Dahl: Follow the money? Mormons are big supporters of scouting. BSA doesn’t give the church any money! Actually, church leaders had been petitioning God long before the vote due to the growing desire among Africans to have the church expand into their continent. The time came – the church leaders felt it – and then unanimously approved it.
          By the way, the change in skin color described in the Book of Mormon was not a genetic/racial change, but may have been a symptom of an infectious disease. Becoming “white and delightsome” upon repentance then clearly has no racial conotations. It would just be a return to good health.

          • Ken Dahl

            ‘Follow the money’ refers to the civil rights issue of denying an ethnic group equal rights and access to the Boy Scouts. The Mormon church faced losing their nonprofit status, severe fines and lawsuits for discrimination. It became financially prudent to resolve the black issue through the convenience of revelation.

            I think the Mormon prophet Brigham Young said it about as plainly as any Mormon could possible say it when it comes to the use of dark skin as a curse by God:

            You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind….Cain slew his brother.  Cain might have been killed, and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings.  This was not to be, and the Lord put a  mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p. 290).
            “Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 10, p. 110).

  • http://yahoo shaun williams

    I am just apalled at how stupid people can be sometimes, I have voted some 32 years now and it has never crossed my mind to vote for or against someone simply because of their religion or lack of a religion. I could care less if a person were a Mormon or a Catholic or a Baptist or an Agnostic or a Jew or a non-Christian, I want to know about the persons political views first and formost, if he is elected is he going to hold the same politcal views as I hold be they liberal or conservative or whatever. I want to know if they are honest and will hold first and formost the will of the people who elected them as their highest priority, as to what faith they adhere to I could really care less where they attend church is their choice and their choice alone, if they choose to not attend a church or worship differently than I do that is their right. I am saddened to see the so called “Christians” try and define who is a follower of  Christ based on their petty and self appointed moral standards, such people are repulsive and petty to me. I like Mitt Romney and I could care less what his religion is, I want a man who will represent my politcal views and actually listen to me as a voter and as a citizen and anyone of any faith can do that.

    • orion

      thank you.

    • http://classicmomscorner.blogspot.com/ SixMom

      No like button, so “like”.

    • Doug Forbes

      Brigham Young said a lot of things. The only revelation he contributed to LDS doctrine was to move west to Utah. In the 1830s Mormonism became synonomous with abolitionism.  The petition and list of complaints made by Missouri bigots against Mormons included an objection that Mormons had invited “free negroes and mulattos” to join them in Jackson county Missouri.

  • bobbydevine

    Many existing laws and regulations apply specifically to pregnant women. Several provisions of the Affordable Care Act offer new benefits for expecting mothers. Search online for “Penny Health Insurance” if you need affordable insurance for yourself or your wife.

  • http://MormonsAreChristian.blogspot.com Bot

    Mormons’ theology is based on First Century Christianity, not Fourth Century Creeds. For example, the Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) views on Baptism, Lay Ministry, the Trinity, Theosis, Grace vs. Works, the Divinity of Jesus Christ comport more closely with Early Christianity than any other denomination. And Mormons’ teenagers have been judged to “top the charts” in Christian Characteristics by a UNC-Chapel Hill study. Read about it here:
    http://MormonsAreChristian.blogspot.com
    Those who would denigrate the Mormon religion, usually are mis-informed.
    Mormons have a better understanding of Christianity than any other denomination, according to a 2010 Pew Forum poll:
    http://www.pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-Practices/U-S-Religious-Knowledge-Survey.aspx
    11 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were non-Trinitarian Christians. Those who insist on their narrow definition of Christianity are doing our Republic an injustice.

  • Mike

    Yeah, for centuries Christianity supported slavery and then, “VOILA” after wars, and problems, they no longer used the Bible to condone or support slavery.
    Every religion is FULL of contradictions, Romney’s Mormonism is right up there with Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.  So what’s the relevancy?  Nothing.
    There is no religious test in America.  If citizens try to use the religious test, then they are bigots and acting unconstitutionally.
    Obviously, Carlos, a Democrat, is yet another example of a liberal who can’t form coherent arguments, and so stoops to bigoted religious attacks for this message.
    Way to go Carlos, you’re doing exactly what you say Republicans should not do.
    Your message is – “Do the actions of my political foes, the actions I decry and despise the most.”
    Be consistent Carlos.  That is, if you have any integrity.
    The question is, did Romney’s Mormonism affect how he Governed in Massaschusettes?
    Did Romney talk of dogma or doctrines ? No!  He governed with American values.

  • Matt

    Carlos. Your claims that conservatives are religiously prejudice reveal your own bias. Please go tell your editor boss that thanks to you I am done reading “The Voice of Tuscan”.

  • Bluto

    “Romney was named after hotel magnate J. Willard Marriott, his father’s best friend, and his father’s cousin Milton “Mitt” Romney 1925–1929 quarterbac­k for the Chicago Bears.

    WILLARD MITT ROMNEY”
    Pretty good Company if you ask me.
    These giants preceded the 1970′s movie.
    Ben, however…..was a nice song.

    Younger people think History began with them.

  • http://classicmomscorner.blogspot.com/ SixMom

    What I find really dis-ingenuine about the cartoon is Mitt going after the Protestant Christians.  You only have to listen to the news, read the articles, follow the comment threads etc. to know it is the Evangelicals that go after Mormons with that karate chop attitude.  Not the other way around.  And a certain percentage of them are really aggressive in their tactics.

    The cartoon comes off uninformed and skewed.

    • Ken Dahl

      Every time one of the 50,000 Mormon missionaries around the world knocks on a door they are going after someone’s religion with a karate chop attitude. Mormons are taught that all religions, other than their own, are corrupt and find their source in the Antichrist. Joseph Smith was told in person by God and Christ that all Christian religions in the 1820′s were false, and he was to start a new religion which would be the only true church of Christ on earth. The Mormon temple teaches that Satan controls the message outside of the only true church on earth.

      • Peter

        The missionaries just lovingly invite, they don’t attack. It was the humble invitation of a pair of kind missionaries 34 years ago that first brought me to the church. Just two weeks earlier I had started believing in God for the first time and said my first prayer. It was in that prayer that God taught me about, and I accepted, Jesus Christ. I felt “saved.” I then read the Bible and, after meeting the missionaries, the Book of Mormon. I found them in wonderful agreement and joined the LDS Church a month later. Since joining the church I have had many evangelicals tell me, sometimes angrily, that I am a damned fool. In the LDS Church we believe that by the Atonement of Jesus Christ all those who have lived a good life and have done well can go to Heaven, Mormon or not. We believe that all the traditional religions have much godly good in them. We see their adherents as friends. We just don’t accept the many creeds that came long after the Bible as biblical truth. Does the Bible really need the Nicene Creed to be understood correctly? Is that one narrow interpretation the only right one? Can scholarly men be more right than the Holy Ghost that God gives freely to teach all who are willing to accept His Son? In the not-so-distant past, those who disagreed with your creeds were put to death. What might that tell you about these creeds and their followers? Because we don’t believe in the post-biblical creeds of men, that supposedly makes us non-Christian, even a dangerous cult. How Christian of you.

        • Taylor

          “Like!”

        • http://classicmomscorner.blogspot.com/ SixMom

          like

  • Fraser007

    The thought of a Mormon President scares me. At least he will hire only Mormons for his adminisration.
    The Book of Mormon sure reads like a bad science fiction book from the early 19th Century. Who the hell would believe such wierdness. (of course a Jewish carpenter being the son of god is just is silly).

  • chris

    “I mean, most bosses don’t want to give anything back to their employees let alone their customers.”
    That thought is very wrong. Most bosses I have known want to give to both their employees and their customers as those are the two most valuable non-ownable assets a business can have. The only businesses that can disregard high valuation of customers and employees are ones in government or who receive large funding from government or ones with monopolies, often due to regulation or exploration of well-meaning but market-distorting regulations.

  • Peter

    Follow the money? Mormons are big supporters of scouting. BSA doesn’t give the church any money! Actually, church leaders had been petitioning God long before the vote due to the growing desire among Africans to have the church expand into their continent. The time came - the church leaders felt it – and then unanimously approved it.

    By the way, the change in skin color change described in the Book of Mormon was not a genetic/racial change, but may have been a symptom of an infectious disease. Becomeing “white and delightsome” upon repentance then clearly has no racial conotations. It would just be a return to good health.

    • https://profiles.google.com/DuwayneAnderson#DuwayneAnderson/about Duwayne Anderson

      Peter’s silly excuse aside, Mormon prophets interpreted the Book of Mormon’s statements about race & skin color.  Here’s an example of what they said:
      “The day of the Lamanites [what Mormons call Native Americans] is nigh.  For years they have been growing delightsome, and they are now becoming white and delightsome, as they were promised.  In this picture of the twenty Lamanite missionaries, fifteen of the twenty were as light as Anglos; five were darker but equally delightsome.  The children in the home placement program in Utah are often lighter than their brothers and sisters in the hogans on the reservation….  At one meeting a father and mother and their sixteen-year-old daughter were present, the little member girl-sixteen sitting between the dark father and mother, and it was evident she was several shades lighter than her parents on the same reservation, in the same Hogan, subject to the same sun and wind and weather.  There was the doctor in a Utah city who for two years had had an Indian boy in his home who stated that he was some shades lighter than the younger brother just coming into the program from the reservation.  These young members of the Church are changing to whiteness and delightsomeness.  One white elder jokingly said that he and his companion were donating blood regularly to the hospital in the hope that the process might be accelerated.”

      -    Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, General Conference, Oct. 1960
       
      http://www.mormonthink.com/QUOTES/native.htm
       
      Duwayne Anderson
      Author of “Farewell to Eden: Coming to terms with Mormonism and science”
       
       
       

  • jn3792

    What a ridiculous and illogical article.  Here is one example – the author claims that if a business leader (Romney) is elected president he will cut all of the social programs.  He then goes on to say that a big problem for Romney (and his ’crowning achievement’ in Massachusetts) is RomneyCare, a social program. 
    Other silly garbage like this abounds in the article . . .  I won’t even get into the completely ridiculous observations about religion that the author makes.  This article is simply a waste of space and unfortunately we are all worse off as a result of it.

  • http://www.nospinonair.com arizona-unapologetic-liberal
  • Doug Forbes

    Do non-Mormon Cristians and Jews have a “Genocide Problem”? Aren’t Hukabee and other evangelics obliged to explain their views on the Amalekite genocide?

  • Doug Forbes

    How anti-Mormonism has changed over the years.

    In the 1830s Mormons were characterized as abolitionists in Missouri; an accusation that was largely true. A high percentage of Mormons were abolitionists including their prophet Joseph Smith who was murdered 4 months after launching his bid for the presidency with a plan to eradicate slavery in 5 years. In the late 19th century Mormons were characterized as negrophils. Take a look at some of the anti-Mormon cartoons at this url.

    http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1605&context=fac_pubs&sei-redir=1#search=“racist+anti-mormon+cartoons+elderberry+and+his+daughters“

    • Doug Forbes

      I meant to specify page 318 and 319

  • http://www.revrob.com Zadoc Paet

    POLL: Is Mitt Romney a hypocrite for saying he’d repeal “Obamacare” when he supports “Romneycare”?
    Link: http://www.wepolls.com/r/612499

    I think he is. There’s almost no difference between the two.

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