Mitt Romney's opacity should concern America in ways beyond hiding his tax returns. Documents were destroyed after he ran the Salt Lake Olympics, hard drives were removed from Massachusetts computers after he was Governor, conflicting information keeps surfacing about the capitalist of creative destruction at Bain.
Romney has been called unknown if not unknowable. This is by intent. Romney has erased his history. So to know the man, one needs to look at his culture. That culture is Mormon.
The isolated nature of Mormonism and Romney's insulated background of privilege together explain the gaffs, awkwardness, role-playing, uniformity and the persistence.
Romney downplays his Mormon background because of bigotry in America toward Mormons and because a focus on the beliefs and practices of the Mormon Church make it less likely he would be elected.
And getting elected is Romney's God-given responsibility, his Mission to America.
Being “at ease” with others requires shared assumptions, shared habits, shared speech, shared values. Mitt Romney comes from a different place than most. A Starbucks-addled, wine sipping urbanite would feel awkward at a Mormon gathering after being told no coffee. No alcohol. No nicotine. "For anyone?" No. And no abortions, gay love, or swearing, either.
At the same time, Romney's values are shared by many non-Mormons. Alcohol's effect on our society is tragic; nicotine is a profit-delivery system at the expense of individual health and national treasure; one can only wish dollars spent on America's craving for caffeine funded education reform.
And healthy, loving, caring families like many in the Mormon community promote gracious adults. A gentleness surrounds many Mormons like an aura. It isn't reticence, we are told, it is taking the time “to consider whether an act is consistent with my values before acting, if what I am about to say or do is consistent with my values,” says an ex-Mormon. These are good habits.
There are strict expectations about behavior in the Mormon Church, though quietly expressed. There is equality but rigid hierarchy. It is judgmental without overt criticism. It is communal but not democratic. Obedience is not open for discussion.
Mitt Romney epitomizes life within the Mormon nest of church and family. Outsiders are kept at a distance. There is little exposure to the lives and ideas of the rest of America. That and his upper-class privilege cause him to say without self-consciousness “Some of my best friends own NASCAR teams” or “I am not concerned about the poor” or "the Jewish culture explains why Israelis have higher incomes than Palestinians."
It is common practice for Mormon “home teachers,” an Elder and a Priest, never only one, to visit every Mormon home once a month. During this visit they bring a “lesson” from the church and also check on the family. If a church member asks for help they will be helped. If the house is in disrepair and the husband ill they will call in assistance. If the wife is sick the Relief Society Sisters, who also go out once a month, offer the family support.
A family's adherence to the precepts of the church are also evaluated. This sense of being reviewed and judged pervades the culture. Romney's candidacy would not exist if it did not have the blessing of the Church.
According to doctrine, Jesus Christ heads the Mormon Church and the President of the Church is a Prophet of God. Through this prophet God speaks. Twelve apostles serve the church president just as the twelve served Christ. These men reveal God's word as direct and continual revelation to his people through the conduit of the priesthood which is held by every adult male Mormon in good standing.
"Romney would consult with the leadership of the church prior to making this decision to run for president and it would have been sanctioned for him to do this," said one ex-Mormon.. “If a Jack Mormon was running for president the Church would be subtly condemning him."
Which begs for the question: What happens when a Mormon Prophet, the church president, “calls” a priesthood holder to the Presidency of the United States? If the Mormon Church is supporting the candidacy to what extent does it have control over the candidate?
There is a very real possibility that Mitt Romney believes he is on a mission from God and that being President of the United States is his calling. In the Mormon faith one does not refuse The Call. This calling comes directly from God. One does not deny God. Doing God's will is the ultimate case of ends justifying the means.
One of the strengths of Mormonism is how it cares for members, the interweave of individuals into family, community and church. While occasionally derided, this interdependence is also a source of support. What the Mormon Church does for members is what liberals envision as the role of government
The Mormon Church may view the current debate about the relationship of individual to society as a power struggle between church and state. If the state provides it lessens the role of the church. If families care for their own it lessens the need for the state.
Republicans imbued Ronald Reagan and George Bush with the myth these role-players were rugged individuals of The West. Mormons do not represent the “rugged individualism” so beloved of the Reagan Right. They are as communal as any in group in America (Utah, home of the Mormon Church, is sometimes referred to as “The Beehive State"). In this sense Romney's values are more similar to inward-looking, self-validating, closed-societies than those of the lone cowboy riding his trusty horse into the sunset.
This is not about the rights of the Mormon Church, the Urim and Thummim, undergarments or any other ritual, whether the U.S. Constitution is a Mormon document divinely inspired, angels appearing to Joseph Smith, Jesus returning to earth in Missouri or Mormons baptizing Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
Mormonism does not disqualify Romney any more than being a Catholic disqualified JFK or being black disqualifies Barak Obama. But If Mitt Romney is on a Mission to America, Americans need to think about how our lives will change with Mitt Romney as president.
Instead of discussing policy, Romney spews soundbites. His record of secrecy, from his tax returns to Bain to the Olympics to Massachusetts, is appalling. So it is necessary to look deeper than his words and the influence of the Mormon Church on Mitt Romney should not be discounted.
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9 comments:
Ryan brought you out of hiding, eh? And all you've got is an attack on the Mormans? Christ, if anyone questions O's religion (or lack-there-of), you libs would have a little fit.
Your boy is going down, and the Romney/Ryan ticket is just what's going to take him there. Buh-bye.
Actually, no. That is not all I got. See previous post with two hyena laughing.
It was not an attack on Mormons. Anyone can believe anything they want. But to know a man who is hiding what he believes, one has to look at where he comes from.
"If anyone question's "O's" religion?" Seriously? How many right-wing nuts called Obama a Muslim?
And look what happens. They get called, "right-wing nuts."
So you equate Obama being called a Muslim, which is more than a bit crazy, to Romney being called a Mormon, which is um, true? Kinda hard having a discussion if you don't know the difference between fact and fiction.
And then there is "Your boy is going down ... Buh-bye."
Is that "boy" as in "nigger?" God I hope not but given the level of the rest of the comment, maybe, just maybe. There seems to be a lot of that going around from Muslim-hating birther spewers.
Our President may lose the election. He may be defeated by a mega-millionaire business shark who sent jobs overseas, hid money in accounts in Switzerland and God knows where else, who advocated tax shelters that the IRS termed abusive, who won't disclose his taxes, who has the huge money support of polluters, gamblers and the bankers who nearly destroyed our economy and who wants to give those crooks even more power, a man who has refused to disclose his taxes, who lies and misrepresents not only the President's achievements but even his own. And he may not have paid any taxes for one or more years in the last decade.
Details available on request.
No, it's not about Romney being a Mormon. Which, by the way, was covered at some length in glowing terms by a conservative columnist in the New York Times on Sunday. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/opinion/sunday/douthat-romneys-mormon-story.html?_r=1&hp
That is the difference between real journalism and anything and everything you can get from Fox.
"And look what happens." Yes, indeed. Look what happens.
So Willard Mitt Romney tells us that he is a success, its easy when you start with Dad's money and dad's contacts (kinda like Trump) and did not do it on your own, but ok, success.
Willard Mitt Romney tells us that Bain was his first success, a company without a product (unlike Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison among others who created jobs by the success of their products). What’s even funnier Bain owns “Clear Channel” who has under contract both “Rush Limbaugh” and “Glen Beck”, how do you think they will do after the election. Bain preyed on weak companies and even if these companies went into bankruptcy Bain made money (Willard still gets a check from Bain) not to mention the jobs that were outsourced or their dealings with RED CHINA, but ok maybe Willard did not know that Bain was in to that, sure, why not, right?
Willard Mitt Romney then tells us that his second success is 2002 Winter Olympics. All 2002 Winter Olympics financials have been destroyed, but ok lets take his word, success.
This is Willard Mitt Romney calling card that what our country needs now is someone like him a supposed successful business man.
So given all of Willard Mitt Romney, supposed success, don’t you expect to see an extraordinary success in his position as governor of Massachusetts, his one and only public sector job? If you look at the majority of his statements as to why he should be governor of Massachusetts, they almost mirror his current ones, mainly “I am a successful business man”. But when we look at Massachusetts, it was an ordinary mediocrity, to the point that he could only survive one term, that how good this guy was, but ok according to him he was a success.
Now he wants the top public sector job, hmmm, no not on my watch!
I would never support a practiced liar and a tax dodging flip-flopper like Willard Romney who is wrapped up so tightly in his bizarre Mormon Faith. Mormonism stands as the most preposterous religion because it can and has been proven to be completely false and is truly a disaster on just about every imaginable level -- Planet Kolob, The Missing Golden Plates, Baptism for the dead, Polygamy, Garden of Eden in Missouri, and Convicted Fraud Joseph Smith. The Mormon Faith is based on Lies, Deception, Polygamy and a self serving Prophet named Joseph Smith. This Peculiar Faith raises their insular flock of believers to be “clones” of this bizarre religion- Mormonism is deeply rooted in the false gospel of Joseph Smith's bizarre beliefs, that could be a be very serious problem if Romney ever set foot in the oval office. Utah does not respect the separation of Church and State, and either would a Mormon President. Romney should share his Mormon testimony and his "truth" about the Book of Mormon, God, Jesus, John the Baptist and an angel named Moroni all paying numerous visits to a uneducated treasure-digging fraud from Upstate NY who founded this false Religion. Perhaps Mr. Romney should share the revelation Convicted Fraud Joseph Smith received directly from God demanding he begin the practice of Plural Marriage, and Bishop Romney should explain how Brigham Young, the second Mormon Prophet was able to father 57 children with 16 different women and was married to 55 wives -- This is why Mormons like Romney will NEVER bring their religion into a live debate, as the consequences would politically destroy him and the Mormon Church would quickly become a laughingstock on the worlds stage.
Just as I thought.
Still loving the roar of a hornet's nest. Or is that a yellow-jacket racing through a chicane of words. Shiny side up, as always.
Stay cool in this heat, metaphorically, literally.
Mitt is a lifetime Mormon cult servant, sunday teacher , priest.
Mitt can never separate religion form politics. religions was buisness for Mitt.
President the priest is middle east age like.
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