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26 April 2012
Attacking Mitt Romney’s Mormonism would be political idiocy
April 26, 2012
Los Angeles Times (California)
Jokes about polygamy and funny long underwear aside, Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith has not been, and will not become, a factor in the presidential campaign of 2012.
I have a friend who wishes that were not so. She thinks it’s creepy that Mormons comb genealogical records to find people to retroactively baptize into the church — people who were not Mormons when they were alive and probably would not want to be Mormons if they still were. Knowing that the one constant in Romney’s otherwise malleable set of beliefs is his religion, my friend cannot understand why the Obama campaign has not raised the oddities of Mormonism as an issue.
It is not going to happen. The Obama campaign gurus are wise enough to know there is nothing to gain by opening up the can of very fat worms that is religion.
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FACT CHECK: Romney’s reference to his dad growing up poor doesn’t tell the full family story
April 26, 2012
Washington Post
George Romney was born July 8, 1907, in Chihuahua, Mexico, where his parents and other Mormons had moved to avoid persecution and U.S. laws against polygamy.
“At 5 years old, Dad and his family were finally living pretty well. They had a nice home and a small farm, and Dad even had his own pony, called Monty,” Mitt Romney wrote in his book “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness.”
George Romney’s father was Gaskell Romney, a carpenter who led a prosperous life in a Mormon colony in Mexico, according to the “The Real Romney,” a book written by two Boston Globe reporters. But turmoil from the Mexican revolution later forced the Romneys and other Mormon families to flee back to the United States.
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Romney on homosexuality: not Mormon enough
April 26, 2012
Renew America
According to the “Encyclopedia of Mormonism,” published by Brigham Young University, homosexual conduct is “considered…sinful by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
And not only that, “homosexual acts are offensive to God.”
Consequently, gays are “to learn to use their agency to live in accord with divine laws and thereby enjoy the rich blessings a benevolent Father offers to all his children, whatever their temptation or thoughts.”
So the church Gov. Romney has served all his life teaches that homosexual acts are “offensive to God,” and that reparative therapy does in fact work with the help of God.
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/fischer/120426
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FACT CHECK: Romney on his dad growing up poor
April 25, 2012
Seattle Times (Washington)
George Romney was born July 8, 1907, in Chihuahua, Mexico, where his parents and other Mormons had moved to avoid persecution and U.S. laws against polygamy.
“At 5 years old, Dad and his family were finally living pretty well. They had a nice home and a small farm, and Dad even had his own pony, called Monty,” Mitt Romney wrote in his book “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness.”
George Romney’s father was Gaskell Romney, a carpenter who led a prosperous life in a Mormon colony in Mexico, according to the “The Real Romney,” a book written by two Boston Globe reporters. But turmoil from the Mexican revolution later forced the Romneys and other Mormon families to flee back to the United States.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2018070715_apusromneyfactcheck.html
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If Mormonism Is Fair Game, So Is Jeremiah Wright
April 26, 2012
Real Clear Politics
A well-regarded Republican strategist at a private gathering recently warned, “And just wait until they play that Mormon card.” By “they,” he meant the Obama campaign and its complicit media cheerleaders.
Lawrence O’Donnell, only days later, gave his viewers a historical tutorial on the Mormon religion, darkly suggesting that we all should be afraid, very afraid. The Democratic governor of Montana, Brian Schweitzer, called Mitt Romney’s grandfather a “polygamist.”
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Chatsworth Council, Mormons to Clean Riding Trails
April 26, 2012
Northridge-Chatsworth Patch (California)
Volunteers from the Canoga Park Stake (similar to a diocese) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), the Chatsworth Neighborhood Council and other citizens in the community will unite for a cleanup of the Chatsworth Equestrian riding trails.
Nearly 200 local men, women, and children from will participate in this annual effort called “Mormon Helping Hands Day” during which thousands of Mormon volunteers across the state of California and Hawaii clean up community parks, roads or perform other community interest projects.
http://northridge.patch.com/articles/chatsworth-council-mormons-to-clean-riding-trails
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Saturday’s Warriors
April 25, 2012
Slate
If you’ve ever wondered how Mormons went from beard-wearing polygamous radicals (think Brigham Young) to your well-scrubbed, wholesome, and somewhat dorky next-door neighbors (think Mitt Romney–albeit with not quite so much money), the short answer is “correlation.”
The movement began in 1960, when Harold B. Lee, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the LDS church, took over a committee formidably titled the All-Church Coordinating Council. Their mandate was to coordinate the curricula of the church’s various programs–youth organizations, Sunday school, and so on–and eliminate overlap. But Lee, a talented administrator and forceful personality, had grander visions than simply curbing waste. Over the next decade, he successfully revamped the church’s organizational chart, consolidating governance in the Quorum of the Twelve and stripping independent authority from the women’s association, the Sunday school, and the youth programs. He also established a system of review for all publications produced in the church, from hymnbooks to Sunday school manuals to periodicals. This material is now surveyed for theological accuracy and adherence to various church goals. If it is given the
official stamp of approval it is deemed “correlated.”
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COMMENTARY: An open letter to Montana’s polygamy expert, the governor
April 25, 2012
Watchdog
Unlike Romney, I can safely say my lineage involves polygamy. My ancestors lived in the same Mexico community as Romney’s family.
It’s something my parents revealed to me this past weekend while I visited them in Idaho. I can’t say I was shocked by the disclosure; I long-suspected that I might find polygamists in my family tree if I ever searched hard enough.
Having multiple wives is not something I practice, nor is it a tradition followed by Mitt Romney. It’s a belief held by our forefathers, and disavowed by the church in 1890 under pressure from the federal government.
In fact, any member today found in a plural relationship of any kind is swiftly excommunicated –completely removed from the church and its records.
http://watchdog.org/14767/commentary-an-open-letter-to-montanas-polygamy-expert-the-governor/
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Document: Marco Rubio’s First Communion
April 25, 2012
Buzz Feed
Senator Marco Rubio’s staff is disputing a section of a new biography that suggests that Rubio, as a boy, was a Mormon until the family returned to Miami.
A Rubio spokesman sends over a document to back up the Senator’s recollection, is that he returned to the Catholic Church while his family still lived in Las Vegas. The document shows Rubio was baptized into the Catholic Church as a baby in 1971, and given first communion at age 13 in December of 1984.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedpolitics/document-marco-rubios-first-communion
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Frank Rich on the National Circus: Why Ann Romney Beats George Clooney
April 25, 2012
New York Magazine
Romney got a taste of efforts to try to rock the anti-Mormon vote when Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer reminded voters that Romney’s father grew up in a polygamist community in Mexico, then reminded women that women don’t like polygamy. Is this just the beginning of a Democratic effort to play the Mormon card?
Probably not. It was a dumb move by Schweitzer and it would be dumb of Democrats to replicate it. That said, Romney’s history as a lay church official — and his handling of its official policies toward women, blacks, and gays in the LDS church and beyond it — is an entirely legitimate issue in evaluating his presidential bonafides. That record will sooner or later be reported out by the press despite the Romney campaign’s efforts to brand any such attempts as “bigotry.”
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/04/frank-rich-why-ann-romney-beats-george-clooney.html
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