Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

Behind the Lines: Mormonism unveiled

[embedded cartoon that won't embed here: in the first panel, beautiful youthful Mormon couple looking skyward, man proclaims "We see in a Romney Presidency the unfolding of Prophecy to make the WHOLE WORLD MORMON!"; then in the second panel, man turns to reporter standing nearby who heard the man's proclamation and says, "That's off the record."]

By pat bagley and val lambson
First Published Jun 11 2012 08:05 am • Last Updated Jun 11 2012 08:12 am

Welcome to Behind the Lines, a weekly conversation with Salt Lake Tribune cartoonist Pat Bagley and BYU economist Val Lambson. This week’s guest commenter is Joanna Brooks, frequent National Public Radio contributor, senior correspondent at the on-line magazine Religion Dispatches, proprietress of the popular "Ask Mormon Girl" blog [ http://askmormongirl.com/ ] and author of the critically acclaimed "Book of Mormon Girl." http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Mormon-Girl-American/dp/0615593445

Bagley: Hi, Joanna. Thanks for agreeing to chat with me about Mormons and the Romney presidential candidacy. The media can’t get enough of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints these day, some of it good and some bad. As an LDS general authority myself (an authority on generally everything Mormon), I think I can back up the cartoon’s assertion that active Mormons see God’s hand in Romney’s political success.

Joanna: Shhh, Patrick! You’re not supposed to tell people we’re all pulling for Romney! We might look, like, weird or something!

Bagley: What do you mean "we,"Kimosabe? (This is from a joke popular in my day, which went something like this: The Lone Ranger and Tonto find themselves surrounded by hostile natives. The Lone Ranger turns to Tonto and says, "It looks like we’re surrounded," to which, Tonto replies ... [see above]).

Joanna: I know the joke. But seriously, I’m aware that Mormon Republicans are pretty excited about the Romney campaign. What I wonder is if they truly believe a Romney presidency would save the world. We’re a full year into this "Mormon Moment," and my sense is that most people out there have only the foggiest sense of the faith.

Bagley: Back at you: Do Mormons believe a Romney presidency is the fulfillment of prophecy? I think so. Otherwise, why all the suppressed LDS ward house excitement? Being a full year into the "Mormon Moment," has America learned anything worthwhile about the faith? Nope.

Joanna: What I gather out here among the truly chosen — California Mormons — is that the excitement is a little less White Horse Prophecy and a bit more Osmond-style ethnic fandom. That, plus a Fox News-infused dislike for a certain White House Oval Office occupant. People are certainly less worked up for Romney than they were for Proposition 8. In any event, what if you and I seize yet another micro-moment of the mega "Mormon Moment" to let America in on what is worth knowing about Mormonism?

Bagley: The truly-truly chosen — Utah Mormons — are wary of California Mormons: Who knows where they’ve been? However, I’m sure Mormons of all faiths can set aside their differences and put their collective shoulders to the wheel to get their guy elected while singing hymn number 252. ( http://broadcast.lds.org/churchmusic/MP3/eng/Hymns_Words/HW___252__PutYourShoulderToTheWheel_31243_eng_261.mp3 ) ... You know, if you listen to the words there is something vaguely disturbing about that hymn. "The world has need of willing men, who wear the worker’s seal... ." Something, you know ... socialistic. I just can’t wrap my head around Romney proudly wearing "a worker’s seal." Perhaps we can take up the communalistic roots of Mormonism another time.

Joanna: Now, that’s a story I’d love to let the world in on: our secret communalistic past. And other progressive elements of our faith tradition, including its gender-egalitarian concept of God, its emphasis on the ability of individuals to find truth independently through study and prayer, and the beautiful concept of working together to build Zion. Put your shoulder to the wheel with me, Brother Bagley?

Bagley: You betcha, Sister Brooks.

*

one recent comment:

ProudHumanist - 10 hours ago

All the members of my family (excluding me) believe fervently that a Mormon Elder will save the constitution. My great-grandparents were leaders of the church so we're not a family unfamiliar with the church teachings. I think the white horse prophecy is believed by more Mormons than people imagine.

*

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/54270204-82/bagley-mormon-romney-mormons.html.csp [with comments]


===


Mitt ally: Mormons have extra dose of patriotism


An ally of Mitt Romney says that Mormons have an extra dose of patriotism.
(Photo by Richard Ellis/Getty Images)

Paul Bedard
June 12, 2012 -- 3:55 PM

Those who know Republican Mitt Romney say he will hit the ground running if elected, and his Mormonism will give him an “extra dose” of patriotism to help.

“I think he’s going to be a very aggressive president,” said Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee [ http://www.lee.senate.gov/public/ ]. And for good reason, he added during a meeting with Washington Examiner reporters and editors. “He recognizes that we live in difficult times. The circumstances are pretty dire and that swift action is needed,” said Lee, who predicted more White House-Congress interaction.

When quizzed if Romney’s religion or ties to conservative Utah will make him a different kind of president, Lee, also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said that Mormons like Romney have an optimistic view of the United States.

“Mormons sort of have an extra chromosome when it comes to American exceptionalism,” he said. “Mormons do have an added dose of a belief in American exceptionalism,” he said.

“We believe that this is a choice land that it’s a great place to be. We believe that the founding of America was something that was brought about with a degree of divine intervention and certainly inspiration,” said Lee, who added that all presidents arrive in the Oval Office with a heightened belief in the nation.

Copyright 2012 Washington Examiner

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/washington-secrets/2012/06/mitt-ally-mormons-have-extra-dose-patriotism/722021 [with comments] [as also reported at http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/232337-sen-mike-lee-mormons-have-added-dose-of-a-belief-in-america (with comments)]


===


Are Mormons primed for persecution in this election season?

Faith » Scholars say LDS embrace their history of suffering as a sign of being a chosen people.

By Peggy Fletcher Stack | The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Jun 09 2012 09:06 pm • Last Updated Jun 11 2012 12:17 pm

If Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee, LDS apostle David A. Bednar purportedly said in February, his church would face persecution "more intense than any yet experienced in our lifetime."

An account of Bednar’s remarks that surfaced from an unknown person in an audience of Mormon students at Dixie State College in southern Utah [next item below] rapidly spread across the Mormon blogosphere and email lists.

By April, the summary had been distributed so widely that LDS Church education officials felt compelled to issue a disavowal, saying it was "distorted and inaccurate and should not be used, repeated, or passed on to others."

No matter what the apostle actually said, the question remains: Why did the supposed prediction of escalating hostility ignite such an intense reaction?

Observers say it’s probably because today’s Mormons still carry an inherited persecution complex, a condition exacerbated by some reporting on Romney and his faith now that the LDS candidate is sure to be the GOP nominee. After all, Mormons do retain a keen awareness of attacks from the faith’s past.

The assassination of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, a Missouri governor’s "extermination order" against members, the U.S. government sending an army to unseat their prophet as territorial governor — "these things left a deep imprint on the Mormon mind," says LDS historian Matthew Bowman, author of The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith. "Mormons are exceptionally skilled at theologizing suffering, making the endurance of pain and adversity a source of spiritual growth."

In that sense, says Bowman, who teaches American religious history at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, "Mormons are proud of persecution."

Max Mueller, a Boston-based scholar who spent the last year studying Mormonism and race, agrees.

"Persecution has long been understood in Mormon history as a sign of chosenness," Mueller says in an email. "So Mormons both loathe persecution as a sign that they are not fully integrated into the American sacred community, and also love it, because it’s a sign of their peculiarity."

But if you look at media coverage, Bowman says, today’s articles and interviews are tepid compared to what was written about the Utah-based faith in the 19th Century.

"The newspapers of America in the 1880s were filled with leering exposes of Mormonism, persecution narratives from ex-Mormons, and the like," Bowman says. "This cycle I think Mormons have been made fun of and mocked. It’s nasty, certainly, but this is hardly the persecution of the sort that threatened Mormon life or livelihood."

Mueller has seen some examples of "sensationalism, pure and simple" in some reports of Romney’s Mormonism, but attributes it more to ignorance than hostility.

Latter-day Saints should not overreact to negative publicity, says Kristine Haglund, editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.

"Mormons don’t have a terribly sophisticated rubric for dealing with negative commentary, either from within or without the church," Haglund writes in an email from Boston. "So, for instance, we don’t necessarily have a way of evaluating the nuance between [Pastor Robert] Jeffress’ clearly political deployment of the word "cult" and the legitimate assertion that Mormonism is not Christian in the traditional, creedal sense."

In the same vein, many Mormons can’t "distinguish the relatively good-natured teasing of ‘The Book of Mormon’ [the musical]," she says, "from the malicious mockery of [New York Times Columnist] Maureen Dowd or [literary critic] Harold Bloom."

To some, she says, "if it doesn’t look like overt missionary work/testimony-bearing, we assume it must be ‘anti-Mormon.’ "

This attitude, Haglund says, is "largely a problem of a young religion — we’re not far enough from the period of facing real and existential threats for the fight-or-flight instinct to have been recalibrated."

Angela Clayton, a Mormon blogger in Singapore, hopes that church members will use this so-called "Mormon moment" to view themselves in the world’s mirror.

"The last thing we need is a bunker mentality that pits us against the world," Clayton writes in a blog post about Bednar’s supposed prophecy about persecution at wheatandtares.org [ http://www.wheatandtares.org/2012/04/20/what-me-worry/ ; http://www.wheatandtares.org/ ].

On the whole, she wrote, coverage of Mormonism has been even-handed.

"For every detractor, there have been supporters. For everyone treating what Mormons hold sacred lightly, there are those calling for tolerance and respect," Clayton writes. "And for everyone on the outside trying to make Mormons look bad, there are several on the inside doing a fine job of just that. Some of the best defenses of the church have been written by former and lapsed Mormons who are able to interpret LDS culture for a non-LDS audience in a way that promotes respect and understanding."

Such support should help Mormons alleviate the type of anxiety that Bednar’s purported persecution statements generated.

Turning a well-known saying on its head, Clayton concludes, "He that is not against us is for us."

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/54270180-78/bednar-church-clayton-faith.html.csp [with comments]


===


Elder David A. Bednar 2.5.2012 Dixie Institute–To Act or be Acted Upon-



Date: 6 Feb 12
Written by: Jen

On Sunday, Feb 5, 2012, Elder David A Bednar of the 12 apostles spoke at the Dixie State College Institute of Religion.

Jared and I ventured over to the Institute and were there 20 or 25 minutes before the fireside was to begin. All the seats in the chapel and overflow were full. Institute students were sitting on every available chair in the foyer and were quickly filling up every classroom to listen to the apostle of the Lord.

I am currently enrolled in an Institute class and almost felt guilty going to an institue fireside because I am nearly 40. However, it was a wonderful opportunity to see the faith of the students and to see how willing they were to come and hear an apostle speak on Super Bowl sunday. The Building was packed, the parking lots were exploding with cars.

Jared and I found a seat in a study room/library with exceptionally comfortable chairs and less than 10 minutes later Elder Bednar, his wife, and Elder and Sister Snow walked by. A silent hush fell over the chapel and overflow, the whole building, as the students stood and gave their respect to the Apostle of the Lord. It was awe inspiring!

Sister Bednar was the first to speak. She not only bore her testimony, she shared a little bit about Elder David A. Bednar and their courtship. She explained that Elder Bednar grew up in Northern California during a wicked times of drugs, sex, and Rock-n-Roll. His father was not a member of the church, but his mother was active. He served a mission and then went to BYU where they met.

She said she was impressed with the way he passed the sacrament. She said she could tell that the sacrament was important to him and that holding the priesthood was a “big deal”. Elder Bednar had played football. She met him at an FHE football activity. He was playing quarterback and she was a “receiver” on his team. In her own words she said, “He threw a pass and I caught it.”

He said it was the only football she ever caught. They dated, fell in love, got married and had 3 children and 11 grandchildren. She bore a fervent testimony that even though she knows Elder Bednar’s weaknesses, she knows that he has been called to serve as a special witness of Christ!

I’ve recently been studying Elder Bednar’s new book, “Increase in Learning” (2011). I love the book and was anxious to see if he would demonstrate some of the principles so beautifully illustrated in his book. I was not disappointed. After he stood up, he asked the students to raise their hands if they would be willing to participate, he then went on to explain that he would be doing things differently. He was NOT going to share a traditional fireside message, but allow the students to ask him questions.

Before allowing questions, he explained why and provided some guidelines. He explained the simple principle- We are agents to Act and not merely objects to be acted upon. He testified that we are not objects, though sometimes learners are in a position where they are treated like objects and not like agents.

Elder Bednar invited the students and those in the audience to be agents and to act. He explained that those actions are demonstrations of Faith. Faith is a principle of action and power. He said when we choose to act we invite the Holy Ghost to teach us and will be united by our Faith.

He invited us to not take traditional notes that will be lost and forgotten but to be an active participant in the discussion. In fact, he invited us to STOP taking notes! He encouraged us to not write what the person was saying, but to write down spiritual impressions!

Next, he gave us guidelines for asking questions. He kindly asked us not to stand up and try to impress others with questions or try to stump the apostle. He said, “You win”. He invited the students to ask questions that he could answer being an apostle of the Lord. He had microphones throughout the room and asked that the microphone only be given to those he chose from the audience. At the end of the night, he thanked and commended the students for their thoughtful questiones.

The students asked, “How have you become what you are today?” “I am going on a mission in a few months. What recommendations would you give me to help me prepare for the mission?” “What is the process by which missionaries called by to serve in specific missions? “No one is perfect. While dating, how can we know if a person’s weakness is “too much”. How can we know if we should continue dating or break up?” “You are an apostle of the Lord and have had experiences where you have come to know him. Will you share with us something about Him and help us to learn how we can come to know him better?” “How can I help my brother, who has fallen away from the church, come back to the church?” “I am a new convert. Sometimes I find it easier to talk to less active or non members. How can I build unity with the members?” “How can I help others gain a testimony of the Temple?” “How can I never fall away?”

Elder Bednar spent an hour and a half answering and responding to these wonderful young adults. In fact, after he answered it he would ask them, if they felt he responded to their question. He also allowed Elder & Sister Snow, and his wife to share their responses to the questions.

Here are some of the principles I learned from his responses and from the Spirit.

1) Who we are and who we become in this life and in eternity is influenced greatly by who we choose to marry!

2) Members of the Church are always Missionaries. We need to become a missionary before the missionary, be a missionary when we are on a mission, and remain a missionary when we are released. You are never released from being a missionary, only released from full-time service in the mission field. Missionary service is bootcamp for the rest of your life. (E. Bednar invited us to ponder the phrase becoming a missionary).

3) Sometimes young adults have shopping lists of what they want in a mate, and they want a guarantee that it will be happily ever after if they choose to marry someone. Become what you hope to find. In marriage, you work together to create the type of marriage you hope to fave. You create it you don’t find it. We have the power to create Celestial Marriages here on earth!

4) Through the scriptures we can come to know the Character of Christ. He invited us to study the scriptures and the attributes of the Savior. He specifically shared JST of Matt 4. He testified that the Savior sent an angel to minister unto John the Baptist. Christ had just been fasting and praying, and was tempted of the Devil, but he sent an angel to minister to another who was suffering less. He taught us that Christ puts off the natural man and turns out towards others.

Man by nature is selfish. However, we can become more like him as we serve in him, by blessing and serving others. He said you can come to know him by qualifying to be his hands. Simply stated, we can come to know him by serving him and serving those whom he loves.

5) When we want to help others who have fallen away from the church, he invited us to pray for the gift of discernment. He said, this gift is the gift to see the good in others, the good that others haven’t seen. He said, Do not talk at them and do not challenge. He said when the timing is right ask questions like, “Can you help me understand what the deal is?” And then the Holy Ghost will help you with additional questions to come to an understanding and possibly to invite him/her to come back!

He invited us to study the terms “Awaken unto God” in the scriptures.

6) Missionaries are called to be a full-time Missionary, but they are assigned to serve and labor in a certain mission. Assignments can change. He said there are 341 missions and only the 12 call missionaries and make assignments. He testified there are few things that have affirmed more the reality of revelation then assigning missions (he repeated that statement several times!)

7) E. Bednar invited us to study the Temple and why it is so important in the Doctrine & Covenants. He said do not simply put a key word search in Lds.org or we would miss the context/content.

He prophesied that if Mitt Romney is elected the Presidential Candidate, the things of God will be made to look foolish in the media, specifically the temple He said, those that are not strong in the faith, may be shaken by the opposition that will arise in the near future. He said, the heat is being turned on and we need to be prepared.

9) He taught temptation is often Invited!

10) He testified we need to be patient with one another while we are serving in the “Laboratory of Perfecting Saints.” We are not a museum of perfected saints, we are practicing on each other and sometimes we get rubbed the wrong way. Be PATIENT! and don’t be offended!

11) He said the scriptures say that we should reprove at times with sharpness, an interpretation of that is to correct or counsel- quickly and with clarity. Sharpness doesn’t necessarily mean with anger, it just means to take care of it clearly and quickly and this should often be done one on one!

12) A testimony is not enough, knowledge is not enough, we must be converted. Conversion is being true to what we know. We must be converted to the Lord and nothing else, so that we will lay down all our weapons of war!

He invited us to ponder what are possible weapons of war that we are holding on to that we need to get rid of?

We will never fall away if we are converted to the Lord!

13) General Conference is not a time to be silly, it is a serious matter to reveal the mind and will of God!

After responding to the questions, he specifically asked, “What have you learned from this pattern?”

Some of the responses were we can receive answers to our questions with out the help of an apostle. Apostles speak straight. We can use this pattern in other settings, not sacrament or general conference. I felt the spirit testify to me of the power of the Holy Ghost in this pattern of asking and receiving answers to questions.

In closing Elder Bednar shared a story of President Hinckley teaching him that this is the greatest season in the History of the restored church. He said, I won’t get to see it, but you will. E. Bednar testified this is the Greatest Season of the History of the Church and the heat is being tured on. He said the greatest wickedness will oppose truth and righteousness.

He said, “Save your fork, the best is yet to come. Go forward with faith, exercise faith, walk into the darkness!”

He blessed the students in their youth that they would come to find the happiness of the Father’s Plan of Happiness, find the eternal joy and happiness doing the simple things. He blessed them that as they find happiness now, that happiness will continue to grow, develop and expand.

As he left the building, he walked by less than 5 feet from where I was standing at the entrance of the study room. The spirit testified to me once again, he is an apostle of the Lord!

While listening and observing, the spirit taught me some very powerful principles that will bless my life if I apply them into my life!

Thank you Elder Bednar for visiting the Dixie State College Institute and allowing the students to ask an Apostle of the Lord questions from their hearts!

Copyright 2012 Jen

http://jen.co/2012/02/06/elder-david-a-bednar-2-5-2012-dixie-institute-to-act-or-be-acted-upon/ [with comments]


===


For Mitt Romney and other Mormons, missions are like a ‘refiner’s fire’

By Daniel Burke | Religion News Service, Published: Tuesday, June 12, 2012

At age 19, Mitt Romney was a typical college student, schmoozing about politics, pulling pranks and sneaking away to see his girlfriend. Then he went on a 30-month Mormon mission in France.

He returned to the U.S. in 1968 ready to start a family, steeped in his faith and eager for more responsibility in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“On a mission, your faith in Jesus Christ either evaporates or it becomes much deeper,” Romney later said. “For me it became much deeper.”

Romney’s political rise — he is the first Mormon presidential nominee from a major political party — excels that of other Latter-day Saints. But the hard knocks and homesickness, the mishaps and spiritual maturation that characterized his mission are shared by many in his church.

Today, some 57,000 Mormon missionaries march across the globe, proselytizing in public squares, knocking on doors and handing out religious tracts, often for nine or 10 hours a day, in fair weather and foul.

More than a million Mormons have served missions since Joseph Smith founded the church in 1830, LDS leaders say, volunteering for a duty once described as “a mix between monastic life, a fraternity pledge and pest-control salesmanship.”

Most Mormon missionaries endure a grueling regimen of prayer, study and proselytizing. They put careers and college on hold and move to mission fields where rejection is the norm. Some have been beaten, mocked, caught in gang crossfire, even killed. Romney himself was in a serious car accident and roughed up by a team of soused rugby players.

And yet, many Mormons say their faith flourished during the mission.

“In a lot of ways serving a mission is like going through a refiner’s fire,” said Rob Skidmore, who recalls bicycling in 100-degree heat and dodging paintballs fired from passing cars during his mission in Las Vegas from 2004-2006. “It’s an arduous process, but in the end all of the impurities have been burned out.”

Many returned missionaries admit that their time was not very valuable for gaining converts, according to a survey of American Mormons released this year by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. And separate studies suggest that many of those converts later leave the church.

Still, 90 percent of returned missionaries say their service strengthened their own faith, according to the Pew study. Eighty percent say it helped prepare them for career success.

“In a lot of ways, the missionaries’ first converts are themselves,” Stephen B. Allen, managing director of the LDS church’s Missionary Department. “And that’s life changing.”

Pew’s study does not include ex-Mormons who quit the church during or after their mission. But fewer American Mormons stray from the fold than do evangelicals, Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants and Jews. That exodus often begins during the college-age years — precisely when most Mormons start their missions.

Encouraging young Mormons to chase converts instead of fancy cars or college romances undoubtedly boosts the LDS church’s retention rate, scholars say.

“There is a sense that missions serve a twofold purpose: to bring in converts, but also to make young people more devoted to the faith,” said Matthew Bowman, author of “The Mormon People,” a history of the church.

Mormons consider missionary work a priesthood duty, and all able-bodied and morally worthy men are encouraged to serve a two-year stint when they turn 19. Mormon women are eligible to serve for 18 months at age 21, but they cannot baptize converts, and just 11 percent become missionaries, according to the Pew study.

“It’s not felt to be a responsibility of the young sisters to serve,” said Allen.

If their application is accepted, the Mormons report to one of 16 Missionary Training Centers stationed across the world, without any input about where they will serve. They contribute about $400 per month for living expenses, with many taking summer jobs and saving funds for years.

Described as “The Lord’s Boot Camp,” the MTC prepares Mormons for missionary life, enforcing a strict regimen that begins at 6 a.m. and leaves little time for anything but prayer, scripture study and language and cultural lessons.

The rules and regimen only intensify in the mission field.

A little white handbook instructs the missionaries never to leave their companion’s side (except in the bathroom), not to call home except for Christmas and Mother’s Day, and to refrain from secular music, books and other media. Dating — much less embracing — any member of the opposite sex in or near the mission field is grounds for dismissal.

Instead the missionaries don their formal proselytizing clothes — the black name tag, dark suits and crisp white shirts — and spend six days a week reading Mormon scriptures, praying or pounding the pavement for converts. Some also lead congregations and organize fellow missionaries.

“It’s not like going on study abroad program during college,” said David Campbell, a political scientist at the University of Notre Dame who served a mission in Illinois during the 1990s. “It’s more like the military.”

It can also be dangerous. Brian Carter, an attorney in Harrisburg, Pa., who served his mission in Ecuador from 1996-1998, said he was mugged and twice caught in gang crossfire.

“Coming from suburban California, I had never seen any of that,” he said.

But Carter and other Mormons say the skills and discipline they acquired in the mission field continue to enrich their faith and their careers.

Ann Norman has used the French she picked up at a Paris mission from 1996-1997 in jobs with the United Nations and consulting for several African nations.

Norman said public relations and fundraising she now oversees at Norman Communications — an international firm with offices in Washington, New York, San Francisco and Sierra Leone — are a cinch compared to converting the French.

“You are essentially selling the church as a missionary,” Norman said. “And in France that’s damn hard.”

Norman said her 12 convert baptisms are a record for her mission field, a feat that she intends to mention the next time she sees her friend and fellow Paris missionary, Mitt Romney.

© 2012 Religion News Service

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/for-mitt-romney-and-other-mormons-missions-are-like-a-refiners-fire/2012/06/12/gJQANpsFYV_story.html [with comments]


===


Romney bid an opportunity, challenge for Mormon church

By Thomas Burr | The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Jun 09 2012 09:05 pm • Last Updated Jun 11 2012 11:45 am

Washington

When the world came to Salt Lake City in 2002 for the Winter Olympics, the LDS Church courted American and international journalists with snazzy videos, calendars and press packets, pitching stories on how the faith sprouted from humble roots to become one of the fastest-growing religions.

Ten years later, as the spotlight on Mitt Romney’s candidacy reflects onto the Utah-based religion, the church says it plans to be more restrained — using the opportunity to clear up misunderstandings but not to convert people to the Mormon fold or weigh into the politics.

"Our primary interest is simply to educate people about the church and to help them understand who we are," says Michael Purdy, the faith’s media relations director.

Two of the biggest media moments for the LDS faith this century have involved Romney, a Mormon who led the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City and who is now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

While many have focused on Romney and how he’ll handle concerns about his faith, the flip-side of the issue is just as complex: How will the LDS Church deal with questions about Romney?

Too aggressive and it’ll seem like the church is promoting Romney and taking advantage of a political race.

Too hands-off and the church misses a chance to introduce itself, or ends up looking closed-off and secretive.

Finding the right balance could prove challenging for the faith of 6 million Americans that still faces a slew of ignorant stereotypes — and some historical actions that are prime for front-page stories. Church officials say they’re prepared and ready for the onslaught, but the intensity level this time around will be much, much higher.

"There’s no scrutiny that compares to the presidential race scrutiny," says author and LDS observer Joanna Brooks.

‘Clarify and educate’

On the second floor of the grandiose Joseph Smith Memorial Building lies the nerve center of the Mormon public affairs operation. The dark wood and framed pictures are reminiscent of the interior of an LDS wardhouse.

Here, the mouthpieces of the church don gray slacks and white shirts that match their gray-and-white cubicles. There are 35 people in this press shop, plus others in Los Angeles, Washington, New York City as well as a network abroad in major cities like London, Frankfurt and Moscow.

Their charge is to monitor mentions in the news, respond to inquiries and promote the faith. Questions about Romney are met with suggestions to ask his campaign; questions about the faith in relation to Romney are answered, essentially, by walking a "very distinct line" that avoids talk about political issues and focuses on the church itself.

The faith’s newsroom website now includes a series, "Getting it Right," looking at recent news media coverage, commenting on the stories and adding links to doctrine referenced by reporters.

Purdy, the church’s media-relations guru, says the faith’s political neutrality is "well established and well understood," and that’s not going to change.

"People have seen our policies in action and there does not seem to be any confusion on the issue," Purdy said, noting that the church doesn’t endorse or allow its buildings to be used for political purposes.

The church went out of its way last year to remind its leaders to stay away from donating to candidates — though W. Craig Zwick, a member of the faith’s First Quorum of the Seventy — used his church email address to solicit money for Romney around the same time as that reminder came out.

Purdy says there has been an increasing amount of interest in the faith during the past several years.

"We have had hundreds of conversations with journalists, some initiated by them, and some initiated by us," Purdy says.

The Olympics generated interest in the church but Purdy doesn’t see it as comparable to now. "The current situation is similar to some degree, but there is a higher level of interest, especially from overseas," he says. "The difference, I suppose, is that some of the recent interest is politically motivated and that creates challenges for us. We are happy to address questions about the church but do not want to weigh into the politics. Some do not want to separate the two."

And sometimes, Purdy notes, "We can’t even recognize our church in the news reports that attempt to describe our beliefs and practices."

Enter the Deseret News.

Though not a part of the church’s official response, the LDS-owned newspaper has taken upon itself the role of monitoring and critiquing coverage by other outlets.

Recently, a Deseret News reporter slammed a New York Post columnist for word choices in how she described the faith and how members worship.

"Even if she had just gone to the church’s newsroom website, specifically prepared as a media resource, she might have avoided some glaring misrepresentations of LDS Church doctrine, policy, practice and procedure," wrote Joseph Walker, the paper’s faith and religion reporter.

Romney addressed his faith during a major speech in his 2008 bid, declaring that he doesn’t speak for his church and his church doesn’t speak for him, and he’s been reticent to talk about his beliefs specifically while on the campaign trail.

In the void between what the church can say and what it avoids — and what Romney steers clear of — there’s also a mix of Mormon scholars whose phones are ringing daily.

Brooks, the LDS author who is often called to expand upon on the church’s doctrine or actions, says Mormon culture and the church have been hard on Mormon studies scholars in the past, and some local leaders have been pointed in telling congregations not to quote from non-official LDS publications.

"There is a young but still-developing independent sector of voices" about the LDS faith, Brooks says. "People are extremely deferential inside the church to official sources."

And, officially, the church doesn’t have a problem with its faithful commenting on the religion.

"We encourage our members to join the public conversation," says Purdy, the church’s top spokesman. "The best way to get to know the faith is through the lives of our members. ... We all recognize that members of the church have different views on many things, including politics. Most people understand the difference between personal opinions of members and official positions of the church."

In the spotlight

Mormons have come under the microscope of American curiosity before.

Donny and Marie Osmond brought interest. Romney’s father, George Romney, ran for president; Sen. Orrin Hatch tried that, too.

Harry Reid became the highest-ranking Mormon in government when he ascended to Senate majority leader. And then there was HBO’s "Big Love" and the "Book of Mormon" Broadway musical.

"I don’t think this is new to [the church], as much as we want to make a big deal about it," says Lane Beattie, the president of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce who served as chief Olympics officer for Utah during the 2002 Games.

During that time of intrigue about the Mormon faith, journalists routinely called Beattie to ask about whether visitors could get a drink in Utah, where to find the polygamists and odd questions about the LDS faithful.

"They wanted to know ‘where were our hats, where were our beards?’" Beattie recalls. "Many people thought we were the Amish."

Romney’s 2008 presidential run was unsuccessful but it went some way toward clearing up some of those misconceptions, observers say. Still, a good deal of mystery surrounds the faith whose members make up less than 2 percent of the national population, and this year’s White House race could prove key to Mormons’ goal of finally being accepted as mainstream.

As strategy goes, trying to educate Americans about Mormons instead of trying to convert them could be a boost for the LDS faithful, says Sarah Barringer Gordon, a University of Pennsylvania law professor who studies religion.

"It would bother me if someone took a political advantage and tried to turn it into an spiritual advantage," she says. "I think most missionaries would find that inappropriate as well."

Gordon says that the increased attention on the church "is an opportunity, but the answers are going to be complicated."

Some facets aren’t easy to explain, such as the church’s polygamist past or its ban on blacks holding the faith’s priesthood until 1978. And some Mormon members grew up hearing church doctrine different from the officially sanctioned version.

Catholic John F. Kennedy also faced misunderstandings in his 1960 bid for president, eventually winning the White House and breaking the so-called stained glass ceiling. His case, though, was much different.

"The truth is that people understood who Catholics are a lot better then," Gordon says. "It was the single largest denomination [in America]. You cannot say that about Mormons."

David Campbell, an associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame and a Mormon, agrees that any analogy between Kennedy and Catholics and Romney and Mormons breaks down fairly quickly.

"I don’t think the Catholic hierarchy in 1960 had to worry about introducing Catholicism to Americans," Campbell said.

The Mormon faith could benefit from the Romney campaign by engaging in more conversations about the religion, Campbell notes, but it also could be harmful for the church as its most prominent member is a politician and "politics is a nasty business."

"It’s a sticky wicket for the LDS Church," Campbell says. "Thus far, to be fair, I think the church has handled it pretty well."

As Michael Otterson, the head of the church’s public affairs arm, wrote in the Washington Post’s On Faith blog last year, the more exposure, the better.

"Like any major faith, the church will always have its critics, and it’s probable that the larger we get the more of those critics there will be," Otterson wrote. "Ultimately, it is the church’s own people — all of them, not just the more prominent — who will play a crucial role in increasing understanding among the public as a whole."

[e-mail]

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/cougars/54255729-90/church-faith-romney-says.html.csp [with comments]


===


Mormons in the White House
06/11/2012
http://utahpolicy.com/view/full_story/18940072/article-Mormons-in-the-White-House [no comments yet]


===


Romney highlights business acumen, is quiet about his faith



By Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Published: June 7, 2012 | Updated: Friday, June 8, 2012

June 8 (Bloomberg) -- When Mitt Romney was serving as bishop of his church in 1981, one of his two counselors wrote home to his mother with a prediction: This guy could wind up in the White House.

In the then-34-year-old Romney -- who would put in long hours at his consulting job at Bain & Company only to spend early mornings, late nights and weekends visiting ward members in need and administering church business -- Philip Barlow said he saw the marks of an unusually effective leader, and someone who “epitomized Mormon culture.”

“I found his executive ability so extraordinary that I remember writing home to my mother that this guy could be president of the United States,” said Barlow, now a professor of Mormon history and culture at Utah State University in Logan. “He’s got a strong dose of Mormon can-do optimism -- an optimistic confidence and resilience about overcoming challenges. I almost got a sense that he was ready to jump out of his chair and leap to action.”

Romney, now 65 and the presumed Republican presidential nominee, often speaks about the experiences that have shaped his leadership skills and business acumen -- which he cites as his prime qualifications for the White House -- including his work at Bain Capital LLC, the private-equity firm he founded, his turnaround of the scandal-plagued 2002 Olympic Games, and his tenure as governor of Massachusetts.

Faith Questions

Yet Romney hardly ever names his religion or discusses his service in the church in public. He shuns questions about the beliefs and practices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints, saying he does not want to be its spokesman. When he visits Salt Lake City today for a fundraiser, he’ll hold no public events, save for an airport photo-op, in the spiritual and organizational home of Mormonism.

That silence is testament to the political risk his campaign sees lurking as Romney seeks to make history by becoming the first Mormon president.

It’s striking to those who have worked with Romney in church and business because they say his faith offers valuable insight into his leadership style, his success in the corporate world, and what drives him to seek the presidency.

It also undercuts the portrait President Barack Obama and his campaign are painting of Romney as an uncaring corporate raider bent on profiting in business at the expense of workers.

Solving Problems

“He was in leadership capacities in the church roughly for a period of 14 years, and during that time he would spend from 10 to 15 hours a week doing nothing other than confidentially meeting with, and trying to help do what he personally could, or calling on the resources of other people in the area to help with the everyday problems of life -- whether it was unemployment, whether it was a wayward child, whether it was an illegal immigrant, whether it was a marriage falling apart,” said Grant Bennett, another one of Romney’s counselors and Bain co-workers, who succeeded him as bishop in Belmont, Massachusetts.

It was just one of the ways in which Romney’s world view and business approach have been defined by the teachings of his church, say friends, former associates and experts on the Mormon faith.

The Mormon church, which has no professional clergy, puts a premium on individual leadership. Boys as young as 12 or 13 give sermons and men at 19 or 20 years old undertake two-year conversion missions -- Romney’s was in France -- during which they face adversity, experience rejection, and learn to persevere.

Early Lessons

“Young men and young women have a number of opportunities to serve in leadership roles where they learn to speak in front of people, they learn to think about agendas, they learn to think about accomplishing things, and about success,” said Gary Cornia, the dean of the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

There is also a premium placed on being industrious and tenacious, Barlow said. Those are traits referred to in the Book of Mormon as “deseret,” which means honeybee -- a symbol among church organizations and on Utah’s state seal. Barlow saw that in the way Romney once rushed to shed his business suit and don blue jeans to help a ward member with a leaky roof.

Geoffrey Rehnert, who worked with Romney at Bain Capital, noticed similar tendencies in the workplace. Romney “just went a million miles an hour -- he just had this energy level and vitality that just didn’t slow down,” Rehnert said. “At first, I’d say to myself, ‘Well gee, this guy’s really wired today,’ and then after a while, I realized this is how he is all the time.”

Business Model

Romney’s way of constructing his business also had parallels with the Mormon church, whose volunteer ministry prizes consensus building, teamwork and a bottom-up leadership style.

“He created an organization without him micromanaging the other people who were in the organization like me, who were junior to him, where it was kind of a mix of Mitt being the CEO and a partnership arrangement,” Rehnert said. “He was never a command-and-control guy.”

Romney’s campaign declined to make him available for an interview and referred questions to the church.

Eric Hawkins, a church spokesman, said while scripture is full of leadership lessons, one teaching unique to Mormonism states: “that men and women ‘should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness.’”

Successful Mormons

The aspects of Mormonism that have shaped Romney and a prominent list of politicians and business leaders of the same faith have been well-documented. In his 2007 book “The Mormon Way of Doing Business,” journalist Jeff Benedict profiled successful Mormon executives and leaders, including David Neeleman, the co-founder of JetBlue Airways Corp.; Kevin Rollins, former chief executive of Dell Inc.; Deloitte & Touche LLP Senior Partner Jim Quigley; former Madison Square Garden Chief Executive Officer Dave Checketts; and former Citigroup Inc. Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden.

A section of the book also is devoted to Romney, whose estimated wealth is as much as $250 million, according to his campaign.

“Mormon scriptures suggest that God created a plan for mankind that would ultimately make them all successful: You will succeed in business, you will succeed in church work, not without adversity, not without hardship, but you will succeed -- and Mitt has that in spades,” said Rollins, who worked with Romney at Bain. “He believes there’s a destiny here that he can fulfill.”

Evangelical Opposition

The former Massachusett’s governor’s faith remains a political challenge in part because some evangelicals, who are a force in the Republican Party, believe that Mormonism is a cult or otherwise at odds with Christianity.

The Reverend Robert Jeffress, a Baptist minister from Dallas who supported Rick Perry during the Republican primary, said while introducing the Texas governor in October that Romney was “not a Christian.”

A study released May 21 concluded that Romney is encountering a political “stained glass ceiling,” based on the public’s inability to accept his Mormon faith, and said his religion was “a formidable obstacle” to his campaign.

“His Mormon faith, in particular, makes many people uneasy,” said John Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron in Ohio who co-authored the study. “And that unease has political consequences.”

2007 Speech

After much debate among his advisers during his first presidential campaign, Romney made a speech in December 2007 designed to confront such concerns in which he pledged that as president he would answer to “no one religion.”

“I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it,” Romney declared then, yet he said it would be inappropriate for him or any candidate to become “a spokesman for his faith.”

He’s unlikely to reprise the speech during this run, his advisers say, preferring to keep his focus on the economy and jobs and discontent with Obama. In a May 12 commencement speech at Liberty University, an evangelical Christian school in Lynchburg, Virginia, Romney touched on themes of faith and family yet never uttered the word “Mormon.”

©2012 BLOOMBERG L.P

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/romney-highlights-business-acumen-is-quiet-about-his-faith/2012/06/08/gJQAEFaYNV_story.html [with comments]


===


Analysis: The unexpected evangelical silence on Mitt Romney’s Mormonism



By Jonathan Merritt| Religion News Service, Published: June 11, 2012 | Updated: Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Now that Mitt Romney has sewn up the Republican nomination, the GOP can move beyond a tumultuous primary season. But for some of Romney’s fellow Mormons, there’s still some anxiety in the air.

“For Mormons, this is a potentially volatile moment. They are deeply proud that their faith’s most prominent adherent, Mitt Romney, is steps away from a presidential nomination and could push the faith further into the mainstream,” Matt Viser wrote in The Boston Globe.

“With these feelings, though, comes a nagging fear that their beliefs, often misunderstood, will again be subjected to scrutiny, even ridicule, on a national scale.”

If the past is any indicator, their fears may be founded. In 1998, the Southern Baptist Convention held its annual meeting in Salt Lake City, the symbolic and organizational heartland of Mormonism. Some 3,000 Southern Baptist volunteers went door to door with the intent to evangelize Mormons; and the denomination even produced a book called “Mormonism Unmasked,” which promised to “lift the veil from one of the greatest deceptions in the history of religion.”

When Romney delivered his “Faith in America” speech in 2007, the Southern Baptist response was to label Mormonism a “theological cult” and “false religion.”

What’s surprising in 2012 is the relative lack of anxiety on the other side, among evangelicals who for years considered Mormonism a “cult” that was to be feared, not embraced.

In fact, the relative ambivalence among prominent evangelicals about this new “Mormon moment” — and the fact that Romney’s campaign could mainstream Mormonism right into the Oval Office — could radically shift the dynamics on America’s political and religious landscape.

“You can already see the change in thinking among many evangelicals who see Mitt Romney more as the Republican candidate for president and less as a Mormon,” said Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, who declined, when asked, to label Mormonism a “cult.”

Joanna Brooks, a prominent Mormon writer at Religion Dispatches, agreed with Anderson, noting the already visible difference between the level of evangelical anxiety created by the Romney campaign in 2008 and 2012.

“Since his inevitability as a candidate this spring, you’ve seen evangelical leaders who took pleasure in calling Mormonism a cult come to his side,” Brooks said. “Things are changing.”

Brooks doesn’t believe that a Romney candidacy will eliminate the serious theological distinctions between evangelicals and Mormons, but she does expect we’ll see fewer Christians willing to label Mormonism as a “cult” as the mainstream media and many Americans now interpret the use of the phrase as an expression of bigotry.

Last October, Christian columnist Rod Dreher wrote in The American Conservative that it’s “offensive” to him when Christians speak of Mormonism as a cult. His words echo the sentiments of Richard Mouw, prominent evangelical scholar and president of Fuller Theological Seminary, who penned “My Take: This evangelical says Mormonism isn’t a cult” on CNN’s Belief blog.

“While I am not prepared to reclassify Mormonism as possessing undeniably Christian theology,” Mouw wrote, “I do accept many of my Mormon friends as genuine followers of the Jesus whom I worship as the divine Savior.”

Even Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. seems to have softened his family’s hard-line stance as Liberty welcomed Romney as its commencement speaker in May. “Liberty has no official position on Mormonism,” Falwell told CNN’s Kyra Phillips. “Our statement does not define Mormonism as a cult. ... That’s not part of our doctrinal position and not our official position.”

Robert Jones, president of the Washington-based Public Religion Research Institute, sees parallels to the warming thaw between evangelicals and Catholics in the 1980s and 1990s — a pragmatic political alliance that grew out of shared opposition to abortion.

“It was really political affinities that began to break down that wall between Catholics and evangelicals,” Jones said.

More recently, evangelicals have been more than willing to work with Mormons in the fight against gay marriage. The growing Mormon-evangelical political alliance could have real religious (and political) implications: Recent PRRI polls of white evangelicals show that as the group’s awareness of Romney’s Mormon faith increases, his favorability among the group also rises.

In short, what was once a liability might now be seen as a political asset — especially in the GOP’s crucial base of conservative Christian culture warriors.

Still, not all evangelicals seem to be softening their stance. Southern Baptist researcher Ed Stetzer defines Mormonism as a “theological cult,” not the classic “sociological cult.” His research shows that a full 75 percent of Protestant pastors believe that Mormonism is either a cult or simply a different religion.

Stetzer says he’d be concerned if the significant theological distinctions between Mormons and mainstream Christianity are blurred or overlooked in the name of political expediency.

“I think it is more helpful to call Mormons another religion, distinct from biblical or historic Christianity, as just about everyone from Catholics to Methodists to Baptists have clearly stated,” Stetzer notes. “It’s a different religion that uses the same words to describe very different things.”

In the 2012 presidential race, “very different” doesn’t seem to matter very much at all. And that — regardless of whether Romney wins in November — may be the most important legacy of America’s Mormon moment.

(Jonathan Merritt is author of “A Faith of Our Own: Following Jesus Beyond the Culture Wars [ http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Our-Own-Following-Culture/dp/0446557234 ].”)

Copyright 2012 Religion News Service

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/analysis-the-unexpected-evangelical-silence-on-mitt-romneys-mormonism/2012/06/11/gJQA5HcQVV_story.html [with comments]


===


It’s Mormon In America


Mario Tama / Getty Images

Romney’s religion just might be his greatest asset.

David Frum
Jun 11, 2012 9:58 AM EDT

Voters are likely to know two things about Mitt Romney: that he’s rich and that he’s a Mormon. At the same time, more than one fifth of Americans tell pollsters they won’t vote for a Mormon for president. Yet if Americans understood Mormonism a little better, they might begin to think of Romney’s faith as a feature, not a bug, in the Romney candidacy. If anything, Romney’s religion may be the best offset to the isolation from ordinary people imposed by his wealth.

It was Romney’s faith that sent him knocking on doors as a missionary—even as his governor father campaigned for the presidency of the United States. It was Romney’s position as a Mormon lay leader that had him sitting at kitchen tables doing family budgets during weekends away from Bain Capital. It was Romney’s faith that led him and his sons to do chores together at home while his colleagues in the firm were buying themselves ostentatious toys.

Maybe the most isolating thing about being rich in today’s America is the feeling of entitlement. Not since the 19th century have the wealthiest expressed so much certainty that they deserve what they have, even as their fellow citizens have less and less.

To be a Mormon, on the other hand, is to feel perpetually uncertain of your place in America. It’s been a long time since the U.S. government waged war on the Mormons of the Utah Territory. Still, even today, Mormons are America’s most mockable minority. It’s hard to imagine a Broadway musical satirizing Jews, blacks, or gays. There is no Napoleon Dynamite about American Muslims.

This uncertainty about Mormonism’s status in America no doubt contributes to the ferocious work ethic typical of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mormons are taught to be “anxiously engaged in a good cause,” in the words of Mormon scripture. Stephen Mansfield, the (non-Mormon) author of The Mormonizing of America [ http://www.amazon.com/The-Mormonizing-America-Dominant-Entertainment/dp/1609815084 , http://worthypublishing.com/books/The-Mormonizing-of-America/ ], explains: “Mormons believe they are in life to pass tests set for them.” The passage of repeated tests leads to self-improvement, ultimately to the point of perfection. In the words of early Mormon leader Lorenzo Snow: “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may become.” From the point of view of Christian orthodoxy, that idea may be unsettling; as a spur to effort, it’s unrivaled.

Like their Calvinist forebears, Mormons are inclined to interpret economic success as an indicator of divine approval, a fulfillment of the Book of Mormon’s promise that the faithful will “prosper in the land.” This prosperity gospel may explain some of Romney’s defiant pride in his material success. Yet Romney’s attitude toward money seems also to have been shaped by the LDS church’s emphatic hostility to conspicuous consumption and lavish display.

According to his biographers Michael Kranish and Scott Helman, Romney was horrified when one of his Bain partners purchased himself a private plane. Yes, Romney bought a $55,000 car elevator. But for every story of a rich man’s extravagance, there are many more of Romney’s frugality: patched gloves, dented cars, and $25 haircuts.

If Romney’s attitude toward money is influenced by his church, so is his outlook on how money should be used to help those in need. Mitt and Ann Romney have donated millions to the LDS church, a substantial portion of which has gone to its own internal welfare state for members in need. Unlike government aid, those who receive LDS welfare are expected to “give back”; they contributed almost 900,000 person-days in 2011. Here may originate some of Romney’s skepticism about federal welfare programs.

Of course voters may also want to weigh some of Mormonism’s more worrisome features. Just as 19th-century Mormons found themselves in profound conflict with the United States over the issue of polygamy, so could the theologically grounded commitment of today’s LDS church to one-man-one-woman marriage place its members on a collision course with the 21st-century American mainstream, which increasingly accepts same-sex marriage.

And then there is the uniquely problematic character of Mormon scripture, which makes claims about people, events, and even whole civilizations for which there is no external evidence at all. Many Mormons maintain their faith by insisting that the best evidence of ultimate truth is found in a personal feeling that one’s beliefs are correct. As a businessman, Mitt Romney was a brutally realistic analyst. But on the most important questions in his life, he may have closed his mind to unwelcome facts.

Yet, all told, the influence of Mormonism on Mitt Romney’s attitude and outlook is far more positive than negative—and far more positive than millions of anti-Mormon voters seem to understand.

© 2012 The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/06/10/david-frum-on-how-romney-s-religion-is-his-greatest-asset.html [with comments]


===


I’m a Mormon, Not a Christian

By DAVID V. MASON
Published: June 12, 2012

Memphis

THANKS to Mitt Romney, a Broadway hit and a relentless marketing campaign [ http://mormon.org/people/ ] by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormons seem to be everywhere.

This is the so-called Mormon Moment: a strange convergence of developments offering Mormons hope that the Christian nation that persecuted, banished or killed them in the 19th century will finally love them as fellow Christians.

I want to be on record about this. I’m about as genuine a Mormon as you’ll find — a templegoer with a Utah pedigree and an administrative position in a congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am also emphatically not a Christian.

For the curious, the dispute can be reduced to Jesus. Mormons assert that because they believe Jesus is divine, they are Christians by default. Christians respond that because Mormons don’t believe — in accordance with the Nicene Creed promulgated in the fourth century — that Jesus is also the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Jesus that Mormons have in mind is someone else altogether. The Mormon reaction is incredulity. The Christian retort is exasperation. Rinse and repeat.

I am confident that I am not the only person — Mormon or Christian — who has had enough of the acrimonious niggling from both sides over the nature of the trinity, the authority of the creeds, the significance of grace and works, the union of Christ’s divinity and humanity, and the real color of God’s underwear. I’m perfectly happy not being a Christian. My Mormon fellows, most of whom will argue earnestly for their Christian legitimacy, will scream bloody murder that I don’t represent them. I don’t. They don’t represent me, either.

I’m with Harry Emerson Fosdick, the liberal Protestant minister and former pastor of Riverside Church in Manhattan, who wrote that he would be “ashamed to live in this generation and not be a heretic.” Being a Christian so often involves such boorish and meanspirited behavior that I marvel that any of my Mormon colleagues are so eager to join the fold.

In fact, I rather agree with Richard D. Land [ http://erlc.com/erlc/richard_land/ ], the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, who calls Mormonism a fourth Abrahamic religion, along with Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Being set apart from Christianity in this way could give Mormonism a chance to fashion its own legacy.

Christianity, you’ll recall, had to fight the same battle. Many early Christians grew up reading the Torah, living the law, observing the Sabbath and thinking of themselves as Jews. They were aghast to find that traditional Judaism regarded them as something else entirely.

In addition, these Christians had to defend their use of additional scripture and their unconventional conception of God and explain why they were following a bumpkin carpenter from some obscure backwater. Early Christianity’s relationship with non-Jews was even worse. Roman writers frequently alluded to rumors about the cannibalistic and hedonistic elements of early Christian rites. One after the other, Christians went to the lions because they found it impossible to defend themselves against such outrageous accusations. They did eat flesh and drink blood every Sunday, after all.

Eventually, Christianity grew up and conceded that it wasn’t authentic Judaism. Lo and behold, once it had given up its claim to Judaism, it became a state religion — cannibalism notwithstanding — and spent the next 1,700 years getting back at all the bullies who had slighted it when it was a child.

Eventually, Mormonism will grow up. Maybe a Mormon in the White House will hasten that moment when Mormonism will no longer plead through billboards and sappy radio ads to be liked, though I suspect that Mr. Romney is such a typical politician that, should he occupy the Oval Office, he’ll studiously avoid the appearance of being anything but a WASP. This could set back the cause of Mormon identity by decades.

Whatever happens in November, I hope Mormonism eventually realizes that it doesn’t need Christianity’s approval and will get big and beat up all the imperious Christians who tormented it when it was small, weird and painfully self-conscious. Mormons are certainly Christian enough to know how to spitefully abuse their power.

David V. Mason, an associate professor of theater at Rhodes College, is the author of “Theatre and Religion on Krishna’s Stage: Performing in Vrindavan [ http://www.amazon.com/Theatre-Religion-Krishnas-Stage-Performance/dp/0230615295 ]” and “My Mormonism: A Primer for Non-Mormons and Mormons, Alike [ http://www.amazon.com/My-Mormonism-non-Mormons-Mormons-ebook/dp/B005FHOX4W ].”

*

Related

Times Topic: Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/m/mormons_church_of_jesus_christ_of_latterday_saints/index.html

*

© 2012 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/opinion/im-a-mormon-not-a-christian.html [with comments]


===


Mitt Romney Is So Desperate To Be The Next President That He Has Announced He Is Changing His Religion


Mitt Romney speaking to a crowd at Tuscaloosa's Cackle Cackle Chicken Diner.

by Abel Rodriguez
Sunday, 10 June 2012

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama - Mitt Romney's presidential campaign tour bus pulled into Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the town made famous by the 60s Petula Clark song, "Me Bloomin' Heart's In Merry Olde England But Me Naughty Bits Are In Tuscaloosa."

Romney spoke to a crowd of about 40 people at the local Cackle Cackle Chicken Diner and told them that he wants to be president so bad he can taste it.

He asked if anyone in the crowd had a question. A little old man wearing a Cottonball State College football sweatshirt asked him about his religion.

Romney replied that he was a Mormon. The little old man identified as Watson "Moon Pie" Sourstraw, 73, of Muscle Shoals then said that he had heard Chris Rock say on The Jimmy Fallon Show that up until 1978, Mormons believed that all black people were the devil.

A visibly embarrassed Romney tried to change the subject by saying "Hey folks how about them L.A. Dodgers. Wow! They're 37-22 and they have the best won-loss record of all the 30 Major League Baseball teams."

Sourstraw hollered out, "Forget about da friggin Dodgers brotha, tell us more about da Mormons like how a Mormon dude can have up ta six wives.

Romney tried to change the subject again, this time by talking about the real pretty cheerleaders at Cottonball State College.

Sourstraw yelled back. "Some be pretty, some be okay, and some be ugly. Now let's get back ta talkin' 'bout dem Mormons who don't like Columbus Day, whiskey, tabacky, and tea."

Romney told him that he wanted to apologize for how the Mormons felt prior to 1978.

He then added that he personally only has one wife. He then pointed out that out of all of the world's explorers Christopher Columbus is his favorite because he didn't drink, cuss, smoke, lie, or mistreat porpoises.

Sourstraw hollered out "Romney, fella it sho do look like ta me dat ju be one flip-flopping, war-mongering, poor people hating, tall-tale telling, vegetarian."

Romney cleared his throat and informed him that he was not a vegetarian. And to prove his point he reached over and he took a bite out of one little girl's buffalo wings.

He then paused and he told the crowd that he is so desperate to become the next president of the United States that he has decided that he is going to be changing his religion.

A hushed hush fell over the Southern crowd.

"What ju be changin' jur religion to?" Sourstraw asked.

Romney smiled as he asked Mr. Sourstraw what religion he belonged to.

"Well I be an Episcopalian, dat be what I be's."

Romney hollered out "Bingo! Then starting tomorrow I will no longer be a Mormon and I will sign the necessary paperwork needed for me to become a card-carrying Episcopalian."

Romney shook his head and asked "Are you happy now Mr. Watson Sourstraw?"

"Yassir, now I be as happy as a lion at an elderly sheep convention."

SIDENOTE: After Romney left the crowd at The Cackle Cackle Chicken Diner he went over across the street to Jaspar Fillfurkle's House of Blue Tattoos where he got a tattoo of a piece of cornbread to make some points with the Southern voters.

Copyright © 2012 Spoof Media Ltd.

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s2i107571


===


(linked in):

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=69577859 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=70038588 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=71568915 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=75318171 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=75507063 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=75537322 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=75782089 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=76074392 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=76212123 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=76510653 and preceding and following