Monday, May 14, 2012 1:53:08 AM
The Book of Mitt
(Credit: Benjamin Wheelock)
Pundits still haven't figured out how to talk about Romney's Mormon religion. Here's everything you need to know
By Alex Pareene
Sunday, May 6, 2012 08:00 AM CDT
Liberal politicians and pundits, from Brian Schweitzer [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/19/brian-schweitzer-mitt-romney-s-family-came-from-a-polygamy-commune-in-mexico.html ] to Lawrence O'Donnell [ http://swampland.time.com/2012/04/12/the-story-behind-lawrence-odonnells-apology-to-mormons/ ] to Jon Stewart [ http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2012/05/late-night-jon-stewart-defends-mitt-romneys-mormonism.html ], have begun bringing up -- and stumbling over -- the subject of Mitt Romney's religion. The following is an excerpt from Alex Pareene's e-book, "The Rude Guide to Mitt [ http://www.amazon.com/The-Rude-Guide-Mitt-ebook/dp/B007UPDEG0 ]."
“The precipitous mountain pass that led the [Mormon] pioneers down into the Salt Lake Valley and still is the route of access from the east on Interstate 80, was first explored by my great-grandfather, Parley P. Pratt,” Mitt Romney cheerfully writes in “Turnaround,” the airport bookstore leadership manual he wrote in 2004 while governor of Massachusetts.
“He had worked a road up along ‘Big Canyon Creek’ as an act of speculation when his crop failed in the summer of 1849. He charged tolls to prospectors making their way to California at the height of the Gold Rush and even had a Pony Express station commissioned along his pass.”
Romney doesn’t add — and why should he? — that Pratt was murdered in 1857, by the husband of a woman he took as one of his “plural wives.” (His ninth.) Pratt was in San Francisco proselytizing and promoting polygamy. The woman converted and eloped with Pratt, then pretended to renounce Mormonism in order to get her children from her parents, where her estranged husband had sent them. The husband tracked Pratt from California to Arkansas, and shot him dead when it became clear that he could not have Pratt jailed. This incident contributed to the general sense of apocalyptic paranoia among the Mormon community that led to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which Mormon settlers — acting, according to some, on orders from Brigham Young — killed an entire wagon train of families on their way to California. There were rumors, before the Mormon militia attacked the wagon train, that Pratt’s killer was among the mostly wealthy Arkansans in the train. The Mormons attempted to blame the murder of children and women on Indians, though Mark Twain and others believed that the “Indians” were likely Mormons in war paint. (Archaeological evidence — dug up, embarrassingly, during preparations for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics — supports that theory.)
The massacre is the bloodiest and most disturbing moment in Mormon Church history, and also one of the rare moments in the 19th century when the Mormons were the perpetrators and not the victims of violence. Having been kicked out of everywhere they set up camp until they settled at their arid dead sea in Utah, they’ve retained the persecution complex, and some Mormons have a tendency to compare themselves to the Jews — members of the church even refer to non-Mormons as “Gentiles.” (“I understood a little better what my Jewish friends encounter,” Romney writes in “Turnaround,” after receiving anti-Mormon hate mail.)
The persecution was due to Victorian hysteria at their marital practices (which became quite bizarre even by our modern, degraded standards) and, to be fair, anger at their anti-slavery stance, but it was also just because Mormons were weird. They were a strange band of bearded fanatics led by a charismatic autocrat who claimed to have a direct line to God. They practiced what appeared to be a form of polytheism — while professing to be Christians — in a deeply devout country. They stole dudes’ wives.
Polygamy is the reason George Romney was born in Mexico. The Romneys had been Mormons since way back. Carpenter Miles Archibald Romney, along with his family, converted in 1837, after hearing the story of Joseph Smith finding those golden plates in upstate New York. The Romneys moved to Smith’s Mormon community in Nauvoo, Ill., in 1841, and had Miles Park Romney in 1843. Miles Park became a builder, moved to Utah, married one woman, did mission work in England, returned to Utah and married another woman on orders from Brigham Young himself. He became quite prominent in the Mormon community, building Brigham Young’s gigantic home and helping to defeat a congressional anti-polygamy law. Romney and his three wives and various children were then sent to settle St. Johns, Ariz., as part of the church leadership’s plan to settle across the entire American West. St. Johns was not particularly welcoming to the Mormon newcomers, and after various threats to hang the lot of them, the Romney clan was told — ordered, actually — to try Mexico instead.
So they created a new Mormon colony, Colonia Juarez, and after some hardship, did reasonably well for themselves. Miles even took another wife seven years after the church officially “banned” the practice of plural marriage. Gaskell Romney, Miles Romney’s son with his first wife, Hannah Hood Hill, became a builder as well, and married one woman: Anna Amelia Pratt, granddaughter of Parley. They gave birth to George a few years before the Mexican Revolution forced the whole colony back to the United States.
Romney presents a fairly sanitized version of his family’s history in his book, quoting from a glowing biography of Miles Park Romney written by his son Thomas and not mentioning what actually brought the Romney clan to Mexico, but he is frank about the church’s history when asked about it. His great-grandmother wrote extensively about how miserable her husband’s additional wives made her. “It was the great trial of the early Mormon pioneers,” Mitt told Lawrence Wright in 2002. But the church still grapples with the origins of polygamy, which became a tenet of the religion without much in the way of explanation. Wright:
Although Romney, like other Mormons, defends the practice of polygamy in the early days of the Church by pointing to a surplus of women in Utah, census reports for the time show roughly equal numbers of men and women. Church leaders were told to take multiple wives and “live the principle.” In religions where polygamy is still practiced — for example, in Islam — the number of wives is usually a reflection of the husband’s wealth; the currency behind Mormon polygamy, however, seems to have been spiritual. Only men are given the priesthood power of salvation, and through them women gain access to the celestial kingdom. Faithful women were naturally drawn to men who they believed could guarantee eternal life; in fact, Brigham Young authorized women to leave their husbands if they could find a man “with higher power and authority” than their present husband. Apparently, many of them did, as shown by the rate of divorce at the time.
Women, by the way, are still spiritually second-class citizens in Mormonism, though the same is arguably true in most other Western religions, so maybe we shouldn’t harp on them too much.
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The Mormonism of the 19th century bears little resemblance to Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. Mitt Romney’s Mormonism is the impossibly cheery “Donny and Marie” variety, not the armed apocalyptic homesteading cult member variety. Tolstoy — referring to the scrappy/crazy 19th century version — called Mormonism “the American religion,” and he decidedly did not mean that as a compliment. But the modern church still deserves the title. It’s the Coca-Cola religion, with a brand that denotes a sort of upbeat corporate Americanness, considered cheesy by elites but undeniably popular in pockets of the heartland and abroad.
It is an admirable transformation, frankly, for a religion founded very recently by a man who was likely both a liar and a lunatic, then led to prominence by a megalomaniac. Despite its transparently ridiculous dogma and sordid history of racism and murder and extremely unorthodox marital practices, Mormonism has come to thrive, thanks primarily to its ability to market and rapidly reinvent itself.
If the doctrine itself is a problem, stick around for a while and wait for it to change. If you think it unlikely, for example, that multiple advanced civilizations, descended from Israelite tribes, thrived and warred for hundreds of years in pre-Columbian upstate New York without leaving any archaeological evidence behind, the church now cheerfully entertains the possibility that the hill where Smith “found” his golden plates is one of two named “Cumorah,” with the other one — the one repeatedly referenced in the Book of Mormon — likely standing somewhere in Central America.
The racism underpinning the whole of the original Book of Mormon, which tells the story of a virtuous light-skinned tribe warring with an evil dark-skinned tribe (the “sons of Ham,” cursed with dark skin for eternity by God for their wickedness), was wiped away by decree in 1978. Significant changes to the hallowed “temple endowment” ceremony in 1990 got rid of the bit where women had to promise to be subservient to husbands. Even the “Temple Garments” (yes, the magic underpants) have gradually become easier and easier to conceal under “normal” clothes.
The modern Mormon aesthetic is deeply indebted to Walt Disney, but somehow even more square. Their grand temples look like variations on Cinderella’s castle. Their religious music sounds like Oscar-nominated Alan Menken-penned hymns. Their annual pageants — I highly recommend attending the Hill Cumorah pageant in upstate New York, in which formative stories from the Book of Mormon are acted out for an audience of thousands just beside the actual hill where Smith found the plates — are spectacular, involving massive casts and lavish costumes and thrilling theatrical effects, paired with the cheesiest imaginable dialogue and storytelling, like a vintage Disneyland animatronic “Ben-Hur.” (The sound system was easily the best I’ve ever heard at a large outdoor performance. Each line of risible King James pastiche narration was crystal clear from a hundred yards out.)
It’s very easy to make fun of a religion that literally takes communion in the form of Wonder bread, but the appeal of all that mandated clean-cut decency is also pretty easy to figure out. It pairs well, for example, with motivational business leadership books. In France, church leaders encouraged a young Mitt Romney to study “Think and Grow Rich,” the landmark self-help book written in 1937 by motivational guru Napoleon Hill. Romney had his fellow missionaries read it, and told them to apply the lessons to their mission work.
There’s 30 minutes’ worth of Napoleon Hill babbling his claptrap on YouTube, and it’s well worth a look. Hill, enunciating in that classic “born before recorded sound was a thing” way, promises viewers a “master key” to anything their heart desires. Anything at all, so long as it can be written down on a piece of paper. Hill will show you the master key, he explains, when you are ready to understand it. “The master key consists of 17 principles, the first of which is definiteness of purpose,” and so on. (Hill never actually reveals his foolproof formula for personal success, because he prefers that the reader discover it for him- or herself.)
The book remains a bestseller, regularly reprinted. Using its lessons, millions of people have been told, anything the mind can conceive of can be achieved by a man. All you have to do is want it very badly. There was even a 1980s infomercial for the audiobook version, hosted by quarterback legend Fran Tarkenton, who made it to three Super Bowls (and lost each one).
This sort of “think yourself rich” bullshit, with its promise of a foolproof path to success made up of basic lessons in persistence and confidence combined with pseudo-scientific hokum, is a great philosophical fit with Mormonism, which teaches that men are on a spiritual progression toward Godhood. And the fantastic thing about Mormonism is that you can apply the early 20th century version of “The Secret” — want something very, very badly and you will make it real with thought powers! — toward the amassing of material riches both here on Earth and after death, because Mormon doctrine says the believer will continue working and procreating in the afterlife. That may sound tedious and frankly hellish to you and me (though you do eventually get your own planet!), but this exaggerated re-conception of the Protestant work ethic is an essential tenet of Mormon culture and dogma. It helps that Mormonism is decidedly less squicky about rich people than traditional Christianity. (Again, Tolstoy really nailed it with that “American religion” thing.)
Stephen “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” Covey is a Mormon. So are past and present Harvard Business School deans Kim Clark and Clayton Christensen, the CEOs of Dell and JetBlue, and NBA executive Dave Checketts. Mitt Romney himself was named for J. Willard Marriott, founder of the Marriott hotel empire and a close friend of George Romney. (Something Mormon-connected brands tend to have in common is that they are fairly dull.)
Romney clearly internalized Napoleon Hill’s lessons: His “Turnaround” is full of of Hillisms translated through business school and management seminars. He reprints the list of “Guiding Principles” he placed on each Salt Lake City Olympics Organizing Committee employee’s desk, as if being explicitly told to “Seek ‘Gold Medal’ performances in your own job” and “Don’t sweat the small stuff” is what really turned those Olympics around following the bid scandal.
That’s “what kind of Mormon” Mitt Romney is: the Chamber of Commerce/Fortune 500 kind, making a fortune but not too ostentatious about it, and always starting a meeting with a joke.
He’s by no means a fundamentalist, and as a non-Utah Mormon, he comes from a less insular and conservative environment than many of those raised in the church’s stronghold. But young Mitt Romney, who admits to craving caffeinated sodas as a child, was sent to France during great political and cultural upheaval, and he was repulsed by student demonstrations and mass unrest. His response was to become much more Mormon — much more respectful of order and authority, much more “gosh” and “gee willikers.” More Brigham Young than Stanford.
His time at Brigham Young was Romney’s first experience living in Utah, which Mormons run as a sort of soft theocracy. Salt Lake City has a slim non-Mormon majority, but the power rests in the heavily Mormon state government. Public schools feature Mormon seminaries, usually connected or across the street, and they give an hour a day to (wink-wink) “released time.” (They also ban school events on Monday nights, which is church-mandated family time.) Salt Lake City has faced ACLU lawsuits for selling public areas to the church, which then restricts speech in the areas. Non-Mormons can face soft employment and housing discrimination, and what they do with their free time is … heavily restricted by the state.
Even after Gov. Jon Huntsman significantly relaxed the liquor laws in 2009, the regulations remain restrictive (last June, the state banned drink specials) and often bizarre. The New York Times reported on the current cumbersome state of Utah’s liquor laws in the summer of 2011. In restaurants, patrons can’t get drinks without ordering food, and all alcohol — liquor, beer or wine — must be hidden from view. You’re no longer limited to nothing but 3.2 percent beer, but getting a cocktail can be complex:
Stiff drinks and doubles are illegal in Utah. Bars and restaurants must use meters on their liquor bottles to make sure they do not pour more than 1.5 ounces at a time. Other liquors can be added to cocktails in lesser amounts, not to exceed 2.5 ounces of liquor in a drink, as long as they are poured from bottles clearly marked “flavoring.”
It is illegal to stiffen a drink with a second shot: under the law a drinker can order a vodka and tonic with a shot of whiskey on the side, but not a vodka tonic with a shot of vodka on the side.
Romney writes in “Turnaround” of being unprepared for a heated local debate over alcohol sales at his Salt Lake Olympics. It takes a secular newspaperman to explain to him that alcohol debates in Utah are actually about the frustrations of liberal religious minorities living under conservative religious rule, and Romney still doesn’t entirely get it:
“[My church's] opposition to liberal alcohol laws, however, had nothing to do with a desire to impose the religion on others. In fact, the Church’s members abstain from coffee and tobacco, as well as alcohol and the Church actually serves coffee in the hotel it owns … No, their issue with liberalizing alcohol regulations derives from the same social consequences recognized in other nations and communities: concern about drunk driving and alcoholism.”
That’s the church’s line, almost to the letter, and Romney’s endorsement of it I’m sure means that he has a similarly tolerant understanding of Saudi Arabian laws banning women drivers. (It’s a public safety thing! They’re such bad drivers!)
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Unlike a lot of other Mormons in the 1960s and 1970s, Romney never challenged his church on its positions on its racist doctrines, which essentially banned blacks from membership in the church.
From David Kirkpatrick, in the Times:
“I hoped that the time would come when the leaders of the church would receive the inspiration to change the policy,” Mr. Romney said. When he heard over a car radio in 1978 that the church would offer blacks full membership, he said, he pulled over and cried.
But until then, he deferred to church leaders, he said. “The way things are achieved in my church, as I believe in other great faiths, is through inspiration from God and not through protests and letters to the editor.”
Of course, Romney doesn’t always hew to the church line. Mitt broke with his church’s teachings and the position of most of his fellow Mormons when he … decided to oppose stem cell research in order to position himself for a Republican presidential run back when that was the most pressing national issue for religious conservatives.
The church is generally pro–stem cell research — it believes that the “soul” enters the body some time after conception, and that no souls are involved in the cultivation of embryos in a lab. Romney was initially strongly pro–stem cell research, purposefully staking out a position to the left of President Bush while running for governor of Massachusetts. But according to Romney in 2007, a 2004 conversation with a stem cell researcher led him to change his position on the research and even on abortion. This Romney says the scientist told him that he “kills” embryos after 14 days (the scientist in question obviously disputes using the word “kill”) and that so horrified Romney (“it hit me very hard that we had so cheapened the value of human life in a Roe v. Wade environment”) that he moved to criminalize research he’d strongly supported two years earlier, and vetoed a bill allowing for research on human eggs.
“I applaud medical discovery and the pursuit of cures for debilitating diseases,” Romney writes in the 2007 prologue to the paperback edition of his 2004 book on turning around the Olympics, “but I saw clearly where this legislation would take the nation: to the ‘brave new world’ that Aldous Huxley warned about, with rows upon rows of test tubes containing human embryos grown and harvested for science.”
The bill passed despite his veto, and now Massachusetts is a dystopian drug-addled nightmare state keeping its populace cowed with the superficial satisfactions of sex and consumption.
Copyright © 2011 Salon Media Group, Inc.
http://www.salon.com/2012/05/06/the_book_of_mitt/singleton/ [with comments] [also at http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/155296/everything_you_need_to_know_about_mormonism/?page=entire (with comments)]
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Misunderstanding Mittens
[ 127 ] May 11, 2012 | Scott Lemieux
I wanted to elaborate on what I think is the biggest error being made by Greenwald and Taibbi [ http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2012/05/the-most-boring-election-since-2000-amirite ] — namely, the idea that Mitt Romney is a “centrist.”
It’s worth noting here that the original Gush-Bore argument was made by a variety of people across the ideological spectrum, with a presumably wide variety of evaluations of the Clinton/Gore record. Not just Naderites but prominent centrists [ http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2006/04/the-theater-critic ] and Manhattan liberals [ http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2007/03/why-i-have-less-than-no-use-for-frank-rich ] advanced the argument that the 2000 election was a boring affair with nothing much at stake, helping lead us on the road to Iraq, Sam Alito, massive upper-class tax cuts, and many other terrible and highly consequential things that wouldn’t have happened with Al Gore in the White House. That people are making the same transparently foolish error with a Democratic candidate who has governed to the left of Clinton/Gore and a Republican running to the right of George W. Bush is mind-boggling. But the key error, like last time, seems being inexplicably suckered by the fake “moderation” of the Republican candidate.
To start with the trivial and unknowable question first, I have no idea why so many people are convinced that the Romney who was governor of Massachusetts is the “real” Romney. If I had to guess, I would speculate that instinctively Romney is substantially more conservative on social issues than Reagan or either Bush and no better on economic issues. But, anyway, even if I’m wrong about that it’s completely irrelevant [ http://prospect.org/article/motives-principles-and-political-leadership ]. He’ll govern as the head of a very right-wing Republican coalition and will be working with a Republican Congress that will send him plenty of terrible legislation. He’ll be working with the Republican foreign policy apparatus that will be urging him to attack Iran and will probably succeed. We don’t even want to think about what will happen to the federal courts. What Romney really thinks about this stuff is beside the point. John Tyler isn’t a successful leadership model for someone who wants to run for re-election.
And for that matter, it’s not correct to say that Romney’s record as governor as Massachusetts is meaningfully “moderate.” Sure, it was moderate for a national Republican…but for a Republican who wanted statewide office in Massachusetts it was about as wingnutty as he could get away with. As a commenter astutely noted, Ronald Reagan had by national standards a relatively moderate record as governor of California. Who cares? If you think Romney will govern as a moderate because of his record as governor, your number must be very valuable to people who sell lists to telemarketers.
There’s nothing “centrist” about Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican presidential candidate. He’s be worse-to-far worse than the Obama administration on most issues and better on absolutely none. If you’re bored by the 2012 elections that’s your privilege (in more ways than one), but if you think the stakes are trivial you’re out of your mind.
…By the way, I should mention Rob found a Matt Stoller classic [ https://twitter.com/#!/matthewstoller/status/199924637616967681 ] where he pledges his life savings and house to Bernie Maddoff: “Trying to figure out whether I think [Romney winning] would be modestly good or modestly bad. Romney’s more liberal than ppl think.” Jeez, at least Bush had to make some vague gestures towards moderation to convince the rubes. Anyway, if you think that 1896 was a huge win for progressive politics [ http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2011/09/whats-the-point-2 ], you will indeed love the Romney administration.
© Lawyers, Guns & Money 2012
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2012/05/misunderstanding-mittens [with comments] [also at http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/928601/why_mitt_romney_is_no_moderate/ (with comments)]
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Governor Mitt Romney - Liberty University Commencement
Governor Mitt Romney delivered Liberty University's 39th Commencement address on Saturday, May 12, 2012 to Liberty graduates, family, friends, faculty, and guests. Gov. Romney is a successful businessman and political leader who is best known as the 70th Governor of Massachusetts, the president of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games, and the presumptive Republican nominee for the 2012 presidential election. In his remarks, Gov. Romney compelled the 2012 graduating class to forever cherish what they've learned at Liberty University, and to keep their values at the heart of their lives and careers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT2HAluw63Q [comments disabled]
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Transcript: Read Mitt Romney's full address to Liberty University
By Morgan Little
May 13, 2012, 7:19 a.m.
Reaching out to a 30,000-strong Christian crowd at Liberty University on Saturday, Mitt Romney delivered the school's commencement address, half congratulating the students, and half delivering campaign remarks. In the speech, Romney reiterated his opposition to gay marriage in the wake of President Obama's announcement of personal support for the issue, and made tacit references to his own Mormon faith.
For Romney's full remarks, read below:
*
For the graduates, this moment marks a clear ending and a clear beginning. The task set before you four years ago is now completed in full. To the class of 2012: Well done, and congratulations.
Some of you may have taken a little longer than four years to complete your studies. One graduate has said that he completed his degree in only two terms: Clinton’s and Bush’s.
In some ways, it is fitting that I share this distinction with Truett Cathy. The Romney campaign comes to a sudden stop when we spot a Chick-fil-A. Your chicken sandwiches were our comfort food through the primary season, and there were days that we needed a lot of comforting. So, Truett, thank you and congratulations on your well-deserved honor today.
There are some people here who are even more pleased than the graduates. Those would be the parents. Their years of prayers, devotion, and investment have added up to this joyful achievement. And with credit to Congressman Dick Armey: The American Dream is not owning your own home, it is getting your kids out of the home you own.
Lately, I’ve found myself thinking about life in four-year stretches. And let’s just say that not everybody has achieved as much in these last four years as you have.
That’s a theme for another day. But two observations. First, even though job opportunities are scarce in this economy, it is not for nothing that you have spent this time preparing. Jerry Falwell, Senior, long ago observed that “You do not determine a man’s greatness by his talent or wealth, as the world does, but rather by what it takes to discourage him.” America needs your skill and talent. If we take the right course, we will see a resurgence in the American economy that will surprise the world, and that will open new doors of opportunity for those who are prepared as you are.
Of course, what the next four years might hold for me is yet to be determined. But I will say that things are looking up, and I take your kind hospitality today as a sign of good things to come.
I consider it a great life honor to address you today. Your generosity of spirit humbles me. The welcoming spirit of Liberty is a tribute to the gracious Christian example of your founder.
In his 73 years of life, Dr. Falwell left a big mark. For nearly five decades he shared that walk with his good wife Macel. It’s wonderful to see her today. The calling Jerry answered was not an easy one. Today we remember him as a courageous and big-hearted minister of the Gospel who never feared an argument, and never hated an adversary. Jerry deserves the tribute he would have treasured most, as a cheerful, confident champion for Christ.
I will always remember his cheerful good humor and selflessness. Several years ago, in my home, my wife and I were posing for a picture together with him. We wanted him to be in the center of the photo, but he insisted that Ann be in the middle, with he and I on the sides. He explained, by pointing to me and himself, “You see, Christ died between two thieves.”
Maybe the most confident step Jerry ever took was to open the doors of this school 41 years ago.
He believed that Liberty might become one of the most respected Christian universities anywhere on earth. And so it is today.
He believed, even when the first graduating class consisted of 13 students, that year after year young Christians would be drawn to such a university in ever-greater numbers. And here you are.
Today, thanks to what you have gained here, you leave Liberty with conviction and confidence as your armor. You know what you believe. You know who you are. And you know Whom you will serve. Not all colleges instill that kind of confidence, but it will be among the most prized qualities from your education here. Moral certainty, clear standards, and a commitment to spiritual ideals will set you apart in a world that searches for meaning.
That said, your values will not always be the object of public admiration. In fact, the more you live by your beliefs, the more you will endure the censure of the world. Christianity is not the faith of the complacent, the comfortable or of the timid. It demands and creates heroic souls like Wesley, Wilberforce, Bonhoeffer, John Paul the Second, and Billy Graham. Each showed, in their own way, the relentless and powerful influence of the message of Jesus Christ. May that be your guide.
You enter a world with civilizations and economies that are far from equal. Harvard historian David Landes devoted his lifelong study to understanding why some civilizations rise, and why others falter. His conclusion: Culture makes all the difference. Not natural resources, not geography, but what people believe and value. Central to America’s rise to global leadership is our Judeo-Christian tradition, with its vision of the goodness and possibilities of every life.
The American culture promotes personal responsibility, the dignity of work, the value of education, the merit of service, devotion to a purpose greater than self, and, at the foundation, the pre-eminence of the family.
The power of these values is evidenced by a Brookings Institution study that Sen. Rick Santorum brought to my attention. For those who graduate from high school, get a full-time job, and marry before they have their first child, the probability that they will be poor is 2%. But, if those things are absent, 76% will be poor. Culture matters.
As fundamental as these principles are, they may become topics of democratic debate. So it is today with the enduring institution of marriage. Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman.
The protection of religious freedom has also become a matter of debate. It strikes me as odd that the free exercise of religious faith is sometimes treated as a problem, something America is stuck with instead of blessed with. Perhaps religious conscience upsets the designs of those who feel that the highest wisdom and authority comes from government.
But from the beginning, this nation trusted in God, not man. Religious liberty is the first freedom in our Constitution. And whether the cause is justice for the persecuted, compassion for the needy and the sick, or mercy for the child waiting to be born, there is no greater force for good in the nation than Christian conscience in action.
Religious freedom opens a door for Americans that is closed to too many others around the world. But whether we walk through that door, and what we do with our lives after we do, is up to us.
Someone once observed that the great drama of Christianity is not a crowd shot, following the movements of collectives or even nations. The drama is always personal, individual, unfolding in one’s own life. We’re not alone in sensing this. Men and women of every faith, and good people with none at all, sincerely strive to do right and lead a purpose-driven life.
And, in the way of lessons learned, by hitting the mark or by falling short, I can tell you this much for sure.
All that you have heard here at Liberty University – about trusting in God and in His purpose for each of us--makes for more than a good sermon. It makes for a good life. So many things compete for our attention and devotion. That doesn’t stop as you get older. We are all prone, at various turns, to treat the trivial things as all-important, the all-important things as trivial, and little by little lose sight of the one thing that endures forever.
No person I have ever met, not even the most righteous or pure of heart, has gone without those times when faith recedes in the busy-ness of life. It’s normal, and sometimes even the smallest glimpses of the Lord’s work in our lives can reawaken our hearts. They bring us back to ourselves – and, better still, to something far greater than ourselves.
What we have, what we wish we had – ambitions fulfilled, ambitions disappointed … investments won, investments lost … elections won, elections lost – these things may occupy our attention, but they do not define us. And each of them is subject to the vagaries and serendipities of life. Our relationship with our Maker, however, depends on none of this. It is entirely in our control, for He is always at the door, and knocks for us. Our worldly successes cannot be guaranteed, but our ability to achieve spiritual success is entirely up to us, thanks to the grace of God. The best advice I know is to give those worldly things your best but never your all, reserving the ultimate hope for the only one who can grant it.
Many a preacher has advised the same, but few as memorably as Martin Luther King, Jr. “As a young man,” he said, “with most of my life ahead of me, I decided early to give my life to something eternal and absolute. Not to these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow. But to God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
In this life, the commitments that come closest to forever are those of family.
My Dad, George Romney, was a CEO, a governor, and a member of the President’s Cabinet. My wife Ann asked him once, “What was your greatest accomplishment?” Without a moment’s pause, he said, “Raising our four kids.”
Ann and I feel the same way about our family. I have never once regretted missing a business opportunity so that I could be with my children and grandchildren. Among the things in life that can be put off, being there when it matters most isn’t one of them.
As C.S. Lewis is said to have remarked, “The home is the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose, and that is to support the ultimate career.”
Promotions often mark the high points in a career, and I hope I haven’t seen my last. But sometimes the high points come in unexpected ways. I was asked to help rescue the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.
I’m embarrassed now to recall that when this opportunity was first presented to me, I dismissed it out of hand. I was busy, I was doing well, and, by the way, my lack of athletic prowess did not make the Olympics a logical step. In fact, after I had accepted the position, my oldest son called me and said, “Dad, I’ve spoken to the brothers. We saw the paper this morning. We want you to know there’s not a circumstance we could have conceived of that would put you on the front page of the sports section.”
The Olympics were not a logical choice, but it was one of the best and most fulfilling choices of my life. Opportunities for you to serve in meaningful ways may come at inconvenient times, but that will make them all the more precious.
People of different faiths, like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology. Surely the answer is that we can meet in service, in shared moral convictions about our nation stemming from a common worldview. The best case for this is always the example of Christian men and women working and witnessing to carry God’s love into every life – people like the late Chuck Colson.
Not long ago, Chuck recounted a story from his days just after leaving prison. He was assured by people of influence that, even with a prison record, a man with his connections and experience could still live very comfortably. They would make some calls, get Chuck situated, and set him up once again as an important man. His choice at that crossroads would make him, instead, a great man.
The call to service is one of the fundamental elements of our national character. It has motivated every great movement of conscience that this hopeful, fair-minded country of ours has ever seen. Sometimes, as Dr. Viktor Frankl observed in a book for the ages, it is not a matter of what we are asking of life, but rather what life is asking of us. How often the answer to our own troubles is to help others with theirs.
In all of these things – faith, family, work, and service –the choices we make as Americans are, in other places, not choices at all. For so many on this earth, life is filled with orders, not options, right down to where they live, the work they do, and how many children the state will permit them to have. All the more reason to be grateful, this and every day, that we live in America, where the talents God gave us may be used in freedom.
At this great Christian institution, you have all learned a thing or two about these gifts and the good purposes they can serve. They are yours to have and yours to share. Sometimes, your Liberty education will set you apart, and always it will help direct your path. And as you now leave, and make for new places near and far, I hope for each one of you that your path will be long and life will be kind.
The ideals that brought you here … the wisdom you gained here … and the friends you found here – may these blessings be with you always, wherever you go.
Thank you all, and God bless you.
*
Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-read-mitt-romneys-full-address-to-liberty-university-20120513,0,6626544.story [with comments] [transcript also at http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2012/may/12/text-romneys-address-liberty-university-ar-1910638/ (with comment)]
===
Commencement 2012: Paying tribute to Liberty’s heritage, God’s blessings
Mitzi Bible/Liberty University News Service
May 12, 2012
Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr., may have retold the “Miracle Story” of how Liberty University has become the world’s largest Christian university during its 39th Commencement on Saturday morning, but the packed Williams Stadium crowd only needed to look around them to see the miracle for themselves.
They saw Liberty’s largest graduating class honored — 14,012. The number of graduates has nearly quadrupled in the five years since Falwell, Jr., became chancellor after the sudden death of his father, Liberty’s founder, Dr. Jerry Falwell, Sr [ http://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=6921 ]. Liberty now enrolls over 90,000 students and will surpass 100,000 in the next 12 months.
They saw thousands more parents, grandparents, siblings, spouses, children and close friends arrive to campus several hours early just so they could support their loved ones and celebrate their achievement on this important day.
They saw more than 2,000 military personnel receiving their degrees while serving and protecting our country.
And they saw a prominent Virginia businessman honored on the same stage with the founder of Chick-Fil-A and a presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
No doubt the largest crowd ever for a Liberty Commencement, Saturday’s event was historic in many other ways.
Falwell took the opportunity to formally announce Liberty’s intention to move its football program to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level, after recently completing various feasibility studies. The move will be finalized when Liberty is invited to join an FBS conference, he said.
Falwell also announced this year that Liberty will top $1 billion in net assets, making it the youngest university in American history to reach this tier.
“My father announced publicly, shortly before his death in 2007, that he was praying for a five-year $1 billion miracle for Liberty,” he said. “This was at a time when Liberty’s net assets were less than one-tenth that amount. I have to admit many of us thought it would take a generation or more to reach that goal. Over the last five years, though, God has taught us all that there is no limit to what He can do.”
And there’s no limit to what God can do in the lives of people committed to Him, a theme that rang true from the invocation given by Dr. Elmer Towns, co-founder and Dean of the School of Religion [ http://www.liberty.edu/academics/religion/ ] and Dean of Liberty University Baptist Theological Seminary [ http://www.liberty.edu/academics/religion/seminary/ ], to an address by world-renowned evangelist Luis Palau, to Falwell’s charge to the graduates and the speech delivered by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
Romney was introduced by Liberty alumnus Mark DeMoss (’84), a friend of Romney’s who founded the DeMoss Group, a national public relations firm, and whose father was one of Falwell, Sr.’s closest friends and confidants.
Romney paid tribute to Falwell, Sr., many times in his 20-minute speech, recalling having met him in his home seven months before he died. Romney called it a “great life honor” to speak at Liberty’s Commencement.
“Your generosity of spirit humbles me, the welcoming spirit of Liberty is a tribute to the gracious Christian example of your founder,” he said. “In his 73 years of life, Dr. Falwell left a big mark. … The calling Jerry answered was not an easy one. Today we remember him as a courageous and big-hearted minister of the Gospel, who never feared an argument and never hated an adversary. Jerry deserves the tribute he would have treasured most: as a cheerful, confident Champion for Christ.”
Romney said the most confident step Falwell, Sr. ever took “was to open the doors of this school 41 years ago.”
“He believed that Liberty might become one of the most respected Christian universities anywhere on the earth and so it is today,” Romney said. “He believed even when the first graduating class consisted of only 13 students that year after year young Christians would be drawn to such a university in ever great numbers — here you are. Today, thanks to what you have gained here, you leave Liberty with conviction and confidence as your armor. You know what you believe, you know who you are and you know whom you will you serve. Not all colleges instill that kind of confidence.”
Romney spoke briefly about his own convictions, receiving a standing ovation when he stated marriage was a relationship between one man and one woman.
He also spoke about the protection of religious freedom, “the first freedom in our Constitution” and putting that faith into service.
“Whether the cause is justice for the persecuted, compassion for the needy and the sick, or mercy for the child waiting to be born, there is no greater force for good in the nation than Christian conscience in action,” he said.
Service and moral convictions is where “people of different faiths, like yours and mine” can meet in "common purpose," he said.
Romney graduated from Brigham Young University in 1971, and continued on to earn dual degrees from Harvard Law and Harvard Business School. A businessman and career consultant, he co-founded and later served as CEO for the investment firm, Bain Capital.
During a significant time in his career, Romney was asked to take over the managing role of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, which was on the verge of collapse. Under his leadership, the budget was salvaged, the public’s confidence was restored, and Salt Lake City staged one of the most successful games ever held on U.S. soil.
Romney married his childhood friend, Ann, in 1969. They have five sons and 18 grandchildren.
*
Commencement 2012 notables
By Drew Menard/Liberty University News Service
During his welcome speech, as he traditionally does, Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. [ http://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=14588 ], shared a few words highlighting some notable graduates in this year’s class.
This year’s oldest graduate, at 77, is Dolores Darrell and Liberty’s youngest is Gabrielle Turnquest, age 17.
Falwell gave special recognition to those graduates who completed their degree through Liberty University Online [ http://www.luonline.com/ ], many of whom could not have obtained a college degree without it.
“As part of Liberty’s Christian mission we have sought to make Christian education affordable and accessible for as many individuals as possible,” Falwell said. “Liberty University Online has achieved that objective like nothing else could.”
Katherine McInnis began her college journey in 1977 but had to drop out because of financial challenges. She enrolled in Liberty Online as a mother and grandmother and today, on her 53rd birthday, graduated Summa Cum Laude.
In 1998, graduate Katheryn Armstrong broke her back while taking classes at Liberty. She enrolled in Liberty online to finish her degree, and thanks to a miraculous new surgical technique, walked across the stage at graduation, after years of being confined to a wheelchair.
Falwell was reminded of Liberty’s humble beginnings from Mark Rhoades, Jr., who attended classes in 1974 when Liberty’s classes were held at the old Thomas Road Baptist Church site and the land on which William’s stadium now rests was home to a dairy barn.
Rhoades also had to leave Liberty after only one year and later returned to obtain his B.S. in 2010, and this year received his M.A in Human Services.
Falwell, citing Liberty’s family-friendly atmosphere, said that three sisters — Hannah Ellenburg, Catherine Comfort and Emily Ellenburg — graduated together today and their fourth sister, Sarah Ellenburg, is a freshman. Resident student Katie Raybould told Falwell at last week’s senior picnic [ http://www.liberty.edu/news/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=55055 ] that three members of her immediate family graduate together today.
Mike Morrison and his sister, Danielle, graduated today. Mike, a member of the Flames hockey team [ http://www.liberty.edu/campusrec/clubsports/index.cfm?PID=5272 ], will play pro hockey [ http://www.liberty.edu/news/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=49851 ] in New Zealand this summer.
Falwell somberly honored Ron King who was awarded his doctorate in ministry [ http://www.luonline.com/index.cfm?PID=14381 ] today, posthumously. King passed away on Feb. 7 this year and his wife Sharon King, of Huntsville, Ala., was present at today’s ceremony.
He expressed sorrow for her loss, but wanted her to know that Liberty “is not just your husband’s alma mater, but your extended family.”
Falwell also told the miracle story of Patrick Andrews, who so many have come to fondly know as “the man in the orange shirt.” At the ceremony, Andrews was wearing an orange cap.
Andrews began his studies at Liberty in 1994. During that year he was in a car accident that changed his life forever, putting him in a coma for six weeks and giving him severe head trauma. After the accident, Andrews was only capable of taking a limited number of credit hours per semester, but he never quit, following Falwell, Sr.’s repeated admonition.
Today, after nearly two decades of perseverance and determination, Andrews received his bachelor’s degree in communications at 40 years of age.
Falwell said that the Class of 2012 is one of a few special classes to enroll at Liberty after his father’s sudden death five years ago.
“The first few classes of students in my tenure as president will always have a special place in our hearts.”
*
Honorary doctorates
By BJ Williams/Liberty University News Service
Liberty University’s Board of Trustees conferred three honorary doctorate degrees during the 39th Commencement ceremony.
Worth Harris Carter, Jr.
Worth Harris Carter, Jr. was born in Richmond, Va., in 1937. He began his career as a cashier. The job provided income while he earned a B.A. in political science and history at the University of Richmond. He then attended two years of law school at the University of Virginia, but for financial reasons was unable to finish. Later, he became a bank examiner. Between 1973 And 1998, Carter founded 10 separate community banks. Those 10 banks merged in 2006 to form Carter Bank and Trust where Worth Carter now serves as the chairman and president.
His bank provided Liberty with short-term loans beginning in 1988 and with its first long-term mortgage financing in 1997 after donors like Arthur L. Williams, Jr., gave generously to reduce its debt.
Carter was presented the Doctor of Business degree.
“Worth Carter, Jr. has fought the good fight and has been quietly used by God to make a difference here at Liberty and in the lives of many individuals. You would be wise to follow his example of perseverance, integrity and a strong worth ethic,” said Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr.
S. Truett Cathy
Cathy is the founder of the Chick-Fil-A [ http://www.chick-fil-a.com/ ] restaurant chain, with over 1,600 locations in 38 states and in the District of Columbia. He was presented the Doctor of Humanities for his “commitment to faith and excellence in business, and for modeling the vision of Liberty University to the world,” Falwell said.
Governor Mitt Romney
Romney, 2012 Republican party nominee for president, was presented with a Doctor of Humanities degree.
“Governor Mitt Romney is on the front lines, representing and defending the uniquely American ideals that are important to this institution, and to the future of our nation,” Falwell said.
- On Friday night, Dr. Luis Palau, evangelist and president of the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association, was presented with an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree during the 39th Baccalaureate service [ http://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=55289 ].
Copyright 2012 Liberty University®
http://www.liberty.edu/news/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=55432 [with the above YouTube of Romney's speech embedded]
===
Falwell Sr. would be 'proud' to welcome Romney, adviser says
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigned last week in Portsmouth.
Credit: ALEXA WELCH EDLUND/TIMES-DISPATCH
By: Andrew Cain | Times-Dispatch
Published: May 10, 2012
Updated: May 10, 2012 - 12:53 PM
LYNCHBURG Va. -- The late Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr. would be proud that Mitt Romney, a Mormon, will deliver Saturday's commencement address at Liberty University, says a Romney adviser who serves on Liberty's board of trustees.
"This would be a proud day for Jerry Falwell," Mark DeMoss, chairman of the Liberty board's executive committee, told CNN today.
Falwell, who founded the evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, met the former governor at Romney's Massachusetts home months before Falwell died in May 2007, said DeMoss, who was present at that meeting.
"He had a lot or respect and admiration for him," DeMoss said.
As for Saturday's commencement: "He loved these kinds of days where the university could be on display to a large audience and to host a prominent leader, which the governor certainly is. So this was his kind of day."
The campaigns of President Barack Obama and Romney view Virginia, with 13 electoral votes, as a key swing state. The president and the first lady held a rally last Saturday at Virginia Commonwealth University's Siegel Center. First lady Michelle Obama delivers a commencement address tomorrow at Virginia Tech.
Romney recently campaigned in Fairfax County and in Portsmouth. He also held a Northern Virginia fundraiser.
CNN noted that some Liberty students have noted on Facebook that they disapprove of the invitation to Romney because of his Mormon faith.
In recent years a majority of Liberty University's commencement speakers have been from outside the evangelical Christian faith and Romney is the third Mormon to address a Liberty commencement, DeMoss said.
"We think students, in most part, would like to hear from someone who very well could be the next president of the United States and it's a great opportunity."
Speaking of the president and Romney, DeMoss said, "One of these two men will be the next president of the United States. People need to look at these two."
DeMoss said he thinks the president's statement Wednesday of unequivocal support for gay marriage will increase evangelicals' support for Romney.
"I think it will push a significant majority of them closer to him," DeMoss said.
The economy remains a key issue, but "we have a clear contrast that was maybe less clear previously."
©2012 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC
http://www2.wsls.com/news/2012/may/10/6/falwell-sr-would-be-proud-to-welcome-romney-at-lib-ar-1905535/ [with comment]
===
Community Viewpoint: Romney, Falwell on Tolerance, Hope
By: Kerri Toloczko | The News & Advance
Published: May 12, 2012
"God damn America for as long as she acts like God and is supreme,” said President Obama’s pastor of 20 years in an iconic one liner that embodied Jeremiah Wright’s acidic view of our nation.
Speaking of candidate Obama, Reverend Wright also noted, “Barack knows what it means living in a country controlled by rich white people.”
If current polling trends are accurate, the president might find himself in that circumstance (which he seems to believe is true) once again on Inauguration Day 2013.
In a decision of astounding political weakness, 2008 Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain refused to use Wright’s hateful statements and close association with the Democratic nominee as a campaign issue. As a result, the current presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney is not just running against Obama and everything he stands for — he is also running against everything Wright stands for — a monumentally un-Christian intolerance for anyone who does not share his racism, disturbing beliefs and hatred for America.
As this first vetting of a sitting president has fallen on Gov. Romney, his planned commencement address at Liberty University today is brilliant for Romney and Liberty, as both have been assailed repeatedly for their respective beliefs.
In cased you missed it, Romney is Mormon. He is running for president of the United States, not the Southern Baptist Convention. Our nation has generally surged past religious litmus tests for the presidency, but not in all quarters. In 2008, a group of Huckabee-supporting pastors claimed that to vote for a Mormon was to “violate Scripture” and put forth “Seven Questions Christians Must Ask Before Voting for A Mormon.”
None included, “Does he have the experience and qualifications to be president?”
Those voices now are now silenced by data. According to an April 17 poll by the Pew Research Center, Romney has no need to chase what may be his most important voting block as has already won over white evangelicals 73 percent to Obama’s 20 percent.
A traditional Democratic voting block, Catholics voted for Obama over McCain by 9 points. But Catholics are sensitive to policy issues relating to them, and their support of Obama has dropped dramatically. Romney now leads with 57 percent of Catholic voters.
LU is the world’s largest Christian university. Its 12,000 resident and 60,000 online students have made a decision to pursue first-class education while also becoming “Champions for Christ.” Founded in 1971 by Jerry Falwell Sr., since his death in 2007 the university has continued its meteoric program and student growth, academic recognition and economic stability under the direction of Chancellor Jerry L. Falwell Jr.
Liberty has had its share of problems and attacks. Now on sound financial footing, it has struggled with heavy debt several times. In 2011, LU was attacked in the media when a Department of Education report revealed that “Liberty” received $445 million in federal student aid — the largest in the state. Accused — by liberals — of being hypocritical to its conservative, limited government roots, the reality is that LU is attracting more and more students, especially through its online curriculum and special programs for current and former members of the military and their spouses — all of whom show up on its doorstep with loans, grants and GI Bill monies in hand.
It has always been attacked by secular critics who refer to its biblical, Christian values as intolerant, insular or radical — usually without ever having been there or meeting a single student.
Romney has something to say to America about religious tolerance, core American values and hope for the future, and so does Falwell.
Overcoming the utterly false narrative of an intolerant campus with an equally intolerant student body is a priority for LU.
Romney is likely to include message similar to his “Faith in America” speech from 2007 when he spoke passionately about religious liberty and how his faith values would guide a Romney presidency.
The negative, bitter messages from President Obama and Jeremiah Wright have oozed into the American psyche, and only strong, positive messages will change this disastrous course. There is a reason why religious freedom is our first freedom — with it comes decency, honesty and integrity. It is a moral guidepost for all other freedoms.
This commencement address is an opportunity for two men with differing goals — and thousands of young Christians — to proclaim that America is still good, welcoming and blessed. Statements of hate and intolerance will not stand here.
There is room for respectful theological differences for people who prefer to “bless America” as exemplified by LU’s motto, taken from II Corinthians: “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
Toloczko is senior vice president for policy with the Institute for Liberty ( http://www.instituteforliberty ), headquartered in Washington, D.C. She is also the mother of a Liberty University sophomore.
©2012 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC
http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2012/may/12/community-viewpoint-romney-falwell-tolerance-hope-ar-1908402/ [with comments]
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(Credit: Benjamin Wheelock)
Pundits still haven't figured out how to talk about Romney's Mormon religion. Here's everything you need to know
By Alex Pareene
Sunday, May 6, 2012 08:00 AM CDT
Liberal politicians and pundits, from Brian Schweitzer [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/19/brian-schweitzer-mitt-romney-s-family-came-from-a-polygamy-commune-in-mexico.html ] to Lawrence O'Donnell [ http://swampland.time.com/2012/04/12/the-story-behind-lawrence-odonnells-apology-to-mormons/ ] to Jon Stewart [ http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2012/05/late-night-jon-stewart-defends-mitt-romneys-mormonism.html ], have begun bringing up -- and stumbling over -- the subject of Mitt Romney's religion. The following is an excerpt from Alex Pareene's e-book, "The Rude Guide to Mitt [ http://www.amazon.com/The-Rude-Guide-Mitt-ebook/dp/B007UPDEG0 ]."
“The precipitous mountain pass that led the [Mormon] pioneers down into the Salt Lake Valley and still is the route of access from the east on Interstate 80, was first explored by my great-grandfather, Parley P. Pratt,” Mitt Romney cheerfully writes in “Turnaround,” the airport bookstore leadership manual he wrote in 2004 while governor of Massachusetts.
“He had worked a road up along ‘Big Canyon Creek’ as an act of speculation when his crop failed in the summer of 1849. He charged tolls to prospectors making their way to California at the height of the Gold Rush and even had a Pony Express station commissioned along his pass.”
Romney doesn’t add — and why should he? — that Pratt was murdered in 1857, by the husband of a woman he took as one of his “plural wives.” (His ninth.) Pratt was in San Francisco proselytizing and promoting polygamy. The woman converted and eloped with Pratt, then pretended to renounce Mormonism in order to get her children from her parents, where her estranged husband had sent them. The husband tracked Pratt from California to Arkansas, and shot him dead when it became clear that he could not have Pratt jailed. This incident contributed to the general sense of apocalyptic paranoia among the Mormon community that led to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which Mormon settlers — acting, according to some, on orders from Brigham Young — killed an entire wagon train of families on their way to California. There were rumors, before the Mormon militia attacked the wagon train, that Pratt’s killer was among the mostly wealthy Arkansans in the train. The Mormons attempted to blame the murder of children and women on Indians, though Mark Twain and others believed that the “Indians” were likely Mormons in war paint. (Archaeological evidence — dug up, embarrassingly, during preparations for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics — supports that theory.)
The massacre is the bloodiest and most disturbing moment in Mormon Church history, and also one of the rare moments in the 19th century when the Mormons were the perpetrators and not the victims of violence. Having been kicked out of everywhere they set up camp until they settled at their arid dead sea in Utah, they’ve retained the persecution complex, and some Mormons have a tendency to compare themselves to the Jews — members of the church even refer to non-Mormons as “Gentiles.” (“I understood a little better what my Jewish friends encounter,” Romney writes in “Turnaround,” after receiving anti-Mormon hate mail.)
The persecution was due to Victorian hysteria at their marital practices (which became quite bizarre even by our modern, degraded standards) and, to be fair, anger at their anti-slavery stance, but it was also just because Mormons were weird. They were a strange band of bearded fanatics led by a charismatic autocrat who claimed to have a direct line to God. They practiced what appeared to be a form of polytheism — while professing to be Christians — in a deeply devout country. They stole dudes’ wives.
Polygamy is the reason George Romney was born in Mexico. The Romneys had been Mormons since way back. Carpenter Miles Archibald Romney, along with his family, converted in 1837, after hearing the story of Joseph Smith finding those golden plates in upstate New York. The Romneys moved to Smith’s Mormon community in Nauvoo, Ill., in 1841, and had Miles Park Romney in 1843. Miles Park became a builder, moved to Utah, married one woman, did mission work in England, returned to Utah and married another woman on orders from Brigham Young himself. He became quite prominent in the Mormon community, building Brigham Young’s gigantic home and helping to defeat a congressional anti-polygamy law. Romney and his three wives and various children were then sent to settle St. Johns, Ariz., as part of the church leadership’s plan to settle across the entire American West. St. Johns was not particularly welcoming to the Mormon newcomers, and after various threats to hang the lot of them, the Romney clan was told — ordered, actually — to try Mexico instead.
So they created a new Mormon colony, Colonia Juarez, and after some hardship, did reasonably well for themselves. Miles even took another wife seven years after the church officially “banned” the practice of plural marriage. Gaskell Romney, Miles Romney’s son with his first wife, Hannah Hood Hill, became a builder as well, and married one woman: Anna Amelia Pratt, granddaughter of Parley. They gave birth to George a few years before the Mexican Revolution forced the whole colony back to the United States.
Romney presents a fairly sanitized version of his family’s history in his book, quoting from a glowing biography of Miles Park Romney written by his son Thomas and not mentioning what actually brought the Romney clan to Mexico, but he is frank about the church’s history when asked about it. His great-grandmother wrote extensively about how miserable her husband’s additional wives made her. “It was the great trial of the early Mormon pioneers,” Mitt told Lawrence Wright in 2002. But the church still grapples with the origins of polygamy, which became a tenet of the religion without much in the way of explanation. Wright:
Although Romney, like other Mormons, defends the practice of polygamy in the early days of the Church by pointing to a surplus of women in Utah, census reports for the time show roughly equal numbers of men and women. Church leaders were told to take multiple wives and “live the principle.” In religions where polygamy is still practiced — for example, in Islam — the number of wives is usually a reflection of the husband’s wealth; the currency behind Mormon polygamy, however, seems to have been spiritual. Only men are given the priesthood power of salvation, and through them women gain access to the celestial kingdom. Faithful women were naturally drawn to men who they believed could guarantee eternal life; in fact, Brigham Young authorized women to leave their husbands if they could find a man “with higher power and authority” than their present husband. Apparently, many of them did, as shown by the rate of divorce at the time.
Women, by the way, are still spiritually second-class citizens in Mormonism, though the same is arguably true in most other Western religions, so maybe we shouldn’t harp on them too much.
– – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – –
The Mormonism of the 19th century bears little resemblance to Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. Mitt Romney’s Mormonism is the impossibly cheery “Donny and Marie” variety, not the armed apocalyptic homesteading cult member variety. Tolstoy — referring to the scrappy/crazy 19th century version — called Mormonism “the American religion,” and he decidedly did not mean that as a compliment. But the modern church still deserves the title. It’s the Coca-Cola religion, with a brand that denotes a sort of upbeat corporate Americanness, considered cheesy by elites but undeniably popular in pockets of the heartland and abroad.
It is an admirable transformation, frankly, for a religion founded very recently by a man who was likely both a liar and a lunatic, then led to prominence by a megalomaniac. Despite its transparently ridiculous dogma and sordid history of racism and murder and extremely unorthodox marital practices, Mormonism has come to thrive, thanks primarily to its ability to market and rapidly reinvent itself.
If the doctrine itself is a problem, stick around for a while and wait for it to change. If you think it unlikely, for example, that multiple advanced civilizations, descended from Israelite tribes, thrived and warred for hundreds of years in pre-Columbian upstate New York without leaving any archaeological evidence behind, the church now cheerfully entertains the possibility that the hill where Smith “found” his golden plates is one of two named “Cumorah,” with the other one — the one repeatedly referenced in the Book of Mormon — likely standing somewhere in Central America.
The racism underpinning the whole of the original Book of Mormon, which tells the story of a virtuous light-skinned tribe warring with an evil dark-skinned tribe (the “sons of Ham,” cursed with dark skin for eternity by God for their wickedness), was wiped away by decree in 1978. Significant changes to the hallowed “temple endowment” ceremony in 1990 got rid of the bit where women had to promise to be subservient to husbands. Even the “Temple Garments” (yes, the magic underpants) have gradually become easier and easier to conceal under “normal” clothes.
The modern Mormon aesthetic is deeply indebted to Walt Disney, but somehow even more square. Their grand temples look like variations on Cinderella’s castle. Their religious music sounds like Oscar-nominated Alan Menken-penned hymns. Their annual pageants — I highly recommend attending the Hill Cumorah pageant in upstate New York, in which formative stories from the Book of Mormon are acted out for an audience of thousands just beside the actual hill where Smith found the plates — are spectacular, involving massive casts and lavish costumes and thrilling theatrical effects, paired with the cheesiest imaginable dialogue and storytelling, like a vintage Disneyland animatronic “Ben-Hur.” (The sound system was easily the best I’ve ever heard at a large outdoor performance. Each line of risible King James pastiche narration was crystal clear from a hundred yards out.)
It’s very easy to make fun of a religion that literally takes communion in the form of Wonder bread, but the appeal of all that mandated clean-cut decency is also pretty easy to figure out. It pairs well, for example, with motivational business leadership books. In France, church leaders encouraged a young Mitt Romney to study “Think and Grow Rich,” the landmark self-help book written in 1937 by motivational guru Napoleon Hill. Romney had his fellow missionaries read it, and told them to apply the lessons to their mission work.
There’s 30 minutes’ worth of Napoleon Hill babbling his claptrap on YouTube, and it’s well worth a look. Hill, enunciating in that classic “born before recorded sound was a thing” way, promises viewers a “master key” to anything their heart desires. Anything at all, so long as it can be written down on a piece of paper. Hill will show you the master key, he explains, when you are ready to understand it. “The master key consists of 17 principles, the first of which is definiteness of purpose,” and so on. (Hill never actually reveals his foolproof formula for personal success, because he prefers that the reader discover it for him- or herself.)
The book remains a bestseller, regularly reprinted. Using its lessons, millions of people have been told, anything the mind can conceive of can be achieved by a man. All you have to do is want it very badly. There was even a 1980s infomercial for the audiobook version, hosted by quarterback legend Fran Tarkenton, who made it to three Super Bowls (and lost each one).
This sort of “think yourself rich” bullshit, with its promise of a foolproof path to success made up of basic lessons in persistence and confidence combined with pseudo-scientific hokum, is a great philosophical fit with Mormonism, which teaches that men are on a spiritual progression toward Godhood. And the fantastic thing about Mormonism is that you can apply the early 20th century version of “The Secret” — want something very, very badly and you will make it real with thought powers! — toward the amassing of material riches both here on Earth and after death, because Mormon doctrine says the believer will continue working and procreating in the afterlife. That may sound tedious and frankly hellish to you and me (though you do eventually get your own planet!), but this exaggerated re-conception of the Protestant work ethic is an essential tenet of Mormon culture and dogma. It helps that Mormonism is decidedly less squicky about rich people than traditional Christianity. (Again, Tolstoy really nailed it with that “American religion” thing.)
Stephen “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” Covey is a Mormon. So are past and present Harvard Business School deans Kim Clark and Clayton Christensen, the CEOs of Dell and JetBlue, and NBA executive Dave Checketts. Mitt Romney himself was named for J. Willard Marriott, founder of the Marriott hotel empire and a close friend of George Romney. (Something Mormon-connected brands tend to have in common is that they are fairly dull.)
Romney clearly internalized Napoleon Hill’s lessons: His “Turnaround” is full of of Hillisms translated through business school and management seminars. He reprints the list of “Guiding Principles” he placed on each Salt Lake City Olympics Organizing Committee employee’s desk, as if being explicitly told to “Seek ‘Gold Medal’ performances in your own job” and “Don’t sweat the small stuff” is what really turned those Olympics around following the bid scandal.
That’s “what kind of Mormon” Mitt Romney is: the Chamber of Commerce/Fortune 500 kind, making a fortune but not too ostentatious about it, and always starting a meeting with a joke.
He’s by no means a fundamentalist, and as a non-Utah Mormon, he comes from a less insular and conservative environment than many of those raised in the church’s stronghold. But young Mitt Romney, who admits to craving caffeinated sodas as a child, was sent to France during great political and cultural upheaval, and he was repulsed by student demonstrations and mass unrest. His response was to become much more Mormon — much more respectful of order and authority, much more “gosh” and “gee willikers.” More Brigham Young than Stanford.
His time at Brigham Young was Romney’s first experience living in Utah, which Mormons run as a sort of soft theocracy. Salt Lake City has a slim non-Mormon majority, but the power rests in the heavily Mormon state government. Public schools feature Mormon seminaries, usually connected or across the street, and they give an hour a day to (wink-wink) “released time.” (They also ban school events on Monday nights, which is church-mandated family time.) Salt Lake City has faced ACLU lawsuits for selling public areas to the church, which then restricts speech in the areas. Non-Mormons can face soft employment and housing discrimination, and what they do with their free time is … heavily restricted by the state.
Even after Gov. Jon Huntsman significantly relaxed the liquor laws in 2009, the regulations remain restrictive (last June, the state banned drink specials) and often bizarre. The New York Times reported on the current cumbersome state of Utah’s liquor laws in the summer of 2011. In restaurants, patrons can’t get drinks without ordering food, and all alcohol — liquor, beer or wine — must be hidden from view. You’re no longer limited to nothing but 3.2 percent beer, but getting a cocktail can be complex:
Stiff drinks and doubles are illegal in Utah. Bars and restaurants must use meters on their liquor bottles to make sure they do not pour more than 1.5 ounces at a time. Other liquors can be added to cocktails in lesser amounts, not to exceed 2.5 ounces of liquor in a drink, as long as they are poured from bottles clearly marked “flavoring.”
It is illegal to stiffen a drink with a second shot: under the law a drinker can order a vodka and tonic with a shot of whiskey on the side, but not a vodka tonic with a shot of vodka on the side.
Romney writes in “Turnaround” of being unprepared for a heated local debate over alcohol sales at his Salt Lake Olympics. It takes a secular newspaperman to explain to him that alcohol debates in Utah are actually about the frustrations of liberal religious minorities living under conservative religious rule, and Romney still doesn’t entirely get it:
“[My church's] opposition to liberal alcohol laws, however, had nothing to do with a desire to impose the religion on others. In fact, the Church’s members abstain from coffee and tobacco, as well as alcohol and the Church actually serves coffee in the hotel it owns … No, their issue with liberalizing alcohol regulations derives from the same social consequences recognized in other nations and communities: concern about drunk driving and alcoholism.”
That’s the church’s line, almost to the letter, and Romney’s endorsement of it I’m sure means that he has a similarly tolerant understanding of Saudi Arabian laws banning women drivers. (It’s a public safety thing! They’re such bad drivers!)
– – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — – –
Unlike a lot of other Mormons in the 1960s and 1970s, Romney never challenged his church on its positions on its racist doctrines, which essentially banned blacks from membership in the church.
From David Kirkpatrick, in the Times:
“I hoped that the time would come when the leaders of the church would receive the inspiration to change the policy,” Mr. Romney said. When he heard over a car radio in 1978 that the church would offer blacks full membership, he said, he pulled over and cried.
But until then, he deferred to church leaders, he said. “The way things are achieved in my church, as I believe in other great faiths, is through inspiration from God and not through protests and letters to the editor.”
Of course, Romney doesn’t always hew to the church line. Mitt broke with his church’s teachings and the position of most of his fellow Mormons when he … decided to oppose stem cell research in order to position himself for a Republican presidential run back when that was the most pressing national issue for religious conservatives.
The church is generally pro–stem cell research — it believes that the “soul” enters the body some time after conception, and that no souls are involved in the cultivation of embryos in a lab. Romney was initially strongly pro–stem cell research, purposefully staking out a position to the left of President Bush while running for governor of Massachusetts. But according to Romney in 2007, a 2004 conversation with a stem cell researcher led him to change his position on the research and even on abortion. This Romney says the scientist told him that he “kills” embryos after 14 days (the scientist in question obviously disputes using the word “kill”) and that so horrified Romney (“it hit me very hard that we had so cheapened the value of human life in a Roe v. Wade environment”) that he moved to criminalize research he’d strongly supported two years earlier, and vetoed a bill allowing for research on human eggs.
“I applaud medical discovery and the pursuit of cures for debilitating diseases,” Romney writes in the 2007 prologue to the paperback edition of his 2004 book on turning around the Olympics, “but I saw clearly where this legislation would take the nation: to the ‘brave new world’ that Aldous Huxley warned about, with rows upon rows of test tubes containing human embryos grown and harvested for science.”
The bill passed despite his veto, and now Massachusetts is a dystopian drug-addled nightmare state keeping its populace cowed with the superficial satisfactions of sex and consumption.
Copyright © 2011 Salon Media Group, Inc.
http://www.salon.com/2012/05/06/the_book_of_mitt/singleton/ [with comments] [also at http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/155296/everything_you_need_to_know_about_mormonism/?page=entire (with comments)]
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Misunderstanding Mittens
[ 127 ] May 11, 2012 | Scott Lemieux
I wanted to elaborate on what I think is the biggest error being made by Greenwald and Taibbi [ http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2012/05/the-most-boring-election-since-2000-amirite ] — namely, the idea that Mitt Romney is a “centrist.”
It’s worth noting here that the original Gush-Bore argument was made by a variety of people across the ideological spectrum, with a presumably wide variety of evaluations of the Clinton/Gore record. Not just Naderites but prominent centrists [ http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2006/04/the-theater-critic ] and Manhattan liberals [ http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2007/03/why-i-have-less-than-no-use-for-frank-rich ] advanced the argument that the 2000 election was a boring affair with nothing much at stake, helping lead us on the road to Iraq, Sam Alito, massive upper-class tax cuts, and many other terrible and highly consequential things that wouldn’t have happened with Al Gore in the White House. That people are making the same transparently foolish error with a Democratic candidate who has governed to the left of Clinton/Gore and a Republican running to the right of George W. Bush is mind-boggling. But the key error, like last time, seems being inexplicably suckered by the fake “moderation” of the Republican candidate.
To start with the trivial and unknowable question first, I have no idea why so many people are convinced that the Romney who was governor of Massachusetts is the “real” Romney. If I had to guess, I would speculate that instinctively Romney is substantially more conservative on social issues than Reagan or either Bush and no better on economic issues. But, anyway, even if I’m wrong about that it’s completely irrelevant [ http://prospect.org/article/motives-principles-and-political-leadership ]. He’ll govern as the head of a very right-wing Republican coalition and will be working with a Republican Congress that will send him plenty of terrible legislation. He’ll be working with the Republican foreign policy apparatus that will be urging him to attack Iran and will probably succeed. We don’t even want to think about what will happen to the federal courts. What Romney really thinks about this stuff is beside the point. John Tyler isn’t a successful leadership model for someone who wants to run for re-election.
And for that matter, it’s not correct to say that Romney’s record as governor as Massachusetts is meaningfully “moderate.” Sure, it was moderate for a national Republican…but for a Republican who wanted statewide office in Massachusetts it was about as wingnutty as he could get away with. As a commenter astutely noted, Ronald Reagan had by national standards a relatively moderate record as governor of California. Who cares? If you think Romney will govern as a moderate because of his record as governor, your number must be very valuable to people who sell lists to telemarketers.
There’s nothing “centrist” about Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican presidential candidate. He’s be worse-to-far worse than the Obama administration on most issues and better on absolutely none. If you’re bored by the 2012 elections that’s your privilege (in more ways than one), but if you think the stakes are trivial you’re out of your mind.
…By the way, I should mention Rob found a Matt Stoller classic [ https://twitter.com/#!/matthewstoller/status/199924637616967681 ] where he pledges his life savings and house to Bernie Maddoff: “Trying to figure out whether I think [Romney winning] would be modestly good or modestly bad. Romney’s more liberal than ppl think.” Jeez, at least Bush had to make some vague gestures towards moderation to convince the rubes. Anyway, if you think that 1896 was a huge win for progressive politics [ http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2011/09/whats-the-point-2 ], you will indeed love the Romney administration.
© Lawyers, Guns & Money 2012
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2012/05/misunderstanding-mittens [with comments] [also at http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/928601/why_mitt_romney_is_no_moderate/ (with comments)]
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Governor Mitt Romney - Liberty University Commencement
Published on May 12, 2012 by libertyuniversity
Governor Mitt Romney delivered Liberty University's 39th Commencement address on Saturday, May 12, 2012 to Liberty graduates, family, friends, faculty, and guests. Gov. Romney is a successful businessman and political leader who is best known as the 70th Governor of Massachusetts, the president of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games, and the presumptive Republican nominee for the 2012 presidential election. In his remarks, Gov. Romney compelled the 2012 graduating class to forever cherish what they've learned at Liberty University, and to keep their values at the heart of their lives and careers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT2HAluw63Q [comments disabled]
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Transcript: Read Mitt Romney's full address to Liberty University
By Morgan Little
May 13, 2012, 7:19 a.m.
Reaching out to a 30,000-strong Christian crowd at Liberty University on Saturday, Mitt Romney delivered the school's commencement address, half congratulating the students, and half delivering campaign remarks. In the speech, Romney reiterated his opposition to gay marriage in the wake of President Obama's announcement of personal support for the issue, and made tacit references to his own Mormon faith.
For Romney's full remarks, read below:
*
For the graduates, this moment marks a clear ending and a clear beginning. The task set before you four years ago is now completed in full. To the class of 2012: Well done, and congratulations.
Some of you may have taken a little longer than four years to complete your studies. One graduate has said that he completed his degree in only two terms: Clinton’s and Bush’s.
In some ways, it is fitting that I share this distinction with Truett Cathy. The Romney campaign comes to a sudden stop when we spot a Chick-fil-A. Your chicken sandwiches were our comfort food through the primary season, and there were days that we needed a lot of comforting. So, Truett, thank you and congratulations on your well-deserved honor today.
There are some people here who are even more pleased than the graduates. Those would be the parents. Their years of prayers, devotion, and investment have added up to this joyful achievement. And with credit to Congressman Dick Armey: The American Dream is not owning your own home, it is getting your kids out of the home you own.
Lately, I’ve found myself thinking about life in four-year stretches. And let’s just say that not everybody has achieved as much in these last four years as you have.
That’s a theme for another day. But two observations. First, even though job opportunities are scarce in this economy, it is not for nothing that you have spent this time preparing. Jerry Falwell, Senior, long ago observed that “You do not determine a man’s greatness by his talent or wealth, as the world does, but rather by what it takes to discourage him.” America needs your skill and talent. If we take the right course, we will see a resurgence in the American economy that will surprise the world, and that will open new doors of opportunity for those who are prepared as you are.
Of course, what the next four years might hold for me is yet to be determined. But I will say that things are looking up, and I take your kind hospitality today as a sign of good things to come.
I consider it a great life honor to address you today. Your generosity of spirit humbles me. The welcoming spirit of Liberty is a tribute to the gracious Christian example of your founder.
In his 73 years of life, Dr. Falwell left a big mark. For nearly five decades he shared that walk with his good wife Macel. It’s wonderful to see her today. The calling Jerry answered was not an easy one. Today we remember him as a courageous and big-hearted minister of the Gospel who never feared an argument, and never hated an adversary. Jerry deserves the tribute he would have treasured most, as a cheerful, confident champion for Christ.
I will always remember his cheerful good humor and selflessness. Several years ago, in my home, my wife and I were posing for a picture together with him. We wanted him to be in the center of the photo, but he insisted that Ann be in the middle, with he and I on the sides. He explained, by pointing to me and himself, “You see, Christ died between two thieves.”
Maybe the most confident step Jerry ever took was to open the doors of this school 41 years ago.
He believed that Liberty might become one of the most respected Christian universities anywhere on earth. And so it is today.
He believed, even when the first graduating class consisted of 13 students, that year after year young Christians would be drawn to such a university in ever-greater numbers. And here you are.
Today, thanks to what you have gained here, you leave Liberty with conviction and confidence as your armor. You know what you believe. You know who you are. And you know Whom you will serve. Not all colleges instill that kind of confidence, but it will be among the most prized qualities from your education here. Moral certainty, clear standards, and a commitment to spiritual ideals will set you apart in a world that searches for meaning.
That said, your values will not always be the object of public admiration. In fact, the more you live by your beliefs, the more you will endure the censure of the world. Christianity is not the faith of the complacent, the comfortable or of the timid. It demands and creates heroic souls like Wesley, Wilberforce, Bonhoeffer, John Paul the Second, and Billy Graham. Each showed, in their own way, the relentless and powerful influence of the message of Jesus Christ. May that be your guide.
You enter a world with civilizations and economies that are far from equal. Harvard historian David Landes devoted his lifelong study to understanding why some civilizations rise, and why others falter. His conclusion: Culture makes all the difference. Not natural resources, not geography, but what people believe and value. Central to America’s rise to global leadership is our Judeo-Christian tradition, with its vision of the goodness and possibilities of every life.
The American culture promotes personal responsibility, the dignity of work, the value of education, the merit of service, devotion to a purpose greater than self, and, at the foundation, the pre-eminence of the family.
The power of these values is evidenced by a Brookings Institution study that Sen. Rick Santorum brought to my attention. For those who graduate from high school, get a full-time job, and marry before they have their first child, the probability that they will be poor is 2%. But, if those things are absent, 76% will be poor. Culture matters.
As fundamental as these principles are, they may become topics of democratic debate. So it is today with the enduring institution of marriage. Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman.
The protection of religious freedom has also become a matter of debate. It strikes me as odd that the free exercise of religious faith is sometimes treated as a problem, something America is stuck with instead of blessed with. Perhaps religious conscience upsets the designs of those who feel that the highest wisdom and authority comes from government.
But from the beginning, this nation trusted in God, not man. Religious liberty is the first freedom in our Constitution. And whether the cause is justice for the persecuted, compassion for the needy and the sick, or mercy for the child waiting to be born, there is no greater force for good in the nation than Christian conscience in action.
Religious freedom opens a door for Americans that is closed to too many others around the world. But whether we walk through that door, and what we do with our lives after we do, is up to us.
Someone once observed that the great drama of Christianity is not a crowd shot, following the movements of collectives or even nations. The drama is always personal, individual, unfolding in one’s own life. We’re not alone in sensing this. Men and women of every faith, and good people with none at all, sincerely strive to do right and lead a purpose-driven life.
And, in the way of lessons learned, by hitting the mark or by falling short, I can tell you this much for sure.
All that you have heard here at Liberty University – about trusting in God and in His purpose for each of us--makes for more than a good sermon. It makes for a good life. So many things compete for our attention and devotion. That doesn’t stop as you get older. We are all prone, at various turns, to treat the trivial things as all-important, the all-important things as trivial, and little by little lose sight of the one thing that endures forever.
No person I have ever met, not even the most righteous or pure of heart, has gone without those times when faith recedes in the busy-ness of life. It’s normal, and sometimes even the smallest glimpses of the Lord’s work in our lives can reawaken our hearts. They bring us back to ourselves – and, better still, to something far greater than ourselves.
What we have, what we wish we had – ambitions fulfilled, ambitions disappointed … investments won, investments lost … elections won, elections lost – these things may occupy our attention, but they do not define us. And each of them is subject to the vagaries and serendipities of life. Our relationship with our Maker, however, depends on none of this. It is entirely in our control, for He is always at the door, and knocks for us. Our worldly successes cannot be guaranteed, but our ability to achieve spiritual success is entirely up to us, thanks to the grace of God. The best advice I know is to give those worldly things your best but never your all, reserving the ultimate hope for the only one who can grant it.
Many a preacher has advised the same, but few as memorably as Martin Luther King, Jr. “As a young man,” he said, “with most of my life ahead of me, I decided early to give my life to something eternal and absolute. Not to these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow. But to God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
In this life, the commitments that come closest to forever are those of family.
My Dad, George Romney, was a CEO, a governor, and a member of the President’s Cabinet. My wife Ann asked him once, “What was your greatest accomplishment?” Without a moment’s pause, he said, “Raising our four kids.”
Ann and I feel the same way about our family. I have never once regretted missing a business opportunity so that I could be with my children and grandchildren. Among the things in life that can be put off, being there when it matters most isn’t one of them.
As C.S. Lewis is said to have remarked, “The home is the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose, and that is to support the ultimate career.”
Promotions often mark the high points in a career, and I hope I haven’t seen my last. But sometimes the high points come in unexpected ways. I was asked to help rescue the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.
I’m embarrassed now to recall that when this opportunity was first presented to me, I dismissed it out of hand. I was busy, I was doing well, and, by the way, my lack of athletic prowess did not make the Olympics a logical step. In fact, after I had accepted the position, my oldest son called me and said, “Dad, I’ve spoken to the brothers. We saw the paper this morning. We want you to know there’s not a circumstance we could have conceived of that would put you on the front page of the sports section.”
The Olympics were not a logical choice, but it was one of the best and most fulfilling choices of my life. Opportunities for you to serve in meaningful ways may come at inconvenient times, but that will make them all the more precious.
People of different faiths, like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology. Surely the answer is that we can meet in service, in shared moral convictions about our nation stemming from a common worldview. The best case for this is always the example of Christian men and women working and witnessing to carry God’s love into every life – people like the late Chuck Colson.
Not long ago, Chuck recounted a story from his days just after leaving prison. He was assured by people of influence that, even with a prison record, a man with his connections and experience could still live very comfortably. They would make some calls, get Chuck situated, and set him up once again as an important man. His choice at that crossroads would make him, instead, a great man.
The call to service is one of the fundamental elements of our national character. It has motivated every great movement of conscience that this hopeful, fair-minded country of ours has ever seen. Sometimes, as Dr. Viktor Frankl observed in a book for the ages, it is not a matter of what we are asking of life, but rather what life is asking of us. How often the answer to our own troubles is to help others with theirs.
In all of these things – faith, family, work, and service –the choices we make as Americans are, in other places, not choices at all. For so many on this earth, life is filled with orders, not options, right down to where they live, the work they do, and how many children the state will permit them to have. All the more reason to be grateful, this and every day, that we live in America, where the talents God gave us may be used in freedom.
At this great Christian institution, you have all learned a thing or two about these gifts and the good purposes they can serve. They are yours to have and yours to share. Sometimes, your Liberty education will set you apart, and always it will help direct your path. And as you now leave, and make for new places near and far, I hope for each one of you that your path will be long and life will be kind.
The ideals that brought you here … the wisdom you gained here … and the friends you found here – may these blessings be with you always, wherever you go.
Thank you all, and God bless you.
*
Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-read-mitt-romneys-full-address-to-liberty-university-20120513,0,6626544.story [with comments] [transcript also at http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2012/may/12/text-romneys-address-liberty-university-ar-1910638/ (with comment)]
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Commencement 2012: Paying tribute to Liberty’s heritage, God’s blessings
Mitzi Bible/Liberty University News Service
May 12, 2012
Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr., may have retold the “Miracle Story” of how Liberty University has become the world’s largest Christian university during its 39th Commencement on Saturday morning, but the packed Williams Stadium crowd only needed to look around them to see the miracle for themselves.
They saw Liberty’s largest graduating class honored — 14,012. The number of graduates has nearly quadrupled in the five years since Falwell, Jr., became chancellor after the sudden death of his father, Liberty’s founder, Dr. Jerry Falwell, Sr [ http://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=6921 ]. Liberty now enrolls over 90,000 students and will surpass 100,000 in the next 12 months.
They saw thousands more parents, grandparents, siblings, spouses, children and close friends arrive to campus several hours early just so they could support their loved ones and celebrate their achievement on this important day.
They saw more than 2,000 military personnel receiving their degrees while serving and protecting our country.
And they saw a prominent Virginia businessman honored on the same stage with the founder of Chick-Fil-A and a presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
No doubt the largest crowd ever for a Liberty Commencement, Saturday’s event was historic in many other ways.
Falwell took the opportunity to formally announce Liberty’s intention to move its football program to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level, after recently completing various feasibility studies. The move will be finalized when Liberty is invited to join an FBS conference, he said.
Falwell also announced this year that Liberty will top $1 billion in net assets, making it the youngest university in American history to reach this tier.
“My father announced publicly, shortly before his death in 2007, that he was praying for a five-year $1 billion miracle for Liberty,” he said. “This was at a time when Liberty’s net assets were less than one-tenth that amount. I have to admit many of us thought it would take a generation or more to reach that goal. Over the last five years, though, God has taught us all that there is no limit to what He can do.”
And there’s no limit to what God can do in the lives of people committed to Him, a theme that rang true from the invocation given by Dr. Elmer Towns, co-founder and Dean of the School of Religion [ http://www.liberty.edu/academics/religion/ ] and Dean of Liberty University Baptist Theological Seminary [ http://www.liberty.edu/academics/religion/seminary/ ], to an address by world-renowned evangelist Luis Palau, to Falwell’s charge to the graduates and the speech delivered by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
Romney was introduced by Liberty alumnus Mark DeMoss (’84), a friend of Romney’s who founded the DeMoss Group, a national public relations firm, and whose father was one of Falwell, Sr.’s closest friends and confidants.
Romney paid tribute to Falwell, Sr., many times in his 20-minute speech, recalling having met him in his home seven months before he died. Romney called it a “great life honor” to speak at Liberty’s Commencement.
“Your generosity of spirit humbles me, the welcoming spirit of Liberty is a tribute to the gracious Christian example of your founder,” he said. “In his 73 years of life, Dr. Falwell left a big mark. … The calling Jerry answered was not an easy one. Today we remember him as a courageous and big-hearted minister of the Gospel, who never feared an argument and never hated an adversary. Jerry deserves the tribute he would have treasured most: as a cheerful, confident Champion for Christ.”
Romney said the most confident step Falwell, Sr. ever took “was to open the doors of this school 41 years ago.”
“He believed that Liberty might become one of the most respected Christian universities anywhere on the earth and so it is today,” Romney said. “He believed even when the first graduating class consisted of only 13 students that year after year young Christians would be drawn to such a university in ever great numbers — here you are. Today, thanks to what you have gained here, you leave Liberty with conviction and confidence as your armor. You know what you believe, you know who you are and you know whom you will you serve. Not all colleges instill that kind of confidence.”
Romney spoke briefly about his own convictions, receiving a standing ovation when he stated marriage was a relationship between one man and one woman.
He also spoke about the protection of religious freedom, “the first freedom in our Constitution” and putting that faith into service.
“Whether the cause is justice for the persecuted, compassion for the needy and the sick, or mercy for the child waiting to be born, there is no greater force for good in the nation than Christian conscience in action,” he said.
Service and moral convictions is where “people of different faiths, like yours and mine” can meet in "common purpose," he said.
Romney graduated from Brigham Young University in 1971, and continued on to earn dual degrees from Harvard Law and Harvard Business School. A businessman and career consultant, he co-founded and later served as CEO for the investment firm, Bain Capital.
During a significant time in his career, Romney was asked to take over the managing role of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, which was on the verge of collapse. Under his leadership, the budget was salvaged, the public’s confidence was restored, and Salt Lake City staged one of the most successful games ever held on U.S. soil.
Romney married his childhood friend, Ann, in 1969. They have five sons and 18 grandchildren.
*
Commencement 2012 notables
By Drew Menard/Liberty University News Service
During his welcome speech, as he traditionally does, Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. [ http://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=14588 ], shared a few words highlighting some notable graduates in this year’s class.
This year’s oldest graduate, at 77, is Dolores Darrell and Liberty’s youngest is Gabrielle Turnquest, age 17.
Falwell gave special recognition to those graduates who completed their degree through Liberty University Online [ http://www.luonline.com/ ], many of whom could not have obtained a college degree without it.
“As part of Liberty’s Christian mission we have sought to make Christian education affordable and accessible for as many individuals as possible,” Falwell said. “Liberty University Online has achieved that objective like nothing else could.”
Katherine McInnis began her college journey in 1977 but had to drop out because of financial challenges. She enrolled in Liberty Online as a mother and grandmother and today, on her 53rd birthday, graduated Summa Cum Laude.
In 1998, graduate Katheryn Armstrong broke her back while taking classes at Liberty. She enrolled in Liberty online to finish her degree, and thanks to a miraculous new surgical technique, walked across the stage at graduation, after years of being confined to a wheelchair.
Falwell was reminded of Liberty’s humble beginnings from Mark Rhoades, Jr., who attended classes in 1974 when Liberty’s classes were held at the old Thomas Road Baptist Church site and the land on which William’s stadium now rests was home to a dairy barn.
Rhoades also had to leave Liberty after only one year and later returned to obtain his B.S. in 2010, and this year received his M.A in Human Services.
Falwell, citing Liberty’s family-friendly atmosphere, said that three sisters — Hannah Ellenburg, Catherine Comfort and Emily Ellenburg — graduated together today and their fourth sister, Sarah Ellenburg, is a freshman. Resident student Katie Raybould told Falwell at last week’s senior picnic [ http://www.liberty.edu/news/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=55055 ] that three members of her immediate family graduate together today.
Mike Morrison and his sister, Danielle, graduated today. Mike, a member of the Flames hockey team [ http://www.liberty.edu/campusrec/clubsports/index.cfm?PID=5272 ], will play pro hockey [ http://www.liberty.edu/news/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=49851 ] in New Zealand this summer.
Falwell somberly honored Ron King who was awarded his doctorate in ministry [ http://www.luonline.com/index.cfm?PID=14381 ] today, posthumously. King passed away on Feb. 7 this year and his wife Sharon King, of Huntsville, Ala., was present at today’s ceremony.
He expressed sorrow for her loss, but wanted her to know that Liberty “is not just your husband’s alma mater, but your extended family.”
Falwell also told the miracle story of Patrick Andrews, who so many have come to fondly know as “the man in the orange shirt.” At the ceremony, Andrews was wearing an orange cap.
Andrews began his studies at Liberty in 1994. During that year he was in a car accident that changed his life forever, putting him in a coma for six weeks and giving him severe head trauma. After the accident, Andrews was only capable of taking a limited number of credit hours per semester, but he never quit, following Falwell, Sr.’s repeated admonition.
Today, after nearly two decades of perseverance and determination, Andrews received his bachelor’s degree in communications at 40 years of age.
Falwell said that the Class of 2012 is one of a few special classes to enroll at Liberty after his father’s sudden death five years ago.
“The first few classes of students in my tenure as president will always have a special place in our hearts.”
*
Honorary doctorates
By BJ Williams/Liberty University News Service
Liberty University’s Board of Trustees conferred three honorary doctorate degrees during the 39th Commencement ceremony.
Worth Harris Carter, Jr.
Worth Harris Carter, Jr. was born in Richmond, Va., in 1937. He began his career as a cashier. The job provided income while he earned a B.A. in political science and history at the University of Richmond. He then attended two years of law school at the University of Virginia, but for financial reasons was unable to finish. Later, he became a bank examiner. Between 1973 And 1998, Carter founded 10 separate community banks. Those 10 banks merged in 2006 to form Carter Bank and Trust where Worth Carter now serves as the chairman and president.
His bank provided Liberty with short-term loans beginning in 1988 and with its first long-term mortgage financing in 1997 after donors like Arthur L. Williams, Jr., gave generously to reduce its debt.
Carter was presented the Doctor of Business degree.
“Worth Carter, Jr. has fought the good fight and has been quietly used by God to make a difference here at Liberty and in the lives of many individuals. You would be wise to follow his example of perseverance, integrity and a strong worth ethic,” said Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr.
S. Truett Cathy
Cathy is the founder of the Chick-Fil-A [ http://www.chick-fil-a.com/ ] restaurant chain, with over 1,600 locations in 38 states and in the District of Columbia. He was presented the Doctor of Humanities for his “commitment to faith and excellence in business, and for modeling the vision of Liberty University to the world,” Falwell said.
Governor Mitt Romney
Romney, 2012 Republican party nominee for president, was presented with a Doctor of Humanities degree.
“Governor Mitt Romney is on the front lines, representing and defending the uniquely American ideals that are important to this institution, and to the future of our nation,” Falwell said.
- On Friday night, Dr. Luis Palau, evangelist and president of the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association, was presented with an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree during the 39th Baccalaureate service [ http://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=55289 ].
Copyright 2012 Liberty University®
http://www.liberty.edu/news/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=55432 [with the above YouTube of Romney's speech embedded]
===
Falwell Sr. would be 'proud' to welcome Romney, adviser says
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigned last week in Portsmouth.
Credit: ALEXA WELCH EDLUND/TIMES-DISPATCH
By: Andrew Cain | Times-Dispatch
Published: May 10, 2012
Updated: May 10, 2012 - 12:53 PM
LYNCHBURG Va. -- The late Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr. would be proud that Mitt Romney, a Mormon, will deliver Saturday's commencement address at Liberty University, says a Romney adviser who serves on Liberty's board of trustees.
"This would be a proud day for Jerry Falwell," Mark DeMoss, chairman of the Liberty board's executive committee, told CNN today.
Falwell, who founded the evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, met the former governor at Romney's Massachusetts home months before Falwell died in May 2007, said DeMoss, who was present at that meeting.
"He had a lot or respect and admiration for him," DeMoss said.
As for Saturday's commencement: "He loved these kinds of days where the university could be on display to a large audience and to host a prominent leader, which the governor certainly is. So this was his kind of day."
The campaigns of President Barack Obama and Romney view Virginia, with 13 electoral votes, as a key swing state. The president and the first lady held a rally last Saturday at Virginia Commonwealth University's Siegel Center. First lady Michelle Obama delivers a commencement address tomorrow at Virginia Tech.
Romney recently campaigned in Fairfax County and in Portsmouth. He also held a Northern Virginia fundraiser.
CNN noted that some Liberty students have noted on Facebook that they disapprove of the invitation to Romney because of his Mormon faith.
In recent years a majority of Liberty University's commencement speakers have been from outside the evangelical Christian faith and Romney is the third Mormon to address a Liberty commencement, DeMoss said.
"We think students, in most part, would like to hear from someone who very well could be the next president of the United States and it's a great opportunity."
Speaking of the president and Romney, DeMoss said, "One of these two men will be the next president of the United States. People need to look at these two."
DeMoss said he thinks the president's statement Wednesday of unequivocal support for gay marriage will increase evangelicals' support for Romney.
"I think it will push a significant majority of them closer to him," DeMoss said.
The economy remains a key issue, but "we have a clear contrast that was maybe less clear previously."
©2012 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC
http://www2.wsls.com/news/2012/may/10/6/falwell-sr-would-be-proud-to-welcome-romney-at-lib-ar-1905535/ [with comment]
===
Community Viewpoint: Romney, Falwell on Tolerance, Hope
By: Kerri Toloczko | The News & Advance
Published: May 12, 2012
"God damn America for as long as she acts like God and is supreme,” said President Obama’s pastor of 20 years in an iconic one liner that embodied Jeremiah Wright’s acidic view of our nation.
Speaking of candidate Obama, Reverend Wright also noted, “Barack knows what it means living in a country controlled by rich white people.”
If current polling trends are accurate, the president might find himself in that circumstance (which he seems to believe is true) once again on Inauguration Day 2013.
In a decision of astounding political weakness, 2008 Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain refused to use Wright’s hateful statements and close association with the Democratic nominee as a campaign issue. As a result, the current presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney is not just running against Obama and everything he stands for — he is also running against everything Wright stands for — a monumentally un-Christian intolerance for anyone who does not share his racism, disturbing beliefs and hatred for America.
As this first vetting of a sitting president has fallen on Gov. Romney, his planned commencement address at Liberty University today is brilliant for Romney and Liberty, as both have been assailed repeatedly for their respective beliefs.
In cased you missed it, Romney is Mormon. He is running for president of the United States, not the Southern Baptist Convention. Our nation has generally surged past religious litmus tests for the presidency, but not in all quarters. In 2008, a group of Huckabee-supporting pastors claimed that to vote for a Mormon was to “violate Scripture” and put forth “Seven Questions Christians Must Ask Before Voting for A Mormon.”
None included, “Does he have the experience and qualifications to be president?”
Those voices now are now silenced by data. According to an April 17 poll by the Pew Research Center, Romney has no need to chase what may be his most important voting block as has already won over white evangelicals 73 percent to Obama’s 20 percent.
A traditional Democratic voting block, Catholics voted for Obama over McCain by 9 points. But Catholics are sensitive to policy issues relating to them, and their support of Obama has dropped dramatically. Romney now leads with 57 percent of Catholic voters.
LU is the world’s largest Christian university. Its 12,000 resident and 60,000 online students have made a decision to pursue first-class education while also becoming “Champions for Christ.” Founded in 1971 by Jerry Falwell Sr., since his death in 2007 the university has continued its meteoric program and student growth, academic recognition and economic stability under the direction of Chancellor Jerry L. Falwell Jr.
Liberty has had its share of problems and attacks. Now on sound financial footing, it has struggled with heavy debt several times. In 2011, LU was attacked in the media when a Department of Education report revealed that “Liberty” received $445 million in federal student aid — the largest in the state. Accused — by liberals — of being hypocritical to its conservative, limited government roots, the reality is that LU is attracting more and more students, especially through its online curriculum and special programs for current and former members of the military and their spouses — all of whom show up on its doorstep with loans, grants and GI Bill monies in hand.
It has always been attacked by secular critics who refer to its biblical, Christian values as intolerant, insular or radical — usually without ever having been there or meeting a single student.
Romney has something to say to America about religious tolerance, core American values and hope for the future, and so does Falwell.
Overcoming the utterly false narrative of an intolerant campus with an equally intolerant student body is a priority for LU.
Romney is likely to include message similar to his “Faith in America” speech from 2007 when he spoke passionately about religious liberty and how his faith values would guide a Romney presidency.
The negative, bitter messages from President Obama and Jeremiah Wright have oozed into the American psyche, and only strong, positive messages will change this disastrous course. There is a reason why religious freedom is our first freedom — with it comes decency, honesty and integrity. It is a moral guidepost for all other freedoms.
This commencement address is an opportunity for two men with differing goals — and thousands of young Christians — to proclaim that America is still good, welcoming and blessed. Statements of hate and intolerance will not stand here.
There is room for respectful theological differences for people who prefer to “bless America” as exemplified by LU’s motto, taken from II Corinthians: “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
Toloczko is senior vice president for policy with the Institute for Liberty ( http://www.instituteforliberty ), headquartered in Washington, D.C. She is also the mother of a Liberty University sophomore.
©2012 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC
http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2012/may/12/community-viewpoint-romney-falwell-tolerance-hope-ar-1908402/ [with comments]
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Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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