Will Mormon faith hurt bid for White House?

The ex-governor says questions about his faith are fair to ask. Some queries he answers directly.

"I don't drink alcohol, I don't smoke, I don't drink coffee or tea. I also do a tithe," he says, meaning he donates 10% of his income to the church. All are church requirements.

Romney responds more generally when asked if he has participated in an endowment ceremony, in which men and women take vows of secrecy about temple rites and of obedience to the Lord, and begin the daily practice of wearing a sacred "temple garment" resembling abbreviated long underwear.

"I do attend the temple of my church … and people can learn about that by contacting the church," he says, adding: "I'm sure on the Internet you can find every single aspect of what's entailed."

There are several distinctive aspects of Mormonism, however, that shape public perception and may affect Romney's political fate:

•Theology. Historian Jan Shipps, author of Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition, says Mormons hold beliefs that "people always find sort of strange."

Among them:

People are on a journey toward godhood, the dead can be baptized, and God speaks to man today through living apostles and prophets, such as LDS president Gordon Hinckley.

Mormons also believe the Book of Mormon is the word of God while the Bible is "the word of God as far as it is translated correctly."

•Polygamy. The Mormon church banned polygamy in 1890 and punishes it with excommunication. Yet any time a tiny sect is charged in a polygamy case, says Richard Ostling, co-author of Mormon America, people recall Mormon history, and some think the church still sanctions the practice.

The situation is aggravated by "Big Love", an HBO television series about polygamists who live in Utah but who are not Mormons.

"They have tried to make it plain in their publicity and their scripts," Otterson says. "The trouble is that any time you mention Utah and polygamy, then you draw the association."

•Racial history. All devout Mormon men are ordained as priests, but blacks were excluded until 1978 when church president Spencer Kimball said he had a revelation from the Lord that "every faithful, worthy man in the Church" may receive priesthood.

"Since then the church has made a tremendous effort to appeal to black members," Shipps says.

•Secrecy. Ostling calls the church "unusually secretive for an institution of its size." Financial and administrative matters are closely held, he says. Chapel services are open, but temples and worship ceremonies, including weddings, are closed to non-Mormons. The Romneys were married in a civil ceremony attended by Ann's parents and hundreds of guests, followed by a small temple ceremony for Mormons only.

•Discipline. Mormons are free to disagree with their church but can be excommunicated by local authorities for heretical teachings or open challenges to theology and practices. They can't attend temple, take communion or tithe but can go to chapel services and stay active.

"There is no shunning," Shipps says.

Author Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a Harvard historian and practicing Mormon, says she "deplores" the excommunications but adds that they are not unique to her faith.

•Proselytizing. Mormons energetically seek members from other faiths. Sometimes they perform proxy baptisms of deceased Jews and other non-Mormons, in case they want to convert in the afterlife.
Ulrich says the Mormon view is "we're the truth, and we want to convert you."

Asked to square that with a president's duty to a diverse nation, Romney says that "almost every faith I've ever encountered tends to make people better people and draw them closer to their creator. I respect and admire almost every faith I've encountered."

Does he disagree with any aspect of LDS?

"I wouldn't take it upon myself to try in any way to distance myself from my faith. I love my church. I am not going to pick and choose doctrines and beliefs."

*My Thoughts*

There you have it, Mitt Romney doesn’t “pick and choose doctrines and beliefs”. He supports the church’s teachings 100%. And, to top it off, he has even suggested to the American voters to search the Internet and find out what his church teaches.

Does this mean “limit your reach” to only faith promoting sites, like lds.org?

Here’s a list of sites that pop up when you go to Google and type the following into the search bar: (my thanks to Steve Benson)

"Mormon temple garments" and "Mormon temple ceremony"

Once there, curious minds can click on a few of the links provided below (which have, like, pictures and everything!):

Wikipedia has this to say about temple garments

Here's a site about the ceremony

Some more about the garments

Some stuff about the naked touching in the temple

Some good pictures of garments

Here's the handshakes

Here's the entire ceremony, start to finish

Another one about what goes on inside the temple

Comparison between pre-1990 and post-1990 ceremonies

How many times the ceremony has been changed

Why recent changes in the temple ordinances could be considered apostacy

Thanks, Mitt, for finally doing what your own prophet, Gordon Hinckley won’t do: lead the people to the truth about the Mormon religion. And, you say that there isn’t any aspect of the church that you don’t agree with?

Blood Oaths in the temple (prior to 1990) (eerily similar to Masonic temple rites)

Law of Consecration (promising to give all your time and wordly goods, even your very life, for the uplifting and sanctification of the church)

Eternal Progression

Polygamy as an ideal arrangement (it is illegal to practice today, but if it was not, every Mormon male would be compelled to participate in it)

Bizzare teachings of Brigham Young (which you would have to support in order to call yourself a Mormon, otherwise it dishonors those early pioneer members and generations of Mormons in your genealogy)

Blood Atonement (making Christ’s sacrifice insufficient for the most grievous offenses like shedding innocent blood or adultery)

Joseph Smith’s right to be polygamously married to women who were already married to other men, and even young girls as young as 14 years old.

The curse of Cain, and why men of African decent could not hold priesthood until 1978.

(Why do Mormons profess to believe that men are accountable for their own sins, and not Adam’s transgression, and then teach that Blacks are a cursed race because of Cain’s sin?)

I don’t think there are going to be many folks voting for a Mormon in ANY office after doing the research on Mitt, surely the journalists will have some more interesting and thought provoking questions to ask Mr. Romney in the coming months. He won’t be able to bat them away towards the Internet either, that just raises many more questions than answers.

Judging solely on the revamped look of the pages at lds.org, you would never know ANYTHING about the true teachings of the church, unless you were a member, or an ex-member. And it’s likely that the ex-members will be willing to be completely honest and forthright with what the church would rather bury deep and forget.

I personally feel that as time goes by, Mitt will be followed and haunted by his own personal protest group, just like those who go and stand outside new temple open houses and demonstrate against the church. Only these guys will have copies of the oaths that Mitt took inside the temple walls, promising his allegiance to his church and its leaders. There will be little denying that when it comes down to the wire, either he took the oaths and participated fully in the rituals, or he lied when he says he didn’t take any such oath. It’s all part and parcel of the Mormon faith, no “picking and choosing” allowed.

I was wondering how long it would take the media to link Mitt Romney to Marion Romney, his uncle and a General Authority in the church for 47 years.

I found this little tidbit regarding the Law of Consecration that Marion Romney said:

President Marion G. Romney addressed the inevitable question of whether we could or should be living the law of consecration now. "It is thus apparent that when the principles of tithing and the fast are properly observed and the welfare plan gets fully developed and wholly into operation, we shall not be so very far from carrying out the great fundamental of the United Order. The only limitation on you and me is within ourselves" (Look to God and Live, 1973, 227-28, cited in Backman and Perkins, 179).

Yikes! The United Order, sounds like a cult commune to me!

So, if Mitt actually were to become president (or any other temple recommend holding Mormon) the questions about the Law of Consecration should definitely come into play. How about Mitt Romney handing over power and control of the U.S. to the "authority" of the Mormon Church, as prophesied by Joseph Smith 165 years ago!

In theory, this could have happened years ago, and that's what Joseph was trying to accomplish himself when he ran for president. I doubt that Mitt Romney is running on behalf of the Mormon church, but to continue to deny and obfuscate about his doctrinal beliefs will only harm him in the end. People will put up with private religious views only if they can be assured that the candidate can keep them separate from his mundane life. Mitt Romney is not one of these candidates.