If you read my last post titled "Why Romney Can't Win the Presidency and Still be a Good Mormon," you're fully aware that I do not feel that Mr. Romney can campaign, be the POTUS and still uphold the basic tenets of the Mormon faith.
A lot about Mr. Romney's political belief systems have come to light over the past couple of weeks with the RNC convention and his recent "secret" videos released, much to the Republican's dismay (and Democrat's glee).
Early Mormons (of whom Mitt is a direct descendant) practiced communalism (used or shared in common by everyone in a group). "In early Utah, Brigham Young continued to emphasize—even more earnestly, perhaps—community over the individual. 'I have heard Elders say they were not dependant upon any man,' President Young once chafed. This was a gross misunderstanding of the gospel, he explained, 'for I consider that we are all dependent one upon another for our exhalta-tion & that our interest is insperably connected.' http://www.patheos.com/blogs/peculiarpeople/2012/07/individualism-communalism-and-the-foreign-past-of-mormonism/
The Mormon church has been lauded as one of the most successful corporations in the world, a top-down, hierarchal, partriarchy with billions of dollars in assets, from property, business, amusement parks, etc. The Mormon church also does extensive philanthropic work, from the Bishop's Storehouse (a sort of in-house welfare system for those members unable to feed their families), to natural disaster relief all over the world. I have great admiration for the Mormon welfare system and have, as a child (and one of 7 children in a family that hit some rough financial patches) been the recipient of this beneficence (and may explain to this day why I hate fake potatoes, unsalted ketchup, and powdered milk).
In Businessweek magazine, an article titled "How the Mormons Make Money," the author writes “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints attends to the total needs of its members,” says Keith B. McMullin, who for 37 years served within the Mormon leadership and now heads a church-owned holding company, Deseret Management Corp. (DMC), an umbrella organization for many of the church’s for-profit businesses. “We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.” http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-10/how-the-mormons-make-money
Over time, the Mormons moved from communalism to a more accepted economic model (perhaps when the Mormons had to give up polygamy to achieve statehood, or when they figured that doing business with Gentiles was just too darn good to pass by?), but when did the economic model and the economic values that nominee Romney espouses turn into unmitigated disdain for 47% of the American electorate? In his now infamous tape scandal of the past week, Mitt Romney, for once an animate life form, said this of the people he believes will not pay any income taxes (the 47% recently mentioned, you know, the elderly, veterans, working poor, single mothers, etc. that still pay payroll tax, but never mind, I digress), "...I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
To a Mormon, all work is missionary work. Every encounter with someone of a different faith or lifestyle is an opportunity, cancel that, a responsibility of every believing Mormon, to share the truth of the gospel from their hearts. Unless you're the Republican candidate to be president of the United States at a $50,000 a plate fundraiser.
This is from the Doctrine and Covenants, a Mormon scripture written by Joseph Smith, said to come to the prophet directly from God:
For verily I say unto you, the time has come, and is now at hand; and behold, and lo, it must needs be that there be an organization of my people, in regulating and establishing the affairs of the storehouse for the poor of my people, both in this place and in the land of Zion.
For a permanent and everlasting establishment and order unto my church, to advance the cause, which ye have espoused, to the salvation of man, and to the glory of your Father who is in heaven;
That you may be equal in the bonds of heavenly things, yea, and earthly things also, for the obtaining of heavenly things.
For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things.
Doctrine and Covenants 78:3-6
I added the bold. For fun.
See, this much touted Republican party line and its gutting of education, the arts, community works, ad nauseam and its Rand-esque leanings is completely at odds with what Mormons inherently believe about living in a society that shares responsibilities and helping people in a time of need. This marauding rampage through the middle class, Mitt Romney's political solution is indeed inherently opposed with scripture written by the founder of the Mormon church, a Mormon church that Romney regularly attends. That Romney pays 10% of his income to. That Romney supposedly BELIEVES in.
But here, I feel, is the great disappointment. The Mormons, who feel so out of step with mainstream society for their religious views (and are regularly labeled by evangelicals as non-Christians and cultish), their secret temples and sacred vows of secrecy, finally have their guy. MITT! He was a bishop! A stake president! A businessman! We love him!!!!!
Which can only lead me to conclude one of two things: either Mitt is simply a talking head for the people pulling the strings of American plutocracy, or he really decided he wanted to be president more than he wanted to go to the Celestial Kingdom. My bet is on the latter.
