Mitt Skips The Mormon Moment (the spinning that keeps on spinning)

GREENVILLE, South Carolina – It doesn't take many conversation in this Southern Baptist state to see why members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints complain of widespread discrimination. It's a place where Mitt Romney's religion faces regular questions from voters, a laboratory for the findings of a new Pew survey in which Mormons said they face more discrimination than African-Americans.

Romney's rise has elevated along with him some Americans' suspicion of his faith. It has also brought forward Mormons' own historic sense of persecution. Spend some time in an LDS chapel and you’re bound to notice a theme of persecution running through the congregational chatter—from outraged recaps of the latest Bill Maher rant, to somber tales of hardship endured by early Mormon pioneers. The religion's DNA is infused with a sort of outsider’s defensiveness that conditions its adherents to expect bias at every turn--and confront it for the sake of the faith.

But if combatting, and sometimes complaining about, bigotry is part of the modern Mormon experience, someone forgot to tell Mitt Romney.

As a top-tier presidential candidate during the so-called "Mormon moment," Romney has been extremely reluctant to wade into the public debates surrounding his faith.

Exhibit A is the anti-Mormon broadside delivered by a Rick Perry supporter during last October's Value Voters' Summit. After introducing Perry at the event, Rev. Robert Jeffress drew a crowd of reporters to the outside lobby, where he assailed Mormonism as a non-Christian "cult" that should keep Romney out of the White House.

The LDS community erupted in fits of indignation, taking to Twitter and Facebook to defend the faith. When CNN's Anderson Cooper conducted a tough, scolding interview with Jeffress, the YouTube clip immediately went viral in the Mormon blogosphere.

But with the mainstream media coming to his defense, the candidate was content to quietly bask in what Slate's Dave Weigel called to as "a substance heretofore unknown to nature: sympathy for Mitt Romney." When Romney finally did address the situation, he went out of his way not to answer the claims directly. "I just don't believe that that kind of divisiveness based upon religion has a place in this country," he said broadly, calling on Perry to "repudiate" the pastor's remarks.

The Texas governor never quite got around to a full repudiation, and when a debate moderator pressed the issue a couple weeks later, Romney looked more uncomfortable on stage than his opponent did. As Perry repeated that he had already said he disagreed with the pastor's remarks and that he "can't apologize any more than that," Romney nodded his head furiously, urging the moderator to move on by insisting, "That's fine. That's fine."

Romney's approach to Mormon-centric controversies has long been out step with his co-religionists'. In 1994, during his bid for the Senate in Massachusetts, Romney tried to deflect Ted Kennedy's public criticism of Mormonism by simply changing the subject. The strategy so frustrated his father, George, that he actually interrupted his son once during a press conference to voice offense at what he considered below-the-belt attacks.

"I think it is absolutely wrong to keep hammering on the religious issues. And what Ted is trying to do is bring it into the picture," interjected George Romney. (The Michigan governor's approach to Mormonism had been entirely different. As he explored his own presidential campaign in 1967 in Anchorage, Alaska, George Romney brought the traveling press along to Sunday morning services, The Washington Post's David Broder reported at the time.)

More recently, while many Latter-Day Saints were condemning the Broadway smash "The Book of Mormon"--which lampoons the faith, South Park-style--Romney fed an interviewer a focus group-friendly line about how he'd like to take the show in sometime. "It's a Tony-award winner, big phenomenon--yeah, I want to see it someday," he said. "But I don't have a lot of time for Broadway shows."

None of this should be mistaken for a lack of commitment to his religion. Before entering politics, Romney served in several leadership capacities in the church, and Mormons in early primary states share anecdotal evidence that he still takes joy in meeting his fellow "saints" on the campaign trail.

Chris Cavarretta, of Stratham, New Hampshire, said his fellow Mormon friend met Romney last week at a campaign stop and told him to "choose the right"--a popular LDS slogan similar to "What would Jesus do?"

But Romney's reluctance to look like he's playing the victim is understandable. While some conservative figures like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann have proven adept at converting attacks on their faith into political points, the same rules don't apply to Mormonism.

For one thing, the battle lines aren't quite as neatly drawn: when you're taking fire from both secular entertainers and Baptist ministers, it often makes more electoral sense to raise the white flag than to declare war on everyone.

And if Romney were to speak up in instances when his church was being unfairly targeted, reporters might then expect him to answer other, more complicated cultural and theological questions--and there would be lots of them. According to Pew, the gap in understanding is wide: the most common word Mormons used to describe their faith was "Christian," while the most popular descriptor employed by non-Mormons was "cult."

But while it's probably politically savvy, Romney's strategy also creates some unusual tension between the candidate and his faith community. While many Mormons see a Romney White House as their best shot at broad cultural acceptance, they also see that Candidate Romney is downplaying his religion in order to get there. Some Mormons understand this, but others wish he would use his megaphone to stand up for their shared beliefs.

Noah Feldman, a Harvard scholar who has studied Mormonism, said this is an age-old dilemma for minorities trying to achieve greater acceptance through political clout.

"There have always been two lines of thought on this," Feldman said. "There's one group that says the way you overcome prejudice is you do a little soft pedaling, and when he's president, he's still going to be the first Mormon president."

This philosophy has often been met with resistance from activist sectors of a given minority. For example, during the 2008 campaign, some black leaders--like Cornel West and Travis Smiley--questioned Obama's commitment to the black community, because he wasn't talking enough about issues that affect poor urban minorities.

But campaigning as a defender of the faith, or the race, isn't an obvious path to majority support. "One could say, 'I don't care if it takes another 50 years, I don't want to compromise,'" said Feldman. "I would strongly respect that view too, but patience might be necessary."

In Romney's case, there's not much risk of a widespread Mormon backlash to his under-the-radar approach to the faith. Some may not like it, but the Pew study shows that 86 percent of all Mormon voters view Romney favorably. (Jon Huntsman, who has described himself as a less orthodox Latter-Day Saint, only scores a favorability rating of 50 percent from his fellow Mormons.)

The year ahead may be a grueling one for Mormons but, said Feldman, "Mormonism has a history of winning over its critics."

It's a place where Mitt Romney's religion faces regular questions from voters, a laboratory for the findings of a new Pew survey in which Mormons said they face more discrimination than African-Americans.

That's just TOO bad!

"You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind.

The first man that committed the odious crime of killing one of his brethren will be cursed the longest of any one of the children of Adam. Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings.

This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then another curse is pronounced upon the same race--that they should be the 'servant of servants', and they will be, until that curse is removed."

Brigham Young-President and second 'Prophet' of the Mormon Church, 1844-1877- Extract from Journal of Discourses.

Here are two examples from their 'other testament', the Book of Mormon.

2 Nephi 5: 21 'And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people, the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.'

Alma 3: 6 'And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren, who consisted of Nephi, Jacob and Joseph, and Sam, who were just and holy men.'

August 27, 1954 in an address at Brigham Young University (BYU), Mormon Elder, Mark E Peterson, in speaking to a convention of teachers of religion at the college level, said:

"The discussion on civil rights, especially over the last 20 years, has drawn some very sharp lines. It has blinded the thinking of some of our own people, I believe. They have allowed their political affiliations to color their thinking to some extent.I think I have read enough to give you an idea of what the Negro is after."
"He is not just seeking the opportunity of sitting down in a cafe where white people eat. He isn't just trying to ride on the same streetcar or the same Pullman car with white people. It isn't that he just desires to go to the same theater as the white people. From this, and other interviews I have read, it appears that the Negro seeks absorption with the white race. He will not be satisfied until he achieves it by intermarriage."
"That is his objective and we must face it. We must not allow our feelings to carry us away, nor must we feel so sorry for Negroes that we will open our arms and embrace them with everything we have. Remember the little statement that we used to say about sin, 'First we pity, then endure, then embrace'...."

(Rosa Parks would have probably told Petersen under which wheel of the bus he should go sit.)

1967, (then) Mormon President Ezra Taft Benson said,

"The Communist program for revolution in America has been in progress for many years and is far advanced. First of all, we must not place the blame upon Negroes. They are merely the unfortunate group that has been selected by professional Communist agitators to be used as the primary source of cannon fodder."

We are told that on June 8, 1978, it was 'revealed' to the then president, Spencer Kimball, that people of color could now gain entry into the priesthood.

According to the church, Kimball spent many long hours petitioning God, begging him to give worthy black people the priesthood. God finally relented.

Sometime before the 'revelation' came to chief 'Prophet' Spencer Kimball in June 1978, General Authority, Bruce R McConkie had said:

"The Blacks are denied the Priesthood; under no circumstances can they hold this delegation of authority from the Almighty.
The Negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain blessings are concerned, particularly the priesthood and the temple blessings that flow there from, but this inequality is not of man's origin, it is the Lord's doings."
(Mormon Doctrine, pp. 526-527).

When Mormon 'Apostle' Mark E Petersen spoke on 'Race Problems- As they affect the Church' at the BYU campus in 1954, the following was also said:

"...if the negro accepts the gospel with real, sincere faith, and is really converted, to give him the blessings of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get celestial glory."

When Mormon 'Prophet' and second President of the Church, Brigham Young, spoke in 1863 the following was also said:

"Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God is death on the spot. This will always be so."
(Journal of Discourses, Vo. 10, p. 110)

Yeah; Native Americans are althroughout the Book of MORMON; too.

“I saw a striking contrast in the progress of the Indian people today ... they are fast becoming a white and delightsome people.... For years they have been growing delightsome, and they are now becoming white and delightsome, as they were promised.... The children in the home placement program in Utah are often lighter than their brothers and sisters in the hogans on the reservation.

At one meeting a father and mother and their sixteen-year-old daughter were present, the little member girl-sixteen-sitting between the dark father and mother, and it was evident she was several shades lighter than her parents—on the same reservation, in the same hogan, subject to the same sun and wind and weather.... These young members of the Church are changing to whiteness and to delightsomeness.

One white elder jokingly said that he and his companion were donating blood regularly to the hospital in the hope that the process might be accelerated.

(Improvement Era, December 1960, pp.922-23). (p. 209)

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