Mormon-Catholic pairing makes for historically unique GOP ticket

foxnews.com ^ | Aug 11 2012 | Tommy Firth

[NoLibZone]

With the choice of devout Catholic Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney, a Mormon, has arguably crafted the most religiously unique ticket in presidential history. Both religions have interesting precedent in presidential politics, however, with varying degrees of success.

John F. Kennedy was famously the first and only Catholic to be elected president. Less than two months before the 1960 election, JFK addressed the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in a hope to allay fears that the pope would use him as a conduit into American politics.

Mitt Romney's father, George, also a Mormon, was a serious Republican candidate for president in 1968. Most political observers believe he didn't get far enough in the process to have his Mormon faith fully examined or questioned. Perhaps facing a more determined press than in '68, Mitt's Mormonism was questioned in his first run for president. He, like JFK, felt the need to address his faith publicly and did so in December 2007.

Read more: http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2012/08/11/mormon-catholic-pairing-makes-historically-unique-gop-ticket/#ixzz23GUbjkaK

[Elsie]

Catholics and Mormons have a respect for the religious convictions of others and debating religious differences will not be time consuming for either.

Yes!

I've NOTICED that!

--MormonDude(At least I think it's RESPECT.)

[Elsie]

They are the mirror image of the racist boogeyman who goes to the Obama events and shout the n***** word.

Mitt was 32 when his 'god' changed it's mind...

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"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.

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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.'

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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.)

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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."

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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.

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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).

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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."

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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)

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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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[Elsie]

I did not ask God to bless you but I repeat, God bless Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

Why should 'GOD' even CONSIDER 'blessing' ROMNEY?

A man that DENIES the efficy of Christ's blood to forgive ALL manner of sin?

[Elsie]

Gosh, just don’t send me those bombs, just say it, this thread is already too cluttered to navigate through, I don’t want to have to spend much time on it.

It's moot now anyway, as I think my questions have already been dealt with.

The HATER finders will just have to get by with 2 less of my replies to whine about.

[Elsie]

Any MORMONs got a LINK proving otherwise??

After almost 7 hours; none yet...

[Elsie]

At the time, Benson was an apostle of the Church, a full-time, life-time position with 24/7 responsibilities and commitments. Of course he asked for permission.

If he was FULL TIME and 24/7 how on EARTH could he POSSIBLY take on any more?

We just read that he did NOT step down from his church's position; so did he therefore CHEAT the US citizen by barely attending his governmental duties?

[Elsie]

Your post sounds like that of a cackling pharisee: totally irrelevant, totally out of date, and completely ridiculous.

Sorry, but it is MORMONs that are FAILING to follow 'scrfipture'.

It is NOT out-of-date.

Produce YOUR evidence!

[Elsie]

Your citations may be historically comprehensive but they are totally irrelevant to the issue at hand.

Prove it.

[Elsie]

I’m not in the SS system either. There are MILLIONs like me, too!

[NoLibZone]

No Jews either?

[nascarnation]

Sounds like you’re set to avoid Obamacare.

I paid in for 46 years so too late to call it quits.

If Obama is re-elected, I’d advise anybody under 40 who isn’t going to leave the country to consider becoming Mennonite.

[mountainfolk]

Mr Elsie. Quite a show you put on each and every day, jumping thread to thread with your anti Mormon bible clutched to bosom, wild eyed and all thunder and judgemental. I have lost track of exactly what has gotten you so out of sorts other than you plain do not like Romney, the Mormon religion, and not being the center of somebody's attention. Else wise you would not have bothered tapping out your endless screed against the Mormons to somebody, me, who obviously will never find your bibical references to be in sync with your claims of Mormon error. I think that even a Jesuit would be at a loss to keep up with your rantings.
Or could it be that this drama is all for the purpose of keeping Free Republic from being relevant in defeating the current socialist democrat administration headed by puppet Obama? Considering that your numerous lengthy postings have long since made your point of hating Romney and Mormons and lucidity seems unimportant, you and your anti Mormon/Romney coworkers must have an agenda less apparent but cogent to yourselves at least.

God willing, and ever more merciful than this country HE has protected for so long deserves, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will be voted President and Vice President this Nov. This Republic will begin to heal and prosper once again. God bless them both.

[MHGinTN]

"Why should 'GOD' even CONSIDER 'blessing' ROMNEY?"

... Because a significant number of Christian Americans are going to be praying that God steer the heart of the cult-duped president ...

[MHGinTN]

"Why should 'GOD' even CONSIDER 'blessing' ROMNEY?"

... Because a significant number of Christian Americans are going to be praying that God steer the heart of the cult-duped president ...

[darrellmaurina]

On Sat Aug 11 2012 17:17:12 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) (40 of 154) LukeSW wrote to ansel12: “Mitt is not a leader in the Mormon Church. He was a Bishop, like a Congregational Pastor.”

Luke, you must know better than this.

Under Congregational church government, the local church is autonomous and nobody outside the local church can tell the local pastor what to do. That is true for Congregationalism (capital “C”) as well as congregationally-governed denominations (lowercase “c”) such as Baptists and the majority of other modern evangelical denominations. While it's entirely possible for a Congregational pastor to have his credentials removed by the denomination or for the local church to be expelled from the denomination, I don't think you can seriously argue that a Mormon bishop has anywhere near the level of freedom that a Congregational pastor has.

I have no desire to misrepresent Mormonism, but to argue that Mitt Romney “was a Bishop, like a Congregational Pastor” is neither accurate nor helpful.

On the broader issue of Mormonism — Luke, I've been reading your posts. Apparently you have close enough ties with the Romney family and long enough history in the LDS that you're able to have some influence with him. I hope you're successful, but I'm not optimistic.

The stakes are high for America, for the Republican Party, and for your church.

The Mormons have spent more than a century trying to craft a public image of being conservative and pro-family, and have had a fair amount of success. However, Romney's history on abortion, homosexuality, socialized medicine, gun control, and many other issues could easily undo many decades of hard work by Mormons to present themselves as a group of hard-working people who support strong family values.

There are precedents — bad precedents — and Mormons need to consider history before you repeat it.

The elevation of John F. Kennedy to the presidency put liberalism into the driver's seat of the Roman Catholic Church for a generation. If I were a Mormon, I would be seriously concerned that the elevation of Romney to the presidency may do major damage not only to the public image of Mormonism but also to your own church. The very least that can be said is that the Romney family's long history of left-of-center political positions does not enhance the public image Mormons have been trying to create.

Do Mormons want to be known as the church of Harry Reid, Mitt Romney and John Huntsman? That's for you and your church to decide, not outsiders like me. But if that's the choice you make, many of us in the evangelical world who have some respect for your church's work fighting homosexuality in California and similar issues will start wondering if even your “families are forever” advocacy is up for negotiation. I don't think that's a risk you want to take.

[LukeSW]

If he was FULL TIME and 24/7 how on EARTH could he POSSIBLY take on any more? We just read that he did NOT step down from his church's position; so did he therefore CHEAT the US citizen by barely attending his governmental duties?

No, quite the opposite (as is the case with most of your vitriolic allegations). Benson gave full time service to his position as Secretary of Agriculture and was excused from his Church leadership responsibilities during those 8 years of service.

[Elsie]

Benson gave full time service to his position as Secretary of Agriculture and was excused from his Church leadership responsibilities during those 8 years of service.

Oh???

In 1953, Benson was appointed U.S. Secretary of Agriculture by President Eisenhower. Benson accepted this position with the permission of Church President David O. McKay and therefore served simultaneously in the United States Cabinet and in the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

[Elsie]

On 26 July 1943, Ezra Taft Benson’s true vocation of serving in the kingdom became his full-time occupation when President Heber J. Grant called him to be the youngest member of the Quorum of the Twelve. He was set apart on October 7 of that year, the same day as Elder Spencer W. Kimball, whom he would follow as President.

 

 

 

In 1952, Elder Benson was astonished to receive a telephone call informing him that U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower, a man he had never met, wanted to talk to him about becoming U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Farm leaders had recommended Ezra Taft Benson as the best man for the job. With Church President David O. McKay’s blessing and President Eisenhower’s assurance that he need never endorse a policy that he did not agree with, Elder Benson became Secretary Benson. The Benson family returned to Washington, D.C., for the eight years of the Eisenhower administration.

 

 

http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign/1994.htm/ensign%20july%201994.htm/president%20ezra%20taft%20benson%20a%20sure%20voice%20of%20faith.htm?fn=default.htm$f=templates$3.0