Well. Why apologize? The Mormon church and Mitt Romney both are indeed quite secretive!!!
What is one of the criteria of a cult?
(Hence, we see Web headlines like: Mormonism's Real Secret Doctrine + the link below)
Or, when you have the bizarre temple oaths sworn -- as depicted by Packham in the link below and also found here: Why the need for secret death oaths in the LDS Temple Endowment Ceremony? [Secretive Mormon church]
Of course, when you have these kind of bizarre beliefs as posted in the previous post, mum's the word.
Secret, secret, secret
Fulness of the gospel NOT in the Book of Mormon. Secret to prospects - they'd look in vain for the primary Mormon teachings to be taught there.
Original "old plates" Joseph supposedly found. Secreted away.
The founder, Joseph not telling wife Emma about women he had affairs with (Fanny & others) 1831 & beyond. Secret.
Mormons not putting the polygamy doctrine in writing until the 1850s. Secret.
Bloody victims' clothes & orphans from Mountain Meadows Massacre, 1857. Secret for two years.
Mountain Meadows Massacre culprits. Conspired amongst each other to never tell. Secret.
Mormonism openly false 19th century teachings like Adam-is-god and blood atonement. Unacknowledged as former teachings. They wish these were a secret.
Mormon polygamists hiding out from the feds in 1880s. Secret hideaways.
Lds Plural marriages 1890-1910. Secret.
Still today:
Lds temple ceremonies. Secret.
Lds weddings in temples. Secret.
Secret underwear power. Very secret.
Mormons believe thousands of deceased Mormons practicing polygamy in another realm. "Open" Secret.
History not "faith promoting" to Lds church and former leaders. Tendency to tuck away. Secreted away.
fLDS families -- the "living daguerreotype" of what 19th century Mainstream Mormon families were often like -- tucked away in out-of-the-way communities. Treated like the crazy aunt to lock away in the basement closet.
No wonder a BYU history prof wrote a book, "Early Mormonism and the Magic World View." "Magic" is a sub-category of the occult. And what does the word "occult" mean? (Yup, Latin for "hidden" -- as in secret).
Note how BYU even conceded the occultic worldview Mormon foundational premise of Quinn's book here: BYU Review of Early Mormonism and the Magic World View
Oh...and for some of the "inside secrets" of the Mormon church? Go here:
Mitt Romney's Mormon Secrets [Temple oaths, secrets, secret tokens/passwords to heaven revealed]
The author of the above article notes: In all the extensive media coverage of Mitt Romney, much of it discussing his religion, not a word have I seen about the secrets of Mormonism, the secrets of Romney's life-long beliefs and practices. The reason, of course, is obvious: nobody can talk about a secret unless they are in on the secret. And few journalists or Christian ministers or anti-Mitt politicians are in on the secret. Only Mormons know the secrets, and they're not going to tell. And former Mormons, like myself, who were initiated into those same secrets, and afterwards left Mormonism - we know the secrets. Should we tell? ... And why does Romney (and his church) want to keep people from knowing those secrets? Most Mormons will claim that they are not "secret," but merely so "sacred" that they cannot be discussed. That is a quibble, since Mormons hold any number of other aspects of their religion to be "sacred," and yet they don't hesitate to discuss them (for example: baptism, conferring the gift of the Holy Ghost, ordination to the priesthood, etc.). In my day, when Mitt and I were initiated into the secrets, we were specifically instructed that we were under "the greatest obligations of secrecy." Nowadays, the Mormons simply take a solemn oath that they will "never reveal" anything about the rituals. That sounds like a secret to any ordinary person, doesn't it? All right. I am going reveal those secrets, since nobody else seems willing and able to do so.
Just like secrecy, paranoid thinking is common to pretty much all cult groups. They all want to promote the idea that they are suffering some righteous persecution because someone wants to stamp them out, whether or not that persecution actually exists. It serves to reinforce their narratives, painting them as the “chosen” group that the bad people want to stop from saving the world. After all, Jews and Christians suffered real persecution, which only served to strengthen their faith and create a compelling narrative for their religions. It’s no surprise that cults and con artists would like to counterfeit that in order to try and duplicate those successes.
Even if no persecution or bigotry is going on, they’ll usually try to stir it up or invent it, just like the race hustlers do to prop themselves up. For example, Scientologists perpetually decry as “religious intolerance” anyone that voices opinions that they are a cult, and then teaches their members that these “anti” forces are in league to destroy the humble, oppressed Scientologists. In reality, most of the opposition to Scientology amounts to small groups of ex-members or family members running maybe a couple dozen websites with their own money, while Scientology is an international organization with significant wealth, its own media apparatus, public interest groups, and political lobbying arms. The ones that the cult paints as their oppressors are actually the David, while the cult is the Goliath! This is probably even more true when it comes to LDS and their “persecutors”, since LDS is older, larger, and more influential than L Ron Hubbard’s upstarts.