At the coffee shop this week, Professor Lucius Flatley offered presidential religion as a topic. In light of the intense scrutiny of Mr. Obama’s pastor, Flatley thought it worthwhile to take a look at Mr. Romney’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS).
A large church “native” to the United States, the LDS is a structured, life-encompassing form of worship created during the second American religious “great awakening” by Joseph Smith, a farmer in rural New York who often had visions. Smith not only had a personal talk with God, but also the angel Moroni directed him to – and translated for him – gold plates buried on his farm that were encrypted in the hieroglyphics of the “Reformed Egyptian tongue.”
Based on this “translation,” in 1830 Smith published the Book of Mormon, an epic that places the Garden of Eden in America, describes a visit here by Jesus Christ two millennia ago, and offers a several-thousand-year “history” of America built around the Jaredites (Jews from the Tower of Babel), the struggle between good (“white and delightsome”) Nephites and evil (“brown”) Lamanites. Smith found adherents for the largely secret worship/behavior that promised them qualification for one of three heavens.
Due largely to clannish behavior and rumors concerning abuse in plural marriages, the neighbors feared Smith and his followers as a cult and harried them from state to state, eventually to the Great Salt Lake desert wilderness. There, after years of friction (war once) with the U.S., the group abandoned plural marriage and Utah was accepted as a state.
The LDS believes Jesus was a carnally conceived son of God. The LDS believes in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions and healing. Tithing is a requirement. The elected head of the church is absolute, infallible. Only men can become officials (Romney is a “stake president”). Abstinence is required from tobacco, booze, and caffeine – and definitely from same-sex relations.
A central tenet of the church is growth, and a year or two of missionary work by Mormon young men is common. (Using a religious exclusion from the Vietnam draft, Romney did his two years in France – plus a year as a LDS officer in Utah.)
The church cherishes secrecy, such as odd secret underwear. It closely guards “holy places” from non-believers – Ann Romney’s parents were not permitted to be present at her “sealing” (marriage) in the temple.
Mormons baptize millions of others posthumously – with or without permission. Honorees include Gandhi, Hitler, Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Elvis, Washington, Columbus, and, to the dismay of many Jews, hundreds of thousands of Holocaust victims.
Asked by Newsweek in 2007 if he had done baptisms for the dead, a startled Romney replied, “I have in my life, but I haven’t recently.”
In summary, the odd habits and occasional ugly history of this church make it easy to ridicule; but, other than secrecy, its initial beliefs differ little in nonsense and symbolism from early beliefs of every religion. In evaluating the religious beliefs of a presidential candidate, the better approach might be to set aside satire and look at how the religion may affect its adherent.
With disciplined leadership and the single-minded purpose of enriching and expanding, the nearly 6 million members in the United States (about equal to the Jewish population in the U.S.) have created a wealthy church, oriented toward business and property. The LDS converted itself from Smith’s original “salvation by faith” into salvation through missionary zeal and commerce. Believing that wealth is a virtue, it follows that the rich should be allowed to rule.
Because of firm LDS discipline and rigid adherence to church authority, Mr. Romney, like John F. Kennedy, should explain how his religion would permit him to resolve conflict with the larger, common good. To whom and to which does his loyalty first adhere?
Finally, the nagging question that remains unanswered is the intellectual depth of a 21st-century mind that is comfortable with such 19th-century eccentricities. Neither self-reflection nor embarrassment appears to be in his playbook; he appears more than adequately self-confident.
Still, he must feel some trepidation when campaigning in Illinois, where Joseph Smith, the first Mormon to run for president (on a platform of strict abolition) was lynched – by a mob of professed Christians.
The mob’s political party was not recorded.
Rodney Quinn, a former Maine secretary of state, lives in Westbrook. He can be reached at rquinn@maine.rr.com.
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