I believe in freedom of religion. I believe in being politically correct. What I do not believe in are double standards.
To that end, Mitt Romney must answer for having been 32 years old, and the member of an organization that explicitly excluded African Americans.
Frank Rich, the Award-winning journalist, recently explored the personal influence of Romney's Mormon faith and its political significance in his presidential run.
In a New York Magazine piece entitled, "Who in God's Name Is Mitt Romney?", Rich interviews long-term acquaintances of the former governor, one of whom is quoted as saying, "None of us had any idea who this guy was."
Rich explores the idea that Romney's personal persona -- which has long been described as being impersonal at best, and disingenuous at worst, may well be due to the fact he has not been free to discuss the matter most important to his heart: namely, his Mormon faith.
In 2007, the debate over President Obama's religion was a mirror with two faces.
Some believed Obama's brief time as a child in Indonesia, a largely Muslim country, coupled with the stamp of his father's brown skin, was sufficient evidence to question his religious beliefs.
In a post-9/11 environment, in which Muslims have been unfairly framed as terrorists, just by virtue of their faith, Republicans and the Fox News propaganda machine, effectively engaged in fear-mongering to cast Obama as 'other' and 'un-American'. That campaign aggressively continued for three years, and was fuelled by the Birther movement.
Birtherism received a strange level of mainstream legitimacy via ambassadors like Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and, yes, House Speaker John Boehner. In answer to David Gregory's call on NBC's Meet the Press to denounce birtherism, Boehner said, "It's not my job" to tell people what to believe. "The president says he's a Christian and I take him at his word".
Dog whistlers, carnival barkers and their empathizers, united to cast a shadow of doubt onto the nation's first African-American president.
The irony is that much of this religious McCarthyism began during the primary campaign fight.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in the tradition of thousands of African-American ministers, was quoted with language that understandably was harsh to many white Americans. But that language is commonplace in the pulpits of some black churches.
Why?
Slavery existed for centuries. Jim Crow was real for 100 years. Lynchings were viewed through eyes of people who are only 60 years old today. Legalized discrimination was the law of this great land, and that is the exceptional America into which Wright, and my own parents, were born.
For men and women of Wright's generation, as President Obama so eloquently stated in his famous "Race Speech", "the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and bitterness of those years."
In a community -- as in most -- where tradition is defined by religion, the intersection of the two is inevitable. Then-senator Obama was criticized and called to answer. Was he a secret Muslim? Or an angry black Christian?
But in 2012, as Romney marches steadily toward the GOP nomination, American media abandons any critique of his affiliation with a notoriously discriminatory Mormon Church.
This is the worst of double standards. A politically correct environment, using Article VI of the Constitution that calls for "no religious test", as a convenient excuse -- means the conversation must be muted completely or framed in a politically acceptable context.
That's fine. I'm game.
When JFK -- our first Catholic president -- ran for office, the press questioned whether his loyalty would be to the Pope in Rome. When Joe Lieberman was selected as Al Gore's running mate, the international media wondered if his Jewish heritage could influence U.S. foreign policy toward Israel. When President Obama won the White House, a conservative movement organized in the name of "taking their country back," questioning his faith and heritage.
Is Mitt Romney, now, or ever been a racist? Did he openly disagree with the Mormon policy to exclude black people of the global African Diaspora? How did he handle prejudice in his family and church, both as a young man and as an adult?
It is important to note, that the Mormon Church only ever officially allowed blacks in the year 1978: more than a decade after the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968. An adult Mitt Romney, well into his 30's, loyally served in a religious organization that explicitly excluded people on the basis of race, and whose fundamental teachings aggressively preached racist ideologies.
Political correctness has its place; but we can agree to have our own opinions, not our own facts.
When Mitt Romney proudly accepted an endorsement from Donald Trump, who wittingly orchestrated media, lies and innuendo to cast doubt on President Obama's nationality and legitimacy, was that acceptable? When Newt Gingrich suggested that 'inner-city' kids have no work ethic, is that 'wrong' or simply the status quo of modern conservatism? Will Ron Paul ever be called to tasks for his explicitly racist newsletters? Can Rick Santorum simply be excused for being "blah"?
There is a burgeoning culture of silence that allows wildly inappropriate dogma to go unchecked, but only as it pertains to the GOP. And herein lies the point about Mormonism, its role in Romney's life and its history of racism: if President Obama was forced to answer for every tangential acquaintance, Romney cannot be given a pass.
If Rev. Wright's church exclusively denied membership to white-Americans, would the Republican Party have ignored that fact? Or, as in Romney's case, completely disregarded it under the guise of religious acceptance and political correctness?
In a political environment which excuses a neo-conservative movement that uses race-baiting tactics in order to win votes -- and does so by omission, distraction and hyperbole -- it is time to discuss Romney's past and his Mormonism in the cinematic and optic terms of black and white.
Follow Edward Wyckoff Williams on Twitter: www.twitter.com/wyckoffwilliams
Samuel Brown: The End in Sight? The Waning of a Racist Mormon Fringe
By the way, the topic of race is not a very common topic of discussion in LDS churches. We do not have any doctrine of "hate-speech" against races. I'm 49 and I've never heard that, and I grew up in California.
In my opinion, Obama’s Congregationalists are some the most progressive people around, yet, shortly after they kicked out the first Black man ordained to Priesthood in America, Mormons were ordaining Blacks. Priesthood restrictions entered Mormonism also, and since some leaders thought it was based on revelation it took a while to lift the ban (it took Peter several revelations, and he even disagreed with Jesus, but latter day leaders only had to be told once, and have, ever since, repeatedly spoken out against “…the abhorrent and tragic theory of the superiority of one race or color over another.") The LDS scriptures have always spoken out against this theory held by so many others past and present. And they teach that priesthood is for ALL.
Its a shame this is not true.
As you point out, he has yet to answer how he explains his racist teachings as an adult.
Apparently, to Romney and the Repubican Party, racism is just part of their thought process and they don't realy care.
"It is clear that Romney was, as an adult, a lay preacher teaching the Mormon Churches racially prejudiced anti-Black message."
I'm sorry, but that is simply nonsense.
The Church did not have an "anti-Black message." It's "message" didn't mention Black people at all. I know that for a fact, being a missionary at that time. No LDS leader of Mitt Romney's generation ever said anything about Blacks that was *even in the same ballpark* as what I have seen attributed to Jeremiah Wright.
In terms of its demographics, the Church was then a conservative, largely white organisation. How surprising is it that it wasn't ordaining Black men, when there were so few eligible Black candidates anyway? The exclusion of Black men from the Priesthood ended in 1978. That's thirty-four (34) years ago. How long does Mr Williams plan to use that as the justification for keeping Mormons the last unelectable minority in America?
Is Mr Williams aware that, more than twenty years *after* Blacks were emancipated and given the right to vote, Mormons in Utah were disenfranchised by Federal law?
Does he even care?
The idea will not be dismissed no matter how hard you try.
"Cain slew his brother . . . and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin. . . . How long is that race [blacks] to endure the dreadful curse that is upon them? That curse will remain upon them, and they never can hold the Priesthood or share in it until all the other descendants of Adam have received the promises and enjoyed the blessings of the Priesthood and the keys thereof. Until the last ones of the residue of Adam's children are brought up to that favourable position, the children of Cain cannot receive the first ordinances of the Priesthood. They were the first that were cursed, and they will be the last from whom the curse will be removed." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p. 290).
The intention is to hurt Mormons, Black and white.
Bruce R. McConkie expressed it this way:
"... Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whomsoever has said in days past...We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world. We get our truth and our light line upon line and precept upon precept. We have now had added a new flood of intelligence and light on this particular subject, and it erases all the darkness, and all the views and all the thoughts of the past. They don't matter any more.... As to any slivers of light or any particles of darkness of the past, we forget about them....
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said:
One clear-cut position is that the folklore must never be perpetuated. ... I have to concede to my earlier colleagues. ... All I can say is however well intended the explanations were, I think almost all of them were inadequate and/or wrong. ...
... we simply do not know why that practice, that policy, that doctrine was in place.[3]
Black lds http://www.blacklds.org/history
.
Anti-Mormons in the 19th Century attacked Mormons for our pro-Black stances.
Anti-Mormon attacks eventually turned to rape, massacre, tar and feathers etc.
One of the fist anti-Mormon publications said:
"The believers in this miserable production, are known by the name of "Mormonites," and their book is commonly called "The book of Mormon."…” Among them is a man of color, a chief man…”
Another: “As the promulgators of this extraordinary legend maintain the natural equality of mankind, without excepting the native Indians or the African race, there is little reason to be surprised at the cruel persecution by which they have suffered..."
Joseph Smith had given priesthood to Blacks and Mormons were hated back then because he taught that Blacks were equal to whites, and even superior.
Mormons were later driven from their homes by cannons, government extermination orders and etc. We wandered from State to State, many dying from exposure, and ended up leaving the USA (Utah).
These accounts must be weighed against records of free blacks receiving the priesthood such as Black Pete (1831 OH), Elijah Abel (1835 OH), Joseph T. Ball (1837 MA), Isaac van Meter (
http://www.documentarychannel.com/movie.php?currID=9578&t=Nobody-Knows:-The-Untold-Story-Of-Black-Mormons
Very Informative
Best
I'm not saying Mormons are perfect, but it is unfair to compare the past to present, it is more fair to compare the past to the past of others.
Here is a quote by an LDS Prophet:
Racial strife still lifts its ugly head. I am advised that even right here among us there is some of this. I cannot understand how it can be.... I remind you that no man who makes disparaging remarks concerning those of another race can consider himself a true disciple of Christ. Nor can he consider himself to be in harmony with the teachings of the Church of Christ. How can any man holding the Melchizedek Priesthood arrogantly assume that he is eligible for the priesthood whereas another who lives a righteous life but whose skin is of a different color is ineligible?...Let us all recognize that each of us is a son or daughter of our Father in Heaven, who loves all of His children. Brethren, there is no basis for racial hatred among the priesthood of this Church. If any within the sound of my voice is inclined to indulge in this, then let him go before the Lord and ask for forgiveness and be no more involved in such."
http://www.aaanativearts.com/article1641.html
compare that to this: http://www.blacklds.org/history
Paid for by who?
Got citations?
“But let them apostatize, and they will become gray-haired, wrinkled, and black, just like the Devil" (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 332
Tenth President Joseph Fielding Smith explains:
There is a reason why one man is born black and with other disadvantages, while another is born white with great advantages. The reason is that we once had an estate before we came here, and were obedient; more or less, to the laws that were given us there. Those who were faithful in all things there [pre-existence] received greater blessings here, and those who were not faithful received less. . . . There were no neutrals in the war in Heaven. All took sides either with Christ or with Satan. Every man had his agency there, and men receive rewards here based upon their actions there, just as they will receive rewards hereafter for deeds done in the body. The Negro, evidently, is receiving the reward he merits (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:61, 65-66; emphasis added).
“No church or other organization is more insistent than The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that the Negroes should receive all the rights and privileges that can possibly be given to any other in the true sense of equality as declared in the Declaration of Independence. They should be equal to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ They should be equal in the matter of education. They should not be barred from obtaining knowledge and becoming proficient in any field of science, art or mechanical occupation. They should be free to choose any kind of employment, to go into business in any field they may choose and to make their lives as happy as it is possible without interference from white men, labor unions or from any other source. In their defense of these privileges the members of the Church will stand.” (Answers to Gospel Questions 2:185)
As a natural pedant, let me add that when he made both statements, my and iridium53's quotes, he was still over a decade away from becoming president of the Church.
All Churches, even all people, are subject to the sin of racism.
I'll give some quotes from LDS leaders above.
Here are some recent headlines about Newt and Santorum's Church:
"Racism still divides the Catholic family - Editorial"
"If we, as Catholic Christians, are united in the body of Christ, then why would black Catholics feel the need to meet on their own, to hold their own congress? Why the need for separate black Catholic service organizations and for black Catholic parishes and clergy caucuses?
Why the need for a separate national pastoral plan for Black Catholics? Separate national and diocesan offices?"
"Racism in Catholic Church 'driving minorities away"
"Racism shock in Catholic Church. Report....second-class treatment of black members"
"These are--and should be--deeply disturbing questions for Catholic Christians because they point up an unavoidable reality: The issue is racism. No matter how much we wish and talk otherwise, the Catholic family is divided and is only slowly moving toward dealing with the deep wound of racism."
I'm not saying anyone is any better than anyone else, but my mixed Black family members have felt more welcome among Mormons than any other group, including some Black Churches. I don't blame anyone for this, just pointing out how humans tend to be.
Sort of like Martin Luther and his "on the jews and their lies?"
Romney is running for President of the United States and taught this racist stuff into his 30's.
Time for him to explain.
And, following a religion that is in direct opposition to US laws can only tell us just where his real character and intentions lie.
....please listen, this is a crucial issue. I am trying to make the world a little safer for my family.
Here is a quote from Julian Reynolds at Black lds, he says this much better than I ever could so I quote (full article on Black lds):
“In response to their shockingly polemical treatment of a serious and critical issue...we will discuss the double standard that anti-Mormons apply to the LDS Church while nervously whistling past the graveyard of their own troubled (bigotry)...it is time to ask a question of those who continue to pit racial groups against one another…. Are they guilty of engaging in a subtle but virulent racism by reducing the black race to nothing more than a convenient brickbat in their polemical assaults on (Mormons)?” ( Juliann contrasts American bigotry Mormons).