Fr Dwight Longenecker Asks, Does Mitt's Mormonism Matter? Comments
Most Americans are unaware of just how peculiar the beliefs of Mormons are. Do they know about Mormonism's exclusivity? It's secretive rituals? It's strange doctrines? Probably not. Even if they do know all the shady and weird stuff about Mormonism, do most Americans care? Should they care? With the possibility that their next president is a Mormon, does it matter? Continue Reading
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How ironic that a Catholic would publish something like this. Have you already forgotten the lessons learned from JFK? You clearly don't know the first thing about Mormon doctrine or culture. My goodness, will we never abandon our xenophobia?
Excellent insight into the types of Mormonism and their effects with emphasis on Modernist Mormons which discribed candidate Mitt Romney. I knew very little about his beliefs but I will vote for him as a vote against President Obama. I am not sure we know the extent of Romney's convictions. As the author states, if it only serves as "window dressing" for a politician we can't expect the hard choices to be made. Our Founders, who had deep convictions, put their lives and honor on the line and accepted the guidance of Providence to make very hard choices with lots of compromise. Can the Spirit guide Mr. Romney to make the choices necessary to restore the principles and values reflected in our Declaration of Independence and the Constituion's Bill of Rights. All things are possible for those who love the Lord. In any event violence will ensue in the streets beginning this summer and continue to the point of requiring intervention since the current president chose a strategy of division with his rhetoric of class warfare, subtle racism, smear, innuendo, etc. He has made no attempt to solves problems in his first and I hope his last term.
Fr Longenecker,
As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I disagree with your pigeon-holing of the church's members. Surely three categories--nuts, lazy kool-aid drinkers, or disbelieving intellectuals--is far too simplistic.
I'm a faithful member and I believe the doctrinal claims of the church. AND I don't believe such things because I'm too lazy to change. My belief has been well-thought through and experimented on; however I'm not a blind follower and I'm not going to rewrite history. I accept the merits of the doctrine and the history and I'm happy with that.
Sadly, your article seemed to state that there is no such existence of a believing AND intellectual Mormon. We are either disbelieving and doubtful or dumb and apathetic.
P.S.
It was also unfair to categorize Mitt Romney and Warren Jeffs into the same "religion". The two groups look at the world very differently.
Them of any religion who do not believe that God came in the flesh, are Anti Christ,, Jesus Christ the salvation, is the way, life & truth to redemption, where through his resurrection we be resurrected, for there was none else resurrected to the fulness other than Him.. So it is not just the question of saying Jesus Christ, but to knowing & to come into the "Fulness of Christ", for truth is not to parts but to the full & to this, short term analysis need not necessarily lead to a long term truth.
I like your piece, but I think your premise is a wee off when you list Romney as a modernist. He was a Latter-Day Saint Church Bishop (equivalent of a Catholic Priest) of a congregation. I don't consider this at all a bad thing. I'm sure being in that position has given him an insight into humanity that we can all probably use more of. What he's having a difficult thing doing, that would be the same for all of us for something we consider spirtiually near and dear to us, is standing on top of a desk and pounding his chest to say this is a great thing I did as a Bishop. I liked Huckabee being a Baptist preacher and any Catholic canidate who does more for their church other than showing up for a service.
Mitt is a Temple Mormon. How can a Temple Mormon be a "Modernist"? Mitt believes his religion. He may not believe the entire history of his religion - like the racist polygamist fanatics do - so it's highly likely that he does NOT believe that God had sex with the Blessed Virgin Mary and begot both Christ and Satan. But it is HIGHLY likely that Mitt believes the standard Mormon doctrine that if he's a good Temple Mormon, he will have the opportunity when he dies to become a god with his very own planet that he can populate with the children of his spirit wives. Why else even BECOME a Temple Mormon? As a Temple Mormon hoping to become a god, he is bound by oaths on pain of death to do anything the Mormon religion tells him to do. Anything. And who knows what he has been promised in exchange for delivering the United States into the hands of the Mormon religion? My big question is this: Is Mitt Romney running to become an American President or is he running to become a Mormon god. I'm sorry, but Mitt's Mormonism DOES matter.
Warren Jeffs is not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) and never has been. To label him a "Maniac Mormon" is just not correct. In context it would be more correct to say that George Stallings, Jr. is a "Maniac Catholic." At least Stallings was actually a Catholic Priest before he established the Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation and was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
I disagree that Romney is a "Modernist Mormon." If he were I seriously doubt he would be paying 10% of his income in tithing. That's a heavy commitment for window dressing. I would say he is a "Moderate Mormon." In his day to day life he is highly moral and ethical, and his religion is personal just as it is with "Moderate Catholics." He is not in your face in regards to religion unlike a lot of the evangelicals.
Wow - very good article! Thank u Fr Dwight!
Good overview Fr. Dwight. I wrote an article recently which covered similar points, but I think had a slightly more "modernist" conclusion. Curious about your thoughts: http://www.eacology.com/2012/02/are-mormons-such-as-mitt-romney.html
- Eric
It SHOULD matter to a seriolus Catholic, but since the American political Right has managed to wrap up the Republican Party in a big American flag with a cross on top, I suspect the majority of us won't even care enough to look at it seriously. We'd (as a culture,) rather be fed our opinions than do the work of forming them, and have convinced ourselves that Christ supports this or that Political party as if He himself ran for office. We're more locked into the notion of "The Princes of this world" than we care to admit, and frankly, thhe simple fact is that the GOP is no better than the Democratic Party, neither of them REALLY cares about us much at all, and those who;re looking for a "Christian-friendly" country in this life are deluded and need to take another long read through their Bibles. The only real difference between the parties is who, exactly they're sold out to... and Mitt's choice of faith should raise serious concerns.
...but I doubt it will.