Posted on 06/10/2007 7:24:29 PM PDT by Reaganesque
Sally Denton uses today's Los Angeles Times op-ed page as a launching pad for the movie based on her book, "American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857," and as a means to propagate more anti-Mormon bigotry at the expense of Mitt Romney. Denton insists that Romney has to respond about the nature of his faith if he expects to win the nomination for the Presidency -- and uses a lot of 19th-century examples to "prove" her case:
MITT ROMNEY'S Mormonism threatens his presidential candidacy in the same way that John F. Kennedy's Catholicism did when he ran for president in 1960. Overt and covert references to Romney's religion — subtle whispering as well as unabashed inquiries about the controversial sect he belongs to — plague his campaign. None of his responses so far have silenced the skeptics.
Recent polls indicate that from 25% to 35% of registered voters have said they would not consider voting for a Mormon for president, and conventional wisdom from the pundits suggests that Romney's biggest hurdle is his faith. Everyone seems eager to make his Mormonism an issue, from blue state secularists to red state evangelicals who view the religion as a non-Christian cult.
All of which raises the question: Are we religious bigots if we refuse to vote for a believing Mormon? Or is it perfectly sensible and responsible to be suspicious of a candidate whose creed seems outside the mainstream or tinged with fanaticism?
Ironically, Romney is the only candidate in the race (from either party) who has expressed discomfort with the idea of religion infecting the national dialogue. While his GOP rivals have been pandering to the evangelical arm of the party, Romney actually committed himself (during the first Republican debate) to the inviolable separation of church and state.
First, Denton is hardly an unbiased pundit in this regard. She's flogging a book and a movie about an atrocity committed by Mormons 150 years ago. For Denton, 1857 is relevant to 2007, but for most Americans. The suggestion that Romney needs to answer for Brigham Young would be as silly as saying that Democrats have to answer for Stephen Douglas or that Lutherans today have to answer for the anti-Semitic rants of Martin Luther.
Denton first off would have people believe that all Mormons are "tinged with fanaticism," but does nothing to advance that case. She discusses the beginnings of their church in great detail, but her history lessons appear to end at 1857. In the only mentions of any connection to the present, she uses the HBO series Big Love and Warren Jeffs, neither of which has any connection to the modern Mormon church or to Romney's faith. Both the fictional account in Big Love and the unfortunately non-fiction and despicable Jeffs involve polygamist cults -- and in the TV series, are showed as in mortal opposition to the Mormons.
Denton includes this helpful instruction at the half-way point:
It's not a church's eccentric past that makes a candidate's religion relevant today, but its contemporary doctrines. (And it's worth noting that polygamy and blood atonement, among other practices, are no longer condoned by the official Mormon church hierarchy.)
So what contemporary doctrines does Romney need to explain? Denton never says. Instead, she spends her time writing about how Joseph Smith once declared his intention to run for President -- in 1844. She discusses how John C. Fremont's candidacy died on the rumor that he was Catholic -- in 1856. She mentions 1960, in which John Kennedy dealt with anti-Catholic bigotry, but only barely notes that he prevailed over it -- and that was almost 50 years ago.
Denton then frames the question that she feels Romney has to answer:
Do you, like the prophet you follow, believe in a theocratic nation state? All the rest is pyrotechnics.
Unfortunately for Denton, Romney has answered this question every time it gets asked. And somewhat incoherently, Denton appears to forget that she herself acknowledges this near the beginning of the column:
While his GOP rivals have been pandering to the evangelical arm of the party, Romney actually committed himself (during the first Republican debate) to the inviolable separation of church and state.
Romney has no need to enter into the field of religious apologetics in his campaign for the presidency, no more than does Harry Reid in order to run the Senate. He certainly has no guilt to expiate on behalf of a massacre committed almost a century before his birth, and for people like Warren Jeffs who do not have any connection to the Mormon church. In other words, Denton has taken up space at the LA Times to exercise her bigotry and to not-so-coincidentally sell a few books and movie tickets. She and the LA Times should be ashamed.
UPDATE: One commenter suggests that people opposed Keith Ellison on the basis of his religion. Er, not quite. We opposed him on the basis of his association with the notoriously anti-Semitic group Nation of Islam and its leader, Louis Farrakhan, and his association with CAIR, which has supported terrorist groups like Hamas. If Romney had spoken at Warren Jeffs' compound for political donations, then the analogy would be apt. Ellison's problem isn't his religion but the company he keeps, politically, a fact that he and his apologists like to wrap in a false cloak of religious antagonism.
And we got the trouble makers out of temple square I would have endorsed him too if the Church was going to be safe from protestors like you!:)
resty you don’t even live in Salt Lake. You’ve been to the LDS Temple in Salt Lake City how many times?
And btw, I have never protested at Temple Square. You are a liar.
How is the fact of the Meadow Mountain Massacre “anti-Mormon bigotry? It’s a fact, and it has nothing to do with Romney.
Oven Mitt supporters are trying to inoculate the public to shut up and ignore the heresies of Mormonism when the left raises them from oblique angles. Romney’s Mormonism beliefs are an Achilles heel. The political machine working to get him into the White House is using his religious affiliation to manipulate the public. They have several workers right here at FR doing their thang don’tchaknow.
You deleived door to door many of those DVD’s on Easter Morning or was it General conference and promoted the contribe DNA movie made by x er and atheist!
What difference does it make if on TS or around!
Hey don’t be so hard on Sally. A girl, and the LA Times have to make a living...
Got to support her girl friend wants!
Delivering DVD’s is not a protest. It was a gift. I was giving the message of Christ to my LDS neighbors.
Of course there are LDS people like you that call it “hate” and “bigotry” and “protest”. But on the other hand, you think it is YOUR right to knock on doors and give out books that say Christians are an abomination!
What’s good for the goose.....
It should be pointed out that Ms. Denton’s great, great grandmother was a Mormon who left the church so, Ms. Denton has a bit of an ax to grind.
One blogger who is trying to inoculate Romney is Hugh Hewitt.
He had a fit about a movie that is coming out, September Dawn.
He invited the star of the movie, Jon Voight, onto his radio show. He assumed he was a Mormon bigot.
Well he soon found out that he wasn’t, then he asked Voight who some of the consultants for the movie were.
He said there was concern about a woman named Sandra Tanner and whether or not she had been involved with the production of the movie. He used the word ‘concerned’. As if that would invalidate the movie.
That question was fed to him by a pro Romney shill.
Well Obama’s a muslim, so what does that say about him?
No I share a book that says The Lord had more to say to his people!
Seems unlikely, I mean about the axe to grind. A great, great grandmother is quite removed from Ms. Sally.
To quote a great American general. “Nuts”.
“The suggestion that Romney needs to answer for Brigham Young would be as silly”
Romney has no need to answer for Brigham YOung or the Massacre.
But why does the LDS church hold a man of that low character in such high regard? That is a question the church should explain... After all he did participate in a major coverup of mass murder.
I know the way you feel about Mormons you would think ST was the cats meow!
That’s what really toasts my butt.
Harry Reid has been a Senator for YEARS and no one has made a big deal about his religion.
I don’t care which flavor they choose - as long as they choose.
who are you talking about?
I have no idea what ST is.
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