Twist and Spin: A Study of America’s Spiritual Snub

Revised October 30th, 2007

Okay, all Baptists must go to the back of the bus. Episcopalians are not allowed to drink at that water fountain.

If you haven’t had a chance to immerse yourself in complete insanity-logic lately, check out this. Crooks and Liars stacks the deck in a way that reveals a glimpse into the crux of the “losing” mentality. It’s the perpetual perspective that no matter how many anti-depressants or government-funded programs into society, people can never win or be successful. Oh and heaven forbid if someone IS a winner or successful – they must be so corrupt they have to sabotage their campaign. In this case, either Romney’s campaign MUST have done this to themselves or they MUST have done this to themselves.

This isn’t a commentary on anti-depressants it’s about what happens to the large groups of people who can never pull it together to appreciate success. This mentality is like the bucket of crabs on the beach waiting to be cooked. The ones that climb and clamber over each other to save themselves for their own preservation. The ones on the Titanic who would throw a mother and child over board to get their places in the rescue boat. I’m reminded of Lord of the Flies or Heart of Darkness. Unchecked, mankind reverts to evil. What is wanted is a successful, professional, presidential candidate but when he arrives on the scene it is decided that really is “too smooth and phony.” So what fits right, hmmm, how about a settling for Mike Huckabee, the compassionate folksy liberal with the “aw shucks” demeanor.

Give me a break. You say you want a smart, polished statesman which is Mitt Romney, but then change your mind and go for a Golmer Pyle (Mike Huckabee) because you can’t stand the shine from Mitt’s brilliance? That’s typical of this culture – rip on the role models to drag society down to the mediocre and pedestrian – or worse – so that personal discomfort can be relieved.

The next strategy is to then use the “Christian” tag line to try to launch into a holier-than-thou stance while shredding a legitimate Christian denomination that has been a profound part of our American heritage, landscape and legacy for centuries. The Latter-day Saints (LDS) Church weaves some of the richest and profound threads of the American tapestry and it’s not going away. It started when people with the thinking of Rett and Pastors For Huckabee justified themselves to take a torch and burn a home, or tar and feather and member of the LDS Church in the 1800’s. I won’t go into Mormon history here – but the blood of Latter-Day Saints has seeped so far into the American soil no hatred or political ostracizing will every be able to dissect it out of the American backdrop. What Rett and friends are trying to accomplish is one and the same.

Here’s the pathological summary by Rett Hatcher about why Mitt Romney should be burned at the proverbial political stake:

Mitt Romney has everything a candidate could want. The money, the looks, the credentials, the background of success. He has one problem. Mormonism. 37% said in a recent survey that they could never vote for a mormon. The deep south, which is the breadbasket for Republicans when it comes to electoral votes, is also the bible belt. While I would vote for Mitt because of his social conservative views, there are many who would hear about his Mormonism and immediately vote Hillary or Rudy. He can’t win a general election because he can’t win the deep south, therefore he can’t win my vote.

How would this work if we said “black”, or you know, “African American” or “Jew”. Here’s what the anti-Mormon, generally Huck-backing, crowd are doing now. They have to back peddle to rationalize why voting against a Mormon isn’t bigotry. It is outrageous that any person outside of a religion could be an “expert” on someone else’s faith. The process itself lends itself to trapping itself onto ideological hooks and then micro-focusing on obscure issues so that no matter what, bias will happen. I could no longer profess to be an expert on an Evangelical faith than the man on the moon.

I don’t buy it. Rett is making excuses which are thinly veiled. This is what the Hucksters are going to do now… they will say everything they can to conceal their innate bigotry of a fellow Christian religion. They are zealots from the pulpit and from their anti-cult classes which have been inbred and ingrained for centuries. This reminds me of an Aunt of mine born in the 20’s, she can’t help but define everyone she meets by their skin color. This post makes it clear. Hucksters, including Huck himself, can’t help inciting bigotry. It’s playing the Religion card but then trying to pretend you aren’t.

See MyManMitt and how Huckabee is encouraging discrimination

Kathryn Lopez – A Mormon Can Be President

In case you haven’t seen it – how offensive – he’s really pushing his luck too far.

What will Huck say against Hillary if that day were to ever happen, “I’m a man, therefore I should be president”?

Timotheus says it all: “The use of religion by Huckabee to promote his political aspirations is extraordinarily opportunistic and despicable. What is Huckabee going to do when he is running against Hillary, run an ad with the tag line in the background, “Male Leader?” Or what about if he runs against Barack Obama, is Huckabee going to have a tag line that says “White Leader?” There are some differences that just should not be contrasted. Huckabee’s playing of the religion card is one of those examples. I don’t like it and I don’t think it is becoming of a presidential candidate.”

Let’s be honest here. I’m sure we could go back to the early, post-Nicea Christianity (after 600 AD or so) and dredge up some obscure writings that express the dogma of the Spanish Inquisition or criteria for pardons which would no more be THE encompassing, comprehensive breadth of the Catholic Church any more than the one article by Ezra Taft Benson referenced by the “Pastors for Huck” gang could be. But as a Latter-Day Saint, reviewing Pres. Benson’s talk, and in the context of what I have experienced in the last 18 years as a Latter-day Saint there is an internal understanding of what Pres. Benson was talking about.

There is nothing sinister, deviant or even “off” about it. There is a conversion process that a person undergoes in the Latter-day Saint faith that softens the core of the soul to Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. It is from this “soft spot” that we open ourselves to the “voice of the Lord.” I absolutely love the undeniable warmth and connection I have with His will through the instruction and encouragement I receive from the teachings of the Scriptures AND all of the prophets, living and dead. This is a voluntary, willful submission. Let me repeat that, I offer my soul to be purified and redeemed willingly to the voice of truth.

Their argument would work if someone cornered a Baptist and nailed them to the wall as to why not all their congregations practice complete immersion for baptism – after all, isn’t that their pivotal defining “cause” they splintered off of main-stream Christianity over? Actually, aren’t all Evangelical congregations’ just little splinters of the post-Nicea Christianity? It’s really shocking they even think they can claim any connection with Christianity since there is no uniformity or standard they even follow. The “Bibles” keep changing and are re-written and re-translated at whim – it is a remarkable question to ask, “Which Bible do they follow – EXACTLY”?

The arguments could go on ad nauseum and for us who are trying to go about the business of supporting the best candidate for the GOP presidency, this quibbling gets very tiresome. Anyone who has to put the Latter-day Saints down as a legitimate religion is like being around someone with a Napoleon complex. They run around tyrannizing everyone around them because of their own insecurity and pettiness.

Let’s be clear about this. Mitt Romney is decidedly the most powerful presidential candidate we have. His answers in the Florida were stellar. Yes, there were a couple awkward moments but they were in regards to areas where Mitt has undergone some “growing up”. The Bible question was the worst question of the evening: it was scathing and mocking and completely irrelevant to presidential politics. Frankly, it revealed just how much a Baptist Pastor Mike Huckabee continues to be. It truly shows he IS running for our nation’s pope. This country was founded on religious non-interference and this unabashedly “interfered”. I go to my own church and it is absolutely reprehensible that I was “preached” to by this candidate. It was insulting that he postured himself as the Biblical expert to Rudy Giuliani. This is exactly the reason that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danites about the “separation of church and state” because he was trying to reassure them that there would NOT be a national, state-governed religion – like in England or “president” pastoring from the Oval Office.

In the Florida YouTube debate, Mitt Romney was victorious. He showed excellence in his incredible grasp of not discussing the “torture” issues. He batted out of the park in demonstrating the regard we all need to have when it comes to our national security. Rudy was just plain Rude-y. The cheap shots revealed he’s just another scum ball gangster. When Mitt Romney spoke, you could see Rudy and Mike shrivel. When Governor Romney responded to the question of Black on Black crime, he spoke of the importance of “families”. To my knowledge, he is the ONLY candidate to utter that word. Has our society actually acquiesced to the thrashings of PC-ology? Even Mike Huckabee avoided an opportunity to encourage the restoration of our society’s basic sociological unit. Giuliani only cared about crime stats. How pathetic these other candidates were to have completely missed this fundamental point. Mitt Romney is THE candidate for the presidency of 2008. He is a fine example of ethics and decency. This country is ready for a change to Mitt Romney.