Romney Panders to People Unable to Access mormon.org

- Daniel

There's been a lot of hype about whether Romney should deliver a Kennedy-esque speech about his religion, gearing it towards Mormonism. Well, now he has! On December 6, 2008, Romney delivered his "Faith in America" speech. (see transcript here. a video excerpt here, or the full video here).

This week, building up to the speech was interesting in itself. My wife was watching a little bit of The View, where they talked about this upcoming event; I caught some of what they said. They all expressed their lack of knowledge about the religion, but did let us know what they did know--all of it completely wrong. I was especially appalled with Barbra Walters, who has interviewed countless people, and yet knows nothing! Someone whose job it is to research and find out the truth, can't figure out anything about Mormonism. This is really too bad.

Most reporters act this way, however. They want to know what Romney believes about his underwear, blacks in the church, the bible, etc. They can't quite figure out how to use those skills they learned in college to put in a little research, despite the fact they claim that this is such an important topic. Well, they don't want to learn anything, they want to put him on the spot.

So now Romney has given his speech in order to supposedly cater to the Evangelical vote. Apparently this requires a special separate speech, since fundamentalist evangelicals can't get their head out of their ass long enough to figure out that most mormons hold similar values to them. This speech however, he focused more on shared beliefs and common values, a bane to all those who wanted to know more about the actual doctrines of Mormonism. Doctrines like: "Were blacks really banned from your church until 1978?" (Although mostly I hear 1968, but give or take 10 years, and you get it right eventually).

Let me officially answer this: No.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormonism) was one of the few churches that existed in the 19th Century that actually had a non-segregated congregation. I live in the South right now, and Christian churches are still segregated, explain that one, Fundamentalists. Furthermore, during its early years, Mormonism supported the abolishment of slavery, which caused major political problems when they resided in Missouri (a pro-slave state). According to the media, it seems that church membership and priesthood are synonymous.

But about Romney's speech itself. I was very skeptical prior to it, since it seemed pointless anyway. But I actually liked it. I felt inspired to come together with people of all faiths and share in our rich spiritual commonality. I even feel bad about writing that whole "head out of their ass" comment a few paragraphs before. In my opinion, it was an excellent speech. And then the CNN experts took over.

Immediately following the speech I was barraged by CNN reporters, contributers, and "experts", giving an analysis of the event. I didn't even have time to sit back and mull things over before I was informed that Romney only used the word "Mormon" one time, and how wrong it was that he didn't give a doctrinal discourse. Apparently they didn't listen to him when he said:

"There are some who would have a presidential candidate describe and explain his church's distinctive doctrines. To do so would enable the very religious test the founders prohibited in the Constitution. No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith. For if he becomes President he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths."

The reporters wanted a doctrinal discourse about how different Mormonisms was from mainstream Christianity. What they failed to realize is that Romney's speech was an average modern Mormon's view on government, freedom and tolerance. I even heard one person say Romney had no emotion, and that it wasn't "exciting". In regards to religion, people probably expect the fervent intonations of an exuberant Baptist or Pentecostal minister. You won't get that from a Mormon when they talk about religion. That tone is what you get when you go to a Mormon church. What they heard was Mormon public speaking at its core. You won't get shouting or yelling, you'll get simple straightforward, and oftentimes boring (although Romney's speech, I feel, was far from it) discourses. What those reporters heard was more Mormon than they realized.

Another thing I found disconcerting was they kept saying things to the effect of: "Romney said [this] to appeal more to the religious right." I have my own theory: maybe he said all of it because he actually believed it!

It made me realize something. Most of the misunderstanding doesn't come from the fundamentalist movement (and while they do hate Mormons, more often than not they will admit that they're "good people"). It comes from the media. The media does not know how to deal with a religion like Mormonism, nor do they know how to deal with a politician like Mitt Romney, who has a clean past and actually believes what he says.

Instead they complain about how they just don't understand the religion, and seem like they haven't even gone to the press room section of the official church website.

On CNN, Glenn Beck (who himself is a Mormon) was interviewed a few hours after the Romney speech. He said something to the effect of (and I can't quote verbatim, and I apologize): "If anyone wants to know anything about Mormonism, just ask a Mormon, they'll never shut up about their religion." I agree. Let Mitt Romney focus on policy change and government, and most importantly running his campaign. I want to hear solutions about taxes, immigration, terrorism, the economy, foreign affairs, and yes, even as my friend John often brings up, the Patriot Act. If someone truly is interested in learning about Mormonism, they should either speak to a Mormon, or visit mormon.org. If they are interested, they won't need a politician to tell them about it.