The Shot!

Bigotry continues in South Carolina.

The South Carolina Republican Primary is over, but that’s not stopping some activists from continuing their Mormon bashing antics.   This morning we received a copy of this disturbing email sent by Terrye Seckinger to “fellow Thompson supporter(s)”.  Seckinger was a member of Fred Thompson’s SC Steering Committee, but more importantly she is the sister of Cindy Mosteller who made national news for attacking Romney’s religion.

Now that Thompson is out, it seems to us that Seckinger is using the religion angle to make sure Thompson supporters go anywhere but to Romney.

THE EMAIL: 

Dear fellow Thompson supporter:

I received this e-mail a few weeks ago and it confirmed my concerns about Mitt Romney. I have investigated all the references in this document and they are legitimate.

Romney appears to be “all things to all men” Mitt is not just a member of the Mormon Church but served as a “bishop” of a church ward of 4000 members in Boston. Romney has stated on the campaign trail that he stands behind his faith and all it’s teachings.
Although we are a decidedly “Christian nation” what bothers me most are the political ramifications of his beliefs. They are amazingly racist. How can we ask African Americans to vote for a man whose belief is that they are lower class people.

Please read the attached document that I’m sure will come out in the public eye should he ever be our nominee.

Respectfully concerned;
Terrye Seckinger

THE ATTACHMENT 

Dear Conservative Friend,

I received this letter with incredible documentation on the doctrinal stance of the Mormon Church.
Mitt Romney is not just a member, but a leader in the Mormon Church.
I send this to you because the political ramifications are significant.
The official statement, doctrine and practice of the Mormon Church with regard to the position of RACE, ( see documentation below) are indefensible and almost inconceivable but would be highly detrimental to a GOP win in 08′ should Romney be our nominee.

George Bush received 9% and 11% of the minority vote in the 00″ & 04′ election cycles.
HOW CAN WE ASK OUR MINORITY GOP FRIENDS TO VOTE FOR MITT?
His nomination WILL elect HILLARY CLINTON!

October, 2007

Dear Fellow Conservative;

I consider it the highest honor to write to you today regarding my very disturbing encounter with Gov. Mitt Romney at the conclusion of a statewide GOP meeting. I write today with gravity to relay to you my serious concerns regarding “religious right” support for Mitt Romney.

I have had the opportunity, as a seminary graduate, to stand in the public square for Judeo-Christian principles and conservative ideology at the county, state, and national levels. I’ve served in my state’s GOP leadership for many years as well as in state government

Friends, the idea that Mitt Romney may ascend to the GOP Presidential nomination on the endorsements of Christian leaders, is an irony severely troubling to me spiritually, politically and pragmatically it is a sobering thought that, by the efforts of our Christian leaders, our party would nominate a Mormon for the highest office in our land. As we all know, Gov. Romney is not simply a Mormon churchgoer, in Boston he was the overseer responsible for 14 wards and some 3000 members of the Mormon Church. (See Time Magazine attachment)

As you know, there are tremendous Mormon doctrinal incompatibilities with Judeo-Christianity (from the Adam/God doctrine, to Jesus as a polygamist, to men living on the moon and racism) that the vast majority of Christians are completely unfamiliar with.

Their support for Romney is somewhat blind without a basic understanding of Mormon doctrine. As then Chairman of my County’s GOP, I had the opportunity to ask Gov. Romney some pointed doctrinal questions on issues that I believe would be very problematic to his viability as a general election candidate. The encounter was very tense, and relayed a side of Mitt Romney that I believe few people on the campaign trail have seen.

After the meeting adjourned, I asked permission to ask Gov. Romney a few questions. When I relayed that they were regarding the political implications of some Mormon doctrine, his countenance grew stern and he and his staff shuffled me into an empty ball room so that no one could hear our conversation. Standing within 2 ½ feet of the Governor, I relayed my concern that their eternal doctrine of polygamy and the Mormon contention that Jesus Christ himself was a polygamist would negatively impact his strength in a general election. He was visibly agitated when I tried to show him church documentation from on the issue and demanded to know “were I had gotten this material from”. I responded with a strength and calmness that only God could have given me and said, “Governor Romney, it doesn’t matter where I got these quotes, considering the Mormon view that apostle Orson Pratt and Brigham Young speaks truth with regards to doctrine, the real question was, were these quotes, “the great messiah who was the founder of the Christian religion was a polygamist” and “monogamy is no part of the economy of heaven among men” accurate? He basically had no answer to that question and reiterated that the church did not practice polygamy anymore, to which I responded, “That may solve the problem of practice (through there are about 40,000 practicing polygamists in Utah), but not of doctrine.

I then moved on to the issue I consider being the greatest threat to the elect ability of Mitt Romney in a general election. This, Dr. Dobson, is the critical issue of race. I stated to the Governor that I knew the Mormon Church taught the doctrine of universal preexistence and that if, as their church states, a person is “less than valiant” in the preexistent life, God judges him/her and the evidence of that judgment is they are born into this world with dark skin. I presented a quote from Brigham Young to support this church teaching, “Cain slew his brother… and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin …” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p.290). Mr. Romney was highly agitated and asked, “Who are you to ask me these questions”? To which I responded, “Governor Romney, at some point CNN could ask you these questions”. About this time the Romney staffers present attempted to excuse the Governor from the room stating that he had to get going. Then Romney said, “Well, did you intend to ask me these questions in the briefing room from which 250 Republican has just adjourned”? I responded that I did not ask him those questions in there, but that President George Bush has willingly answered questions about his faith before thousands if not millions of people over the last six years.
At this time in the conversation, Governor’s Romney’s staff closed the doors to the ballroom locking out a few people and telling them that this was a private meeting. I relayed to him that I was very uncomfortable with this action and was not sure why he felt the need to close me off from the others in attendance that day. The conversation basically ended here without any real answers given. Although I do not exactly know the time frame, I was told Romney sent out a press statement within one hour of the conversation and accused me of attacking his religion. This resulted in angry e-mails to me from Mormons around the country and also e-mails from former Mormons thanking me for not letting Romney move across the state without the serious questions being asked.
I have spoken with many dear conservative friends across the nation, they are appalled when they come to find out the claims of Mormon doctrine and surprised at Mitt Romney’s high stature in his church.
I know the time of decision for you and therefore for many of the country’s GOP members, we cannot give away our county and our strength as Judeo-Christian Americans to the furtherance of making a Mormon the leader of the free world!
Recently, a visiting professor from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (while visiting my church) told me with great dismay that the election of Mitt Romney to the White House would mainstream to the American people a “church” whose God is not Our Father, and whose Savior is not our Christ. I firmly believe a wide scale endorsement of Mitt Romney will tear apart the Christian right movement in this country.
My sister, who just finished her tenure on our State Board of Education, was told by a staffer, whose boss was a Mormon in the US Dept. of Education under Bush 41, that whenever there was a vacancy under him, the boss would call the church in Utah and receive a name. The next week that person was in filling the position. This gives me a keen understanding of what a Mormon Presidency would look like and coincides with the doctrinal teaching of their faith.
Below, please allow me to share with you some documented tenants of the Mormon faith that Romney hopes most American will never know this side of the nomination. The quotes concerning race are particularly disturbing. As white Americans, how can we stand to endorse leadership for our party that holds to such indefensible claims? Before God and man, I for one cannot do it!
A Romney nomination will surely mean a Clinton White House!

Documented doctrinal statements:

• “God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man”. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg 345)

• “The everlasting gospel could not be discovered through reading the Bible alone…” ( Mormon apostle LeGrand Richards, A marvelous work and a wonder, 1966, pg 41)
• “The early brethren of this dispensation taught that the Garden of Eden was located in what is known to us as the land of Zion, an area for which Jackson County, Missouri, is the center place.” ( Mormon Doctrine, pg 21) [cut and paste the You Tube interview with George Stephanopoulos where Romney tries to avoid Mormon doctrine of Christ’s physical return to Missouri] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nnSe238oUM
• “In or near Carolina, Noah built his remarkable ship”. ( Oliver B. Huntington The Juvenile instructor, Nov. 15, 1895 pg 700-701)
• “In light of their understanding that God is a procreating personage of flesh and bone, Latter Day prophets have made it clear that despite what it says in Matthew 1:20, the Holy Ghost was not the father of Jesus… the Savoir was fathered by a personage of flesh and bone.” (Dialogue: a journal of Mormon thought, 1967 pp 100-101)
• “The man Joseph, the husband of Mary, did not, that we know of have more than one wife, but Mary the wife of Joseph had another husband.” (Brigham Young, Deseret News, Oct. 10, 1866)
• “The fleshy body of Jesus required a Mother as well as a Father. Therefore, the father and mother of Jesus, according to the flesh must have been associated together in the capacity of Husband and Wife; hence the virgin Mary must have been for the time being, the lawful wife of God the Father. (Mormon apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, pg 158)
NOTE: Orson Pratt is Mitt Romney great-great uncle according to Fox News. [Sat 2/24/07- Polygamy prominent in GOP hopeful Mitt Romney’s family tree] “Romney’s great-great grandfather, Parley Pratt, an apostle in the church had 12 wives. In an 1852 sermon, Parley Pratt’s brother and fellow apostle Orson Pratt became the first church official to publicly proclaim and defend polygamy as a direct revelation from God”.
• “The monogenic (monogamous) system” had been a “fruitful source of prostitution and whoredom throughout all the Christian monogenic cities of the old and new world…” ( Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 11, pg 128)
• “…the one-wife system not only degenerates the human family, both physically and intellectually, but it is entirely incompatible with philosophical notions of immortality; it is a lure to temptation, and has always proved a curse to people”. (vol. 15, pg 227)
• “Our father Adam came into the Garden of Eden with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives with him”. (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, pg 50)
• “Jesus Christ was married at Cana of Galilee, that Mary, Martha, and others were his wives and that he begat children”. ( apostle Orson Hide Journal of Discourses, vol.2, pg 210)
• “and we, … are believers in the principle of plural marriage or polygamy, … as a principle revealed by God, underlying our every hope of eternal salvation and happiness in heaven… we cannot view plural marriage in any other light than as a vital principle”. ( Millennial Star, vol. 40,pp 226-228)
• “Monogamy, or restrictions by law to one wife, is not part of the economy of heaven among men. Such a system was commenced by the founders of the Roman Empire… Rome became the mistress of the world and introduced this order of monogamy where ever her sway was acknowledged. Thus this monogenic order of marriage, so esteemed by modern Christians as a holy sacrament and divine institution is nothing but a system established by a set of robbers”. ( Brigham Young, Deseret News, vol. 12, Aug. 6, 1862)
• “Why do we believe in and practice polygamy? Because the Lord introduced it to his servants in a revelation given to Joseph Smith”. ( Brigham Young, Deseret News, vol. 12, Aug. 6, 1862)
• “Nearly all the great discoveries of men in the last half century have, in one way or another, either directly of indirectly, contributed to prove Joseph Smith to be a Prophet. As far back as 1837, I know that he said the moon was inhabited by men and women the same as this earth and that they lived to a greater age than we do, that they live generally to near the age of 1000 years. He described the men as averaging near 6 feet in height and dressing quite uniformly in something near the Quaker style. In my patriarchal blessing, given by the Father of Joseph the prophet, in Kirtland in 1837, I was told that I should preach the gospel before I was 21 years of age; that I should preach the gospel to the inhabitants upon the islands of the sea, and to the inhabitants of the moon.” (The Young Women’s Journal, vol. 3, pp 263-264)
• “From the passage in the 45th Psalm, it will be seen that the great Messiah who was the founder of the Christian religion was a polygamist”. (apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, pg 172)
My Friend, the greatest problematic doctrine in terms of the political viability of a Mormon GOP presidential candidate is without question, the issue of race. [George Bush received 9% of the African-American vote in 00’ and 11% in 04’] While the quotes cited above are egregious to the orthodox Christian heart, the Mormon tenants on race are an affront on our sense of what it means to an American and a human being!

The Mormon doctrine of Race:
* To understand the Mormon attitude concerning blacks, a person must first understand the doctrine of pre-existence. One of the basic doctrines of the Mormon Church is that the spirit of man existed before the world was created. Joseph Smith once stated: (The Changing World of Mormonism web edition, pg 293)
The mind of man is as immortal as God himself… God never did have power to create the spirit of man at all (Times and Seasons, vol. 5, p.615, reprinted in History of the Church, vol. 6, pp.310-3ll).

* From this doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul, came the idea of some spirits being more noble than others. Joseph Smith’s Book of Abraham talks of “the noble and great ones” (Pearl of Great Price, Book of Abraham 3:22). The Mormon leaders taught that the “more noble” or choice spirits are born as Mormons. Blacks, on the other hand, were considered to have been more unfaithful in the pre-existence than any of the spirits who were allowed to take bodies. Apostle McConkie maintained that “those who were less valiant in pre-existence and who thereby had certain spiritual restrictions imposed upon them during mortality are known to us as the Negroes. Such spirits are sent to earth through the lineage of Cain, the mark put upon him for his rebellion against God and his murder of Abel being a black skin” (Mormon Doctrine, pp.476-77).
* “a black skin is a mark of the curse of heaven placed upon some portions of mankind” (Juvenile Instructor, vol. 3, p.157). This idea comes directly from Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon” (Book of Mormon, Alma 3:6).
* As a result of his rebellion, Cain was cursed with a dark skin; he became the father of the Negroes, and those spirits who are not worthy to receive the priesthood are born through his lineage. (Mormon Doctrine, 1958. p.l02).
* “From the days of the Prophet Joseph even until now, it has been the doctrine of the Church, never questioned by any of the Church leaders, that the Negroes are not entitled to the full blessings of the Gospel”. (Letter from the first Presidency of the Mormon Church, July 17, 1947, as cited in Mormonism and the Negro, by John J. Stewart, 1960, pp 46-47)
• Mormon historian B. H. Roberts asserted that in the pre-existence the Negroes “through their indifference or lack of integrity to righteousness, rendered themselves unworthy of the Priesthood and its powers, and hence it is withheld from them to this day (The Contributor, vol. 6, pp.296-97).
• Brigham Young declared … “Cain slew his brother… and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin …” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p.290).
• “Briefly stated, then, the Mormon doctrine concerning blacks was this: In the “pre-existence” the blacks “lent an influence to the devil.” Because of their “unfaithfulness in the spirit world,” they were “assigned to a dishonorable body on this earth.” They came through the “accursed lineage of Canaan,” and were “marked” with a “flat nose” and a “black covering” which is “emblematic of eternal darkness.” They were an “inferior” race. In fact, they were a “representation” of the “devil” upon the earth. They were “not equal with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned,” and they were “not entitled to the full blessings of the Gospel.” They were “denied the priesthood,” and they could not be married in a Mormon temple. But, “in spite” of all they “did in the pre-existence,” they could be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. If a black man was faithful all his life he could enter the celestial kingdom” ( The Changing World of Mormonism, web edition, pg 296)
• “Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.” ( Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 10 pg 110)
• Also, the gospel was not carried to this segregated black group …the Negroes tread the earth with black dishonorable bodies as a judgment of God because at the time of decision in the pre-existence they were faint-hearted and exhibited an infirmity of purpose—they were not valiant in the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, they were entitled to no better earthly lineage than that of the first earthly murderer, Cain. They were to be the “servant of servants.” They were to be segregated. No effort was made to carry the gospel to them as a people (That Ye May Not Be Deceived, pp.9-10).
• The idea that a black is only worthy of the position of a servant has deep roots in Mormon theology. Mark E. Petersen, who is now serving as an Apostle in the church, once said that if a “Negro is faithful all his days, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a servant” (Race Problems—As They Affect The Church, a speech delivered at Brigham Young University, August 27, 1954).
• On June 9, 1978, Mormon Church leaders announced a very important change in their doctrine concerning blacks. They stated that blacks would now be given “all of the privileges and blessings which the gospel affords” (Deseret News, June 9, 1978). Mormon leadership could give no account as to “why” this new revelation had been given at this time nor did they, in any way, recant the doctrine of preexistence and dark skin being evidence of a judgment of God.
You may want to view these compelling You Tube videos by cutting and pasting them into your browser
“Blacks are Satan’s Folks” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9yjUQMIDYM
“Mormon Racism” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTe3XBeE7cA,

Friends, with the undeniable evidence that the Mormon faith has a doctrine of racism how will any African American vote for Mitt Romney for President and how in our hearts could we ever ask them to do so! To me this doctrine seems as unbelievable as it is unconscionable. Can we as Republicans and as Americans endorse this bigotry and hope to win the White House?
In addition to the above documentation, we should also look at the pragmatics of elect ability from polls already taken on Romney’s Mormon beliefs. Polls on the elect ability of a Mormon show between 29% to 43% of American voters said they would never consider voting for a Mormon presidential candidate. It is safe to assume that those being polled have little, if any, idea of the information included in this document. I firmly believe the conclusion of all of this is that Mitt Romney cannot win the 08’ general election if he were to get the nomination. We should not think for one minute that the Democrats won’t play this race card and win!

Below are 2 You Tube videos FYI on other serious Romney cultural policy issues:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9IJUkYUbvI Pro-choice Romney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbX4RkGlYnk Romney running FROM the GOP

Considering the political implications of the Mormon faith, an endorsement of Mitt Romney will mean we will all be calling Hillary Clinton - PRESIDENT!

Respectfully,

Your Concerned Friend

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 3:04 pm and is filed under The Shot. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.