Ron Paul Supporter Challenges Romney Over Mormon Doctrine in Wisconsin

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Did no one else see this coming?

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was confronted at a town hall meeting here Monday by a young man who read from a book of scripture published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and asked Romney whether he agreed with his church’s one-time belief that interracial marriage was a sin. . . .
The questioner, Bret Hatch, 28, a local supporter of Rep. Ron Paul’s, read from typed notes as he asked Romney whether he agreed with a verse from Moses 7:8 from the “Pearl of Great Price.”

You can read the relevant chapter of the Mormon “Book of Moses” and see for yourself what it says. And you may remember that I previously predicted what is now beginning to happen: As long as the media and the Democrats (but I repeat myself) saw the GOP nomination being in doubt, Romney’s status as a bishop in the LDS church was treated as off-limits, except when it was used as a club to clobber evangelical Christian voters for their supposed anti-Mormon prejudice.

By contast, recall how often Rick Santorum’s support for Catholic doctrine — especially his church’s opposition to artificial contraception — was a frequent subject of mainstream media “controversy.”

Now that Democrats are near-certain that Romney is the nominee, however, the media is going to start covering Mitt’s Mormonism in a very serious way — “Oh, look, he’s a fringe kook!” — as if this were an entirely legitimate topic of political discussion.

Again, by contrast, remember that the preachings of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in whose pews Barack Obama sat for 20 years, were quickly dismissed by the media as irrelevant, and anyone who called attention to Obama’s having briefly attended a Muslim school in Indonesia was condemned as a crackpot conspiracy theorist.

Those Republicans who have joined the “Roll Over for Romney” movement, asserting that Mitt is not only “inevitable” as the nominee but also the most “electable” of the GOP candidates, will likely get a brutal lesson in absolute ruthlessness, as the Left will not hesitate to exploit religious bigotry when it suits their purposes.

Perhaps the voters of Wisconsin can save us from this fate:

Even as you read this, Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign is going all-out to win the Wisconsin Republican primary. It’s important to make that point up front, because if you permit yourself to be hypnotized by media coverage of the campaign, you will helplessly succumb to the belief that the fight for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination is all over but the shouting. There are many people who want to convince Republican voters in Wisconsin and elsewhere that Mitt Romney is the “inevitable” nominee, and not all of them are in the paid employment of the Romney campaign or his super-PAC.
Between the official campaign and its allied “Restore Our Future” super-PAC, pro-Romney forces have unloaded more than $3 million in advertising in Wisconsin, but what they’ve spent attacking Santorum is dwarfed in value by the network airtime devoted to promoting the message of Romney’s inevitability. It is remarkable to observe how this appeal to bandwagon psychology has actually intensified since Santorum won the March 24 Louisiana primary by a whopping 22 points. . . .

Read the rest at The American Spectator.

UPDATE: CNN, ABC News, Politico — see what I mean? Now that they think Romney’s clinched, this “issue” magically become legitimate.

Let’s just pray Rick Santorum’s phone-from-home get-out-the-vote volunteers can work some magic in Wisconsin.

69 comments

  2. […] -Stacy McCain reports on a Ron Paul supporter in Wisconsin challenging Willard M. Romney on Mormon Doctrine.  He and I have both predicted that the Left will begin to do this when and if Willard is the Nominee, but it’s interesting that it’s the Paulbots who are getting this line of attack rolling.  Stacy comments: Those Republicans who have joined the “Roll Over for Romney” movement, asserting that Mitt is not only “inevitable” as the nominee but also the most “electable” of the GOP candidates, will likely get a brutal lesson in absolute ruthlessness, as the Left will not hesitate to exploit religious bigotry when it suits their purposes. […]

  3. What’s the difference? A lot of mainstream Christian churches used to teach the same thing, and some old-timers still do, they’ll even use the old excuse about it being “bad for the children” of such marriages. As for the Catholics, they had to get special permission to marry somebody outside the faith, and my understanding is such permission from a priest was rarely granted, if ever. Again, it was all “for the sake of the children”.

    As for Santorum, where he got in hot water was when the old video surfaced of him criticizing Protestants who engaged in contraception. Newsflash Rick, you’re not qualified to judge the actions of followers of a religion outside your own, nor do they have to tow the Roman line in order to be “good Christians”. It’s one thing to criticize Catholics who go against the Pope’s teaching, something else all together to criticize members of another denomination.

    Just wait until he finds out most of you guys don’t actually do the rosary, he’ll really give you a piece of his mind then.

  4. Mormonism is very peculiar and false creed but it should not be the reason not to vote for Romney.  

    I do believe it creates a malformed conscience because so much of it is so patently and obviously false and easily disproven but a person may still be able to develop a level of decency. I doubt Romney has.  

  5. Wow, who didn’t see this coming! I am baffled by the stupidity of the republican party to brush this off as a “non issue”. The mormons believe some completely outrageous stuff. They believe that black people are the curse of Cain and they baptize the living and the dead into their church, which has really upset the jewish people, who Romney needs to win Florida! The fact that all these republican “leaders” are so arrogant and they want to deny so many states the choice in this primary, really annoys me! Well they get what they deserve, unless this is what they want. Call me cynical but there’s a lot of pundits, radio show hosts, Fox news, who make more money, sell more books and have more speaking gigs when they have someone to rail against in the White House!

  6. Maybe all the people in Wisconsin who have been hypnotized into believing that Romney is the inevitable nominee will just not bother to go out and vote tomorrow….

  7. “the media and the Democrats (but I repeat myself)” ~ Ha!

    Well, I certainly am not surprised but I guess I don’t understand why religion has to be a part of this anyway. Mitt being a Mormon has never been an issue with me. I do not like him for many other reasons. I equate that way of thinking to not liking Obama because he is black (or Muslim). I’m not Catholic but I will vote for Rick.  As long as my president is Pro-America (in his actions) I guess I could care less what his religion is even if I do not agree with it.

    I find it interesting that the media doesn’t wait until (IF) Romney actually wins the nomination. If their whole plan is to go into attack mode, after shoving him down our throats, why aren’t they waiting until he (Mitt) is a sure thing? Do they want Wisconsin to go to Rick? If they waste their ammo on that now won’t the battle of Mormonism lose its bite later down the line?

  8. Your understanding is incorrect.  Catholic Marriage to Protestants and even Pagans was alllowed if the Children were raised as Catholics even in earlier time.  They could not have a Wedding Mass.

    Actually, it is humorous that as a  self professed “Pagan” that you assume you have the standing to point out whether a Catholic or even a Protestant can point out the errors in the practice of another Christian’s living of their faith. 

    One of corporal acts of mercy is “Instruct the uninformed” so Santorum has a divine sanction where you have Zeus or what ever.  

    This is my act of mercy for today.   

  9.  They are starting to believe their own narrative: Mitt is the inevitable nominee, the rest of the primaries are just a formality.
    So now with Gingrich stuffed firmly down the memory hole, and Santorum a joke, it’s time to start in on Mitt.

    Where’s Adjoran telling us this will all blow over and disappear? He’s so cute^H^H^H^H annoying and exasperating when he’s on his “all our failures are your fault, Stacey” kick.

  10.  Excuse my interjection but I wanted to share something you might find interesting. My grandmothers parents were of different religions. They raised the boys Protestant/Baptist, and the girls Catholic. My grandmother was the only girl who ‘turned’ Baptist when she was an adult.

  11.  Divine sanction my ass. People have the right to believe whatever kind of foolish of-the-wall
    crap they like, but when they put it out in the public domain, then
    guess what? Seems we have a right to comment and express concern about
    it. And my opinion is, when it comes to contraception, and a host of other issues-like the death penalty, for example, among other leftist crap-then the Pope is just another asshole with an opinion, no more, no less.

  14.     Certainly Romney isn’t unprepared.  This must be about the forty-dozenth time he’s been asked a question just like this one.   A refusal to go into the specifics of Mormon doctrines  has been his standard response at least since his last presidential run, and this kind of short, curt answer to this kind of ‘question’ is also quite standard for him.   Since he’s not running for Mormon-apologist-in-chief, he doesn’t need and should not try to give any more detail than he did.
       

  15.  Yeah, I remember now hearing about how some mixed marriages were allowed so long as the kids were raised Catholic. And of course Rufus was correct when he said mixed marriages had nothing to do with race in the Catholic faith, but then again I already knew that and never said otherwise. My point is, all religions are going to provide fodder for critics of one kind or another. But when it comes to racially mixed marriages especially, its kind of silly to single out Mormons when a good many denominations believed precisely the same thing. I guess you could make the point that it was never codified in scripture in the case of mainstream Christianity, but that’s the only salient point to be made. In reality, many held to the same view.

  16.  You’re right. I bet Rick will sweep New York, California, New Jersey, Connecticutt, Rhode Island, Maryland, Wisconsin, etc., by such wide margins it will make your head spin.

  18. The problem is, as I see it, that Romney’s campaign has taken the stance of any comments about Mormonism they will counter with “religious bigotry”…and to a certain degree they would be correct.
    But…
    The Dems won’t care one wit about that (a quick look at their track record should more than confirm that), and they’ll use criticism of Wright, the rumor that Obama is a closet Muslim,  and (more damning) criticism of Santorum’s Catholicism coming from the right as their “out” (heck, they might even use questioning of Perry’s ties to evangelicals, although that’s a bit of a stretch and not as current for them to use). After all, they’ll say, you guys posed questions about Obama and even one of your own, therefore it’s only fair…

    Romney will need to get out in front of this; should have been more proactive before now (any attempt at leaving religion out of it and/or not provide detail will just raise more questions within the electorate which isn’t that knowledgeable about Mormonism and thus an apt blank slate for media propaganda — questions the left will be only too happy to provide).

  20. This is an example of the kind of propaganda that the Left will attempt to exploit.  Whether it will succeed remains to be seen.

  21. I can attest to the fact that many that fall into the category of Protestant still to this day are against racially mixed marriages. More openly in the South. More secretively in the North. One of the verses they use is 2 Cor. 6:14  Be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what
    fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? and what partnership
    has light with darkness?  I guess some people jumped on that last line as a black person & white person issue.

  25. so yeah, all blathering aside: a few of us did indeed see this one coming a long way off

    Hmm, the race thing seems to be almost scripted right now it fits so perfectly….

  26. What a scoop!  Because NOBODY predicted the Democrats would pull anything out of the bag against ANY nominee we put up, did they?  Yeah, only Romney and Johnson had to worry about the Mormon questions, but everyone has stuff they’d rather not talk about.  If his religion and how he took his dog on vacation 30 years ago are the top weaknesses, Romney’s well ahead of most.

    For instance, Santorum won’t talk about how he financed his house just a couple of years ago.  But at least no one could criticize him for his religious beliefs, or those of some of his zealous followers, could they?
     

  27. The catch is that it has never been codified in scripture within mainstream Christianity.  Interpretation is one thing (and one could argue that such interpretations are wrong), but codification is a different order of magnitude.

    In fairness the LDS did some change up on this back in the 70s, but that wasn’t very long ago — certainly not long enough for the Dems to not go for some traction on this issue.

  28. Romney is running for the Presidency of the entire US, including Mormons, Protestants evangelical and other, Catholics,  Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, and religiously indifferent.   For this reason, he cannot and should not be expected to be a spokesmen for Mormonism at the same time. It’s easy and  natural to direct questions to the person with the highest public  profile, but in this case, there are better sources.

  29.  I don’t know, I tune that crap out. Whenever we are in campaign season and I hear trigger words like race or religion all I seem to hear are the sounds of Charlie Browns teacher…

  30. But he should at least be prepared to field questions — after all, others have had to field questions about their religious affliations.  If he doesn’t then it’s going to raise more questions than answer them.  Passing the questions off won’t cut it (and the Dems will bring up the whole bishop/stake president thing at that point).

  31. Well done sir, the truly bizarre part of this is the way many react to these sort of things. If Perry had become the nominee his belief in creationism rather than evolution would have become a big issue. Apparently the left is afraid evolution might be repealed. Many people of faith (other than libruls) believe drunkenness and adultery are a sin I don’t think we can repeal them either.

  32. The Bolsheviks have never doubted that Mitt would be the nominee. They assume that he’s the least farthest out of the mainstream of American opinion. Keep in mind that they really believe that as long as Pol Pot is to their left (he’s not) that makes them centrists. So by their measure all the other candidates are so far out there that not even those crazy republicans would select a Bachmann or a Santorum as their nominee.

  35.  “So by their measure *…* a Bachmann or a Santorum as their nominee.” ~~ From RSMs post Political Psychic “You see how Dionne, un- questionably himself a man of the Left, here presumes to discern the intentions of the Right — a stealthy “transformation” of this “new conservatism” into a “radical creed” — even as his mind-reading powers enable him to see that it is the “timidity” of moderates which stops them from preventing “an intellectual coup.” ~~~~ And this is another BIG problem with the GOP establishment (along with weakness and PCrap) they have allowed the media, Democrats, and liberal pundits control the Republican/Conservative narrative.  Their weakness makes me so mad I could spit!

  37. I’m not judging Mitt. I’m saying that his alleged “electability” is a myth, and that once the MSM gets through doing the “investigative series” thing with Mormonism, Romney’s poll numbers will crater like nothing you could possibly imagine. In all seriousness, they’ve had this stuff cued up for months, and when they start rolling it out — no matter how much Republicans scream “unfair!” — it will be an epic P.R. disaster.

    None of the Republican expert types who are cheering on the Romney bandwagon have bothered to investigate how much stuff is out there on Mormonism, and are underestimating what the liberal media will do with that stuff, once they decide it’s time to turn it loose. Just wait and see.

  38. I see you majored in incoherent invective. Is there any wonder why you’re a barbarous Pagan worshipping silly man created images of your own hubris.

  39. Oh well, I’m me and you’re you, so naturally you know a hell of a lot more about me and what I believe than I myself do. Is that another one of those divine catholic gifts I’ve been hearing so much about?

    By the way, my cat just shit a turd that looks just like the Blessed Virgin. Any idea what I might get for it on E-Bay?

  40.  “you’re not qualified to judge the actions of followers of a religion outside your own”

    That is quite possibly the most moronic thing I’ve seen you write here (and that’s a high bar.)  Just what do you think people are doing when they exercise their religious freedom to decide which one they  follow?

    The behavior of certain protestants did not comport with Santorum’s religion’s standard of behavior, and he noted that.  That is exactly what any adherent of any religion would do.

    That’s not judgement, that’s discrimination and speaking plainly the tenets of your faith.  

    In Catholicism, judgement is reserved for God,.

    The notion that Catholics cannot speak about other people’s behavior?  That is foolish, and ignorant. not to mention un-American.

    You don’t like other people being critical?  Suck it up. 

  41. Give it time, the media is only getting warmed up.

    The LDS church, and it’s scripture also have some choice things to say about the Catholic Church (it is referred to in the Book of Mormon as ‘the Whore of Babylon.’)

    I am sure Axelrod and Obama are counting on this to neutralize the Catholic votes they lost due to the insurance mandate issue.

    But don’t worry, Joy McCann will be by shortly to explain how, good Catholic that she is, she’s just relieved that their wont be a ‘pastor’ Santorum in the White House.

  42.  No, I don’t like other people judging the sincerity of other people’s faiths and beliefs and how they practice them. Number one, its  none of his fucking business what other people believe and how they practice their faith. So they don’t feel the same way Catholics feel about contraception. Boo Fucking Hoo.

    To say Protestants aren’t true Christians over some point of doctrinal disagreement like that is really over the top, by any reasonable standard. It’s not like Protestants are going around flying planes into buildings or blowing up bombs in cars near crowds of schoolchildren. People that decide what faith to follow hopefully do so because they’ve found what speaks to them, to their hearts. Whether you like it or not, they don’t have to clear it with the fucking Pope. Moreover, they owe the likes of Rick Santorum jack fucking shit. Fuck that little creep anyway.

  43. @7497872e2e3af59d474eddbfa231905e:disqus

    Dude, I don’t give a fried-diddly fuck what you believe any more than I care what a jackass leftist believes about me. Six of one, half a dozen of another.

  44. I would not hold being Mormon against Romney.  I don’t like him because he is not Conservative.  Religion has nothing to do with leadership.

    However, I will admit, I find the Mormon church to be very weird and I do not believe they are Christian…but a cult to bring prosperity upon its leaders….(the same can be said about most religions).

    Despite (or maybe, because of) their insane (yes, I will say it) faith, they seem to be generally good and gracious people (well above the average of most Americans) who have become prosperous after much time in the literal wilderness and having to build a modern society in Utah from scratch.

    Mormons are good people.

  45.  The problem is once he starts going down that road then that will be the main topic he will be asked about, at every appearance, at every interview, at every press conference. It doesn’t matter how many times he answers the same question in the same exact way, it will keep coming. Because the point won’t be to educate people about the Mormon faith, it will be to drive home to the American people how weird and in some ways dubious and questionable the Mormon faith is. And Romney will be expected to keep on defending it, or denying what they will insist is a major racist tenet of his faith.

    The best thing Republicans can do is counter this with reminding people of Obama’s years in Rev. Wright’s race-baiting, communist leaning church. In fact, they need to do that anyway, over and over again, whether the left drops the Mormon angle or not.

  47. Yup.  Confutus and Adjoran want to act like this is normal, and to an extent it is.  Any candidate would have been scorched (which was why we say Pick Rick, he knows how to fight unlike plaster saint Romney).

    The thing is the moderates tried to make great hay of the way the MSM would attack a conservative while ignoring the way they would attack a liberal.  A large part of ‘electability’ was based on this nonsense.

    But it is going to be worse for Romney for these reasons:
    1.  He’s not a fighter.  Gingrich is the best at this.  Come after him, and you’ll end up defending yourself.  Santorum ain’t bad at it either.  Ron Paul…not sure, but better than Romney.
    2. Mormonism is an easier and more explosive target than most everything else out there.
    3.  Mormonism is a rich vein of revelations that can be broadcast in subsequent shows.
    4. Mormonism attacks will resonate, which is a key effect.  Resonation is what happens when someone says something and it has effects way out of line with the power of what they said.  Its a function of prepared ground.
    Basically a lot of folk kinda mistrust, but are willing to be tolerant of Mormons, and they do not know very much about Mormons so they don’t have settled opinions on them. This is extremely fertile soil for a ‘hate and bigotry’ campaign run by those masters of slander, the MSM.Now we reach one of the crux’s of the issue.  Conservative reaction.  Conservatives tend to have fairly semi- fixed beliefs in the area of what religious tolerance is, and how to enact it.  Most of this stuff will largely bounce off Conservatives other than making them a bit more willing to slang Romney.Besides, we have plenty of reaons to dislike  Romney already.But what won’t happen is an enthusiastic tidal wave of support any time some MSM idiot, but I repeat myself, ventures beyond mere hackery to outright lies.

    Rush Limbaugh got slammed, but he had a lot of Support, and he’s still there.  This happens in other cases as well.   You think Mitt Romney can count on a tsunami of Conservative Love and Anger to protect him from the loudphones of the MSM?  Because if you do, I’d like some of that crack you’re smoking.

  48. Yes, and that was exactly one of the traps.
    However, the GOP can counter with the Jeremiah Wright thing only so much — otherwise the Dems can keep going on about Mormonism while saying that the GOP are bloody hypocrites.

    It isn’t a winning situation.

  49. And this is roughly the typical conservative reaction.  Now does anyone see CPAguy  getting frothingly enraged about the MSM slamming Romney unjustly?

    Perhaps I malign CPAGuy, and if so, I apologize.   I’m sure he won’t cheer them on.

  50. That’s the hook though: the Mormon attact will not be aimed at currying the right (the Dems rightly guess that this will not work).  It will be aimed at the middle and at keeping the conservative base home.  It also shifts attention away from Obama’s  little messiah/cult by giving the public an idea that the right has now done the same thing — started a messiah/cult of their own.
    Part of this Romney is also very much to blame for: by treating the socons and the base in general in a fairly shoddy way they will not be able to call up any rousing defense — and many people may just decide to stay home.One of the worst things the right has done is to counter the left by engaging in a mirror image attack on them — it defeats the purpose by being reactionary, and it essentially turns the right into the left’s opposing twin.That may be an academic and moot point now though…

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