Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Article on Romney's Mormonism....not completely negative

I haven't seen any of those, and I'm not anti-Morman. There are some realities to living in heavily Morman communities, however.

Some of the fringe offshoots of the Morman community are spooky. I was watched and followed when I spent an afternoon in Colorado City, AZ a few years ago while returning from an elk hunt in Chama NM. My wife was terrified, but that place is extreme and cult-run.

What do these ads say?

Actually, I want someone with Morman values to turn things around in this country.

I'm not sure that's Romney; he's flipped on abortion and gay rights several times. I could see him pro gay marriage.

Those are sponsored by the church itself. In fact, I have a cousin who produces some of those commercials.

Nope, I believe on those he flopped... ?

Chit, can't seem to keep em' all straight.

Which the Romney donated $ $4 million$ $ to last year alone...

Donated? Actually if you had said that most of what Romney paid was his "tithing", THEN you would begin to make a 'correct' statement!

Got something against "tithing?"

Mitt is pretty high up in the ranks of Mormonism.

I grew up in Mentor Ohio and studied the beginings of LDS
And why they were driven from Ohio and eleswhere.
And some of the nuts they left behind!
Like Lungren and his followers.

Romney?

Being a Mormon does't bother me.
Being a liberal from Mass. does!

If he gets in the White House the 2nd Amendment needs to be gaurded even closer!

I'm guessing you've never met Harry Reid.

The main sect of Mormons abolished polygamy back in 1890 after pressure from the federal government, and by decree, in 1912 the church officially no longer recognized previous plural marriages they had performed......both Romney and Harry Reid currently belong to this sect. However, there were some in the church back then that fled to both Mexico and Canada to avoid prosecution for bigamy in the U.S. Mitt Romney decended from one of those families that had fled around the turn of the century.

Now, there never was a single compound either, though most of the families that fled bought ranches in the same general area to maintain a sense of community, but they never walled themselves off from the rest of the world as the post suggests.

As far as modern polygamy, there are some small off shoot branches of Mormonism that maintain the church was wrong to abandon polygamy back in 1890 so they continue to practice it today. They don't recognize main stream Mormonism of which Romney and Reid are members and main stream Mormons don't recognize them.......each veiw the other as apostate organizations and there is no connection official or otherwise.

As far as Harry Reid's ties to the Mexican Mormons I can't really say, I don't know his family history. But since it was only a small minority of families that left the U.S. for Mexico or Canada I would think it is unlikely.

There are quite a few mainstream Mormons who practice polygamy in spite of the church's ban on it. I've known a few personally over the years. Back in high school, one of my best friends was from one of those families. They kept a pretty tight reign on things to avoid legal problems. In the years we were friends, I never, even once, was at their house. They didn't welcome outside eyes seeing what was going on. I knew 2 of his sisters, too, but I never found out whether they were from his mother or a different one.
My wife's a hairdresser. She has a client who's one of several wives. Elaine asked her how they handled the legal part of it. She said that when it's time for an additional wife, the husband 'divorces' the current one, then remarries. However, the previous wives don't move out. They continue being his wives although the state doesn't recognize them.

That said, I don't think Romney's Mormanism would affect his service as president. He is what he is which isn't who I'd like but he's still 1000x better than Obama.

I'd go this plus as far as heavily veiled negative.
Being Mormon, I have issue w/ Romney's political actions as MA gov being contrary to his religious beliefs. But yeah, he's way better than Obummer.

And Reid doesn't even rate a dignified 'mormon' label. The guy's just evil.

I would take issue with that statement. I can pretty much guarantee that anyone practicing polygamy today within the mainstream LDS church is going to be ex-communicated. I'm not a practicing Mormon so I don't speak for them, but I did grow up in the church and am familiar with their teachings and values. If your aquaintences are indeed polygamists as you say, either 1), local church leaders are unaware of it......or 2), they belong to one of those small off shoot branches of fundementalist Mormons that believe that the mainstream church is an apostate organization.

They follow Brigham Young who had 50+ wives. He said that no man can become a god unless he's a polygamist. While the church banned it, they still kept Young as a primary prophet. It's no secret that it was banned because Utah wanted to become a state and congress wouldn't allow it because of their polygamy. Many Mormons, both past and present, believe that the ban was just to placate the government.

Rock Chuck, you've got your history a bit twisted.

Brigham Young had 27 wives. He died in 1877. The church renounced polygamy in 1890.

from Wikipedia:

Yes he did die well before statehood, but that doesn't change the fact that he stated that no Mormon man who wasn't a polygamist could become a god. The present day polygamists follow Young's teachings. It's not a dead issue by any means. Some years ago, Life magazine ran an extensive article on it. The author spent a great deal of time with polygamist families gathering his info, and much of it was here in Idaho. It was the mainstream church he wrote about, not one of the renegade sects.

Oh, well, if it was in Life, and on Wikipedia it must be accurate.

Just about the quickest way to become an ex-Mormon is to tell your Bishop that you've got more than one wife.

I didn't say the church condoned it. I'm saying that there is a lot of it going on and the church knows it.
I don't know Romney's stance on it. Publicly, he'll be strongly against it no matter what his real stance.

Romney has served as both a Bishop and as a Stake President. In either of those positions, if he were aware of a specific instance of someone practicing polygamy and turned a blind eye to it, he could have lost his own membership. Your implicit assumption that he could secretly support the practice is absurd.

Since you obviously have no access to the official membership rolls, and since Life didn't either, how would you or Life know who is a member and who isn't? Kind of hard to draw a conclusion without that information. Yet you seem to feel free to do exactly that.

When we arrived at our winter home in Arizona we started seeing the Momon adds on TV, I was quite shocked to see them. There is so much misinformation about the LDS church that I guess its time to show the rest of the world that we are just normal, hardworking, honest people like everyone else, no better, no worse. Yes I'm Mormon & yes Mitt Romney scares the "heck" out of me at times. Not because of his religion but because of his political views on certain issues.
One thing for sure, you won't have to worry about him from a moral stand point. Many people keep bringing up the illegal practice of having more than one wife, Mitt has one, Newt....well you can decide for yourself.
I know I cringe everytime I see Harry Reid speak, I have no idea how he can claim to be Mormon, he seems very hard & mean spirited. Strong moral values is a good start but our country is in big trouble & what we need is a strong, smart leader. I think both Mitt & Newt are capable of leading our country, I sure hope so. If its Newt I can live with that, I haven't decided who I'll vote for, for sure it won't be because of religion.

Dick