Wall Street Journal editorial board member Jason L. Riley has called out Mitt Romney for skirting questions about the LDS Church’s racist past. This from his op/ed in the December 21 issue of the Wall Street Journal:
In 1978, Mitt Romney was a 31-year-old vice president at Bain & Co. and a lifelong devout Mormon. Throughout his current campaign for the Republican nomination, Mr. Romney has declined to distance himself from the repugnant racial teachings of his church.
On “Meet the Press” last Sunday, the candidate was asked by Tim Russert if “it was wrong for your faith to exclude [blacks] as long as it did.” Mr. Romney dodged the question, instead stating: “I told you where I stand. My view is that there–there’s, there’s no discrimination in the eyes of God, and I could not have been more pleased to see the change that occurred.”
In his ballyhooed speech earlier this month, Mr. Romney said he wouldn’t renounce any of Mormonism’s precepts. He also implied that questions like Mr. Russert’s come too close to a “religious test” for public office that the Constitution explicitly forbids. But in a country with America’s racial past, Mr. Russert’s question isn’t a religious test. It’s due diligence. And for all his claims to the contrary, Mr. Romney has, in fact, been willing to distance himself from past teachings of the church–just not those having to do with its treatment of black people.
“Look, the polygamy, which was outlawed in our church in the 1800s, that’s troubling to me,” he told “60 Minutes” in May. “I must admit, I can’t imagine anything more awful than polygamy.” Gee, I can.
How many black leaders does the LDS church have in Africa or any place else? You can’t run away from the blatant disregard for people of color of your church’s past by pointing towards a present which is checkered with a “level of acceptance”…no leaders, no change…
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Ujlapana – You haven’t read Riley’s article or haven’t read it closely enough. Here’s a direct quote from his article: “And ‘Mormon America,’ which was just re-released, notes plainly that “Mormon teaching against race-mixing remains in force.” This is a lie that Riley has chosen to repeat in print, in the WSJ no less. Brigham Young never “hated” blacks. He was far more tolerant toward them than was Abraham Lincoln who suddenly became an abolitionist only when it became clear, after Gettysburg, that he needed to play the slavery card to win the Civil War. And speaking of the Civil War, which presidential candidate in 1844 offered the best proposal for ending slavery? None other than Joseph Smith. See my blog on this topic at http://iperceive.net. If they clowns who martyred him had instead voted him into office, there would have been no need for a Civil War. Think about it.
Wow, Mr. Riley, you should probably do a bit more homework before you write newspaper articles on any given subject. Much good has been said in the above comments and therefore I will not go in to any details with quotes or scriptures. Sufice it to say that perhaps we should listen to the view points of all and consider honest answers to difficult questions. But let us not throw out uneducated rantings loaded with agenda’s just because we have our panties in a ruffle over somthing we haven’t studied enough to understand. It is an issue that deserves study, deserves answers, deserves apologies where needed but certainly not one that can be summed up on a blog, with one interview question, or in a newspaper article. God knows what he is doing. Man unfortunatley errors repeatedly in the area of “knowing what he is doing.” But God knows. I know numerous black members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They are so strong. They are strong because they know that, despite it all, they are part of Gods church. And though we don’t have all the answers, we will someday. Every black member of this church that I know, (some from the U.S., some from Africa, some from The Islands, some from Europe) knows of the “black issue”. Yet they are still here. Why? Do you suppose them weak? Do you suppose them to be subservient? No! These are strong members with just as strong an aversion to racism as you and I have. They are not merely compliant. They are here because every single one of them has had an experience in which they have come to a sure knowledge that this is the most correct church on the face of the earth and it is where God wants them. It’s not a perfect church because it’s full of imperfect people. Who runs the church? Oh, dang, people do. The great thing about truth is that it will roll forward. Always forward and never back. As it rolls, the edges that are rough and undesireable will chip away. It will roll forward until it is a smooth stone that fills the whole earth. Leaving behind all that is erroneous, embracing all that is good and true, growing brighter every day. Brighter and brighter to the perfect day folks. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. I am a member of an interacial family. God knows what He is doing.
I don’t think Riley (or anyone else who is well-informed) is trying to say that Mormons are currently racist. It’s that
1) They _were_ racist until 1978, and
2) Mitt was an adult member of that racist organization.
The typical Mormon response (and as a fully-active member I know whereof I speak) is that the pre-1978 ban was not racist, because God wanted it that way. Throwing out quotes by Joseph Smith is completely irrelevant; Brigham Young is where the hate really started, and it continued unabated until 1978. At any rate, people aren’t criticizing the Mormons who were racist in a mileau of American racism, but the Mormons who had to be led by others (MLK, etc.) to finally (i.e. 1978) realize that God loves all people equally.
But it doesn’t matter if it was 1968, 1978, or 1988–if you can’t admit mistakes you were making, you can’t learn from them.
Until the Church formally admits that the ban was in error, Mormonism will be implicitly teaching that racism, while not currently practiced, is acceptable to God at certain times and in certain places.
That simply cannot be.
Paul —
Actually, there is a clear decision-making process in the Church, identical to the process that was followed in the original Christian church in Paul’s time. It’s not apparently one that you understand, but it’s there if you really want to learn about it. If, as you suggest, George Romney had “walked out” of the LDS Church in protest over the priesthood issue, he would have had far less influence than he enjoyed by staying in the Church and working within the system.
Now to Mr. Riley.
Contrary to Riley’s ill-informed WSJ rant, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (often called the “Mormon” or “LDS” church or simply “the Church”) has historically been a leading advocate of civil rights for blacks. Like so many of current commentators on Mormonism, Riley appears afflicted by what Hugh Nibley called the “gas law of learning.” According to this law, “any amount of information no matter how small will fill any intellectual void no matter how large.”
It is fair to say, in relation to Mormonism and the 2008 U.S. presidential election, that never have so many written so much about that which they understand so little. Blogs, newspapers and talk shows are overflowing with pundits too busy, too important, or too impatient to study the facts before defaming a Church and people who have done incalculable good across the globe, including in Central Africa, for the past century and a half.
The essence of LDS egalitarian philosophy is captured in the following quote attributed to Joseph Smith, the first President of the Church:
“They [Negroes] came into the world slaves, mentally and physically. Change their situation with the whites, and they would be like them. They have souls and are subject to salvation. Go to Cincinnati or any city, and find an educated Negro, who rides in his carriage, and you will see a man who has risen by his own mind to his exalted state of respectability.” (History of the Church 5:217)
Smith ran for the U.S. presidency, in 1844, on a platform that proposed, among other things, to free the slaves by financing their purchase from their owners by the sale of then plentiful public land. In return for this kind of progressive thinking, Smith was vilified and then assassinated by religious bigots and slaveholders who saw him as a political threat. It is ironic almost beyond expression to see the Church that Smith formed criticized today for a temporary ban against blacks holding the priesthood that was lifted three decades ago.
For more insight into this topic, try Robert C. Webb’s The Real Mormonism: A Candid Analysis Of An Interesting But Much Misunderstood Subject In History, Life And Thought. Don’t want to buy the book? Read the abundant excerpts at http://books.google.com!
The legendary law professor, Karl Llewellyn, wrote, “But observe this, my friends. You will be impatient with the facts to the precise extent to which you need them . . . . If they pester and upset you, that is a sign that you know so little about [them] that [they] need desperate study.”
Here’s some current factual perspective. In April 2007, Turner High School in Ashburn, Georgia for the first time in its history — extending at least into the early 1960s –- sponsored a desegregated high school prom. In its write up of the event, a Reader’s Digest article noted how, in August 2007, “Gwendolyn Mathis, 49, associate pastor of a black [sic] church in Ashburn, still remembers being forced to sit upstairs in the balcony at the local movie theater in the 1970s, even after the schools were integrated. ‘When the theater burned down, it was never rebuilt because it would have to be black and white,’ she says.” More at http://www.rd.com/content/a-desegregated-prom-in-georgia-/1/.
Meanwhile, today, hundreds of other black protestant congregations in the south have no white pastors. And, meanwhile, the LDS Church has thousands of black members in the U.S. and in Africa, where they have recently built three beautiful temples. Just who has a race problem?
Jason,
I think we have established that George Romney never marched with MLK.
The LDS sanctioning of African-Americans has nothing to do with “the decision making process of the church.” There is no “decision making process” in the LDS Church. Everything comes to its leadership “by revelation.”
If George Romney could walk out of the Republican Party nominating convention in 1964 because he thought Barry Goldwater was soft on civil rights, why could he not walk out of the LDS Church for the same reason – or at a minimum use his considerable influence to put pressure on the Church to change?
Mormons not racist
Jason Riley is spinning on the truth as he slams Romney and his religion. Mormons do not have any current teaching that blacks are inferior in any way. Yes, there were past general authorities who wrote their own commentary, but never anything officially sanctioned by the Mormon Church. In 1852, Brigham Young did officially restrict blacks from the Priesthood.
Needed is the clarification that most white Churches until the 1970’s still did not allow blacks as leaders and many as members.
To answer why the Church took maybe 10 or so years longer than some others, after the civil rights movement, look no further than the decision making structure of the Church. It is one-of-a-kind among mainline religions (yes, it’s the 4th largest religious body in the U.S.) because it requires a unanimous decision among both the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve to make an official change. That’s fifteen strong leaders among whom there cannot be a single dissenting vote. If only a majority were needed, like in other Churches, blacks no doubt would have been allowed the priesthood much earlier.
The Church is not racist and does not teach officially or unofficially that blacks are inferior in any way. I can prove it. Every single Church doctrine, teaching manual, scriptures and everything official in the Church is online at lds.org. There is nothing else. Any member of the Church would appeal to the materials on this website as the official and final word of everything taught, believed, and lived by its members. If it is not on that website, then active temple going members collectively and individually do not believe it is true. Mormons believe the whole thing is true and to not pick and choose doctrines.
Here is the official doctrine on the curse of Cain http://scriptures.lds.org/en/gs/c/80
The truth is that Joseph Smith was forcing would-be members to free their slaves before they were baptized. He also personally baptized and ordained blacks to the priesthood which was unheard of for his time. Later, Brigham Young, in 1852 decided to forbid blacks from the priesthood officially (totally common practice among all religions of the day) which lasted until 1978. However, blacks were always allowed to be members and Brigham and Joseph both taught that we are equal in the eyes of God.
What’s really ironic is that the SBC (Southern Baptist Convention) of which Huckabee was a minister was created expressly for the purpose of continuing slavery and separating from the other Baptists for that purpose (see wikipedia). It’s now the 2nd largest religious body in the U.S. The SBC only officially apologized for being racist in 1995. Mormons on the contrary were not apologizing for being proslavery or anything else. There were already loved black Mormons in 1978, but now they could become the leadership of the Church.
For a little more irony, the Mormon Church is thriving in Africa. Other American religions are there also, except among them, Mormons are some of the only people expressly forbidden to practice Polygamy. Many other mainline U.S. religions there allow it because it is such a dominant part of African culture, but not Mormons.
As for portraying Romney as being anti-polygamy, but not anti-racist, he said he couldn’t wait for it to change and was so glad when it did. His father established the first Civil Rights organization in Michigan State government and marched with MLK. What more do you want?
LDS General Authorities need to step up to the plate to help out Mitt.
They need to be clear and frank.