Romney Round-Up

I haven't made much secret of being a Romney supporter for 2008, but the spate of stories in the news are making him look better, if only because the MSM is trying to undercut him where they can.

Ann Romney donated to Planned Parenthood. She gave them $150 thirteen years ago, when her husband was still pro-choice. Wooptie-frimpin'-doo. Last year (before he was even considering a presidential run) he gave Massachusetts Right to Life fifteen grand.

There's a new movie coming out about the Mountain Meadows massacre that may taint Romney with guilt by association. Oy! Nobody connects John Kerry with the Spanish Inquisition, or John McCain with the burning of Servetus. To the best of my knowledge, Mitt Romney was nowhere near Mountain Meadows in 1857.

Al Sharpton spews bigotry. In other news, water is wet and the sun rises in the east.

Sharpton told CNN's Paula Zahn on Wednesday evening he was responding to Hitchens' claim that Mormons are an example of how religion promotes racism because the church had excluded blacks.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not grant the priesthood to males of all races until 1978.
Sharpton said if Mormons did not in the past see blacks as equal, they're not "real worshippers of God because I do not believe God distinguishes between people. That is not bigotry. That's responding to their beliefs."
It was Hitchens who "attacked the Mormons," not him, Sharpton said. "I'm the one that belongs to a race that couldn't join the Mormons and I'm the one that's the bigot," he said, calling on Romney to explain his views on his church's position on blacks.

Okay, let's take this a step at a time. First, God distinguishes between people all the time, although I doubt he uses ethnic criteria nearly as much as Sharpton. (We are talking about the same God that chose one particular race for several millennia, aren't we?) It wasn't all that long ago, though, that Protestant churches were de facto segregated, and in some places, de jure as well. Sharpton was ordained in the Church of God in Christ, and now serves at Bethany Baptist Church in New York. I don't know what the affiliation of BBC is, but if it's Baptist, it probably either started out segregated or sprang from a church that was. The COGIC is historically a mostly-black denomination. Neither one currently has official rules regarding the color of its members, but rules aren't always official, either. Sometimes it's just attitude. I can't find any pictures of Bethany Baptist, but I'll bet you wouldn't find a whole lot of white faecs in the crowd. Exclusive, no. But not integrated, either.

But the Mormon Church's rule was official, says Sharpton. No, not necessarily. It's a matter of much debate whether the ban on blacks in the priesthood was ever part of an actual revelation from God, or just sort of a concensus among leaders that were in step with the racial attitudes of the 19th century. In general, in fact, the Mormon Church was way ahead of the Protestant establishment that Sharpton espouses.

Sharpton shows a lot more ignorance when he says ""I'm the one that belongs to a race that couldn't join the Mormons..." No, Al, you're not. There has never been a race that couldn't join the Mormon Church. There was a race that couldn't be ordained as priests in the LDS Church. Huge difference there. By your logic, the Catholic Church should consist only of unmarried men. (Yes, I know priesthood isn't quite the same thing for Mormons. But it's not an automatic benefit of membership, either.) Outside of priesthood, blacks could do anything that whites of comparable ability and sex could do. Even in the Temple at Kirtland, they were specifically welcomed. Sharpton couldn't attend a Temple ceremony even today, but then, neither could I. (And somehow I doubt that a guy who was "ordained" at the age of ten takes ordination all that seriously anyway.)

When the ban on black ordination was lifted, Mitt Romney was 30 years old. How many under-30-year-olds are in a position to make sweeping changes in even a local church, let alone one that counts its members in the millions? And although switching churches based on those policies might be feasible for someone like Sharpton, Mormons are more like Catholics in that regard. They stick with the Church they believe Christ founded, whether they like everything about it or not. It's "The Church."

So is it bigotry? Well, that's kind of a fluid term, but a safe rule of thumb is to reverse it. If Romney had said, "I won't support Al Sharpton for office, because his church is anti-white and Tawana Brawley is the proof," there would be such a firestorm unleashed that Jesse Jackson would go blind from all the photo flashes. I won't pick on him for saying that Mormons don't believe in God; that was just sloppy phrasing. (Although I do think he was subtly trying to remind Catholics and Evangelicals of the theological divide.)

But he was attempting to tar Romney with a racist brush for policies he had no control over, which are no longer in place. There are only two possibilities: either Sharpton is so pig-ignorant that he shouldn't be allowed in front of a live microphone without a muzzle, or he was deliberately lying. Given Sharpton's history, I tend to lean toward the latter.

Yes, Al Sharpton is a bigot. So what's new?

And finally, Romney is making a good showing in the polls. Aaaahhh. That's what this is all about. The MSM is scared loose-boweled that a Republican who is pro-life, faithfully married to one woman, proven capable of handling a budget, and telegenic on top of it might have a chance. When the media are forced to beat up on a candidate for his virtues beause they can't find enough vices, then that says a lot about the man.