Michael Steele and Mitt Romney trade barbs over Mormonism
By John Amato Monday May 11, 2009 1:26pm
Michael Steele is fighting with more Republicans. This time it's with Mitt Romney:
In an unusual move for the person tasked with being his party's top cheerleader, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele is shining a light on the political vulnerabilities of one of the GOP's top figures and a likely frontrunner for the 2012 Republican nomination — former presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Now Romney's team is hitting back.
Steele, guest-hosting on Bill Bennett's radio show Friday, cast doubt on Romney's conservative bona fides and blamed the Republican base for rejecting Romney last year because "it had issues with Mormonism" and was unsure of Romney's commitment to opposing to abortion rights. Those comments aren't sitting too well with Romney's political team.
"Sometimes when you shoot from the hip, you miss the target," said Romney spokesman Eric Ferhnstrom. "This is one of those times."
Romney's Mormonism was a turn-off to some of the religious right. Remember when Focus on the Family took down an interview with Glenn Beck because he's a Mormon?
Colorado-based Focus on the Family pulled an online interview with conservative television host Glenn Beck after concerns were raised about Beck's Mormon faith.
Gary Schneeberger, vice president of media and public relations for Focus on the Family Action, said that "differences in the Mormon faith and the historical evangelical faith are not inconsequential."
Beck's interview with CitizenLink.org, Focus on the Family Action's Web site, touched on his Christmas memories and his recent best-selling book, "The Christmas Sweater."On Dec. 22, Underground Apologetics, a Wisconsin-based group dedicated to helping Christians "defend their faith," criticized Focus on the Family for not mentioning Beck's membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in its online interview.
"While Glenn's social views are compatible with many Christian views, his beliefs in Mormonism are not.
Check out the book by Jon Krakauer called Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith if you want to learn a bit about Mormon beliefs. I'm reading it now and it's intense. Many people don't know anything about their beliefs or practices and the fundamentalists that it spawns.
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Their based railed against Obama for being BOTH a Muslim AND a crazy Christian.
It's not too far of a stretch to say they didn't want a Mormon either.
I think it was more of a too many of the same candidate running against each other. The Xtians couldn't decide who they wanted more. In the end, they cancelled each other out and they were stuck with McCain.
an atheist, a communist and the antichrist.
The hits keep coming. The GOP requires so many conflicting litmus tests that fewer and fewer people can meet them all.
Romney is so vulnerable to GOP primary election oppo research that we don't even have to think about him as a viable candidate. The base will eat him.
Under the Banner of Heaven was an excellent read, but I would caution against using it as a reference to find out more about Mormon beliefs. I'm neither pro- not anti- Mormon (as with all religions), but Under the Banner is a look at the more extreme side of Mormonism and how beliefs can get twisted into something evil. Much like Osama bin Laden perverts Islam and Fred Phelps and many others of the religious right pervert Christianity, the men in Under the Banner pervert Mormonism. Any religion can be twisted to serve an evil purpose and any religion has its positive aspects (I know several Mormons who, although I cannot understand how they can believe in the story of Joseph Smith, are some of the nicest, good-natured people I have ever met). It's always dangerous to look at one (or two or three) bad apples and assign that trait to all members of a faith.
You are absolutely correct.
One of my best friends is a mormon. He is the nicest person you could ever meet, and he is pretty liberal too.
He votes democratic, and he also understands the "baggage" associated with his church.
It has been a pleasure knowing him, and he is nothing like the right wing bigots we so often see highlighted here at C & L.
He was personally disgusted by all the mormon dollars that went into defeating gay marriage in California. He thought it was disgraceful.
I too have a very close friend who is LDS. She first denied any Mormon Church involvement in Prop 8, and I didn't want to make a big deal (she works for me). Later she came and admitted that there had been letters that called for all good Mormons to rally to the cause. She knows that I'm totally apostate, though raised by nuns, Benedictine monks and Jesuit priests (yechhh).
She knows that I know that there's stuff she can't talk about. Any religion that sect-ish and non-transparent is, by definition, full of shit...worse than the ones we know and can see.
I say screw them all.
Its so nice to hear about 2 cool latter day saints. But this gay Californian isn't buying the white wash.
they bused acolytes in to help with the yes on 8 effort...
I'm pleased that the evangelical south is sticking to their guns where the Mormons are concerned.
Every religion has its fundamentalists and its more casual observers, I can't hate every Muslim because of Osama bin Laden, nor hate every Christian because of Fred Phelps, nor hate every Mormon because of Under the Banner's true story or their church's (as well as many others) stand in favor of Prop8.
Religion serves an important purpose in many peoples lives and as long as those people use religion for their own personal spiritual growth I am all for it. It's when they begin to believe that their way is the only way, that their rules are the only rules, that their interpretation of God is the only interpretation that it becomes dangerous. And just as dangerous are the "flock" who unquestioningly follow their priest/saint/imam/rabbi without doing their own examination of what their religion really says.
It's when we allow our own arrogance to infiltrate our spirituality and then begin to force what we "know" to be right onto others that religion becomes warped and twisted...
Amen!
Amen!
*
AMEN! The FLDS and the LDS are almost as hostile toward each other as the FLDS are toward all other Gentiles. Not a fair allusion!
And it is an excellent read. Very compelling.
Although I still think all organized religions are ridiculous.
I agree with your post. I too, read this great book. It is not about the mainstream Mormon church but rather the radical fundamental wing of the church. For the life of me, I too cannot understand how millions of people believe in the malarky of Joseph Smith. I'm currently reading Fawn Brodie's book "The Life & Times of Joseph Smith." I've also read a number of other books about Smith & the Mormon Church. It's pretty clear that he was a false prophet. He was a narcissist & basically a pervert.
As an atheist I am always highly amused when I see Christians suggesting that other faith's aren't "legitimate". Nothing more hypocritical, and funny, than watching religious people attack scientology or mormonism, as if only the passage of time makes a cult "respectable".
They don't realize that the very things they attack mormons/scientologists for can be easily applied to their own faith.
Yep, or any other religion including the big three franchises the MSM harps about - Christian, Jewish, Muslim. They are natural enemies of each other of coarse, sort of, just like McDonalds, Wendy's, and Burger King are enemies, sort of.
This is what I always want to point out when people say that the US should operate on Christian principles. Which ones? Catholic ones, so no one can get divorced or use birth control? Or Baptist ones, where no one can drink or dance? How about Pentecostal so no women can wear pants or cut their hair? Mennonite, so kids have to quit school at grade 8?
*
I'm an atheist as well but I don't quite buy that all religions are equally dumb. Unitarians and Quakers for example seem very moral, open, and ethical. Mormons and scientologists on the other hand seem especially venal and close minded. Scientology especially seems so laughable to me, founded by a failed SF writer who realized he could make more money portraying his bad novels as a religion than fiction who made his followers dress up like sailors while living in the desert.
Is Steele actually an undercover Dem? He seems to go out of his way to splinter the repug party. If so, he's doing a great job!
I don't think so.
More than likely, he's just an idiot that allowed himself to become a house negro, and now he's stumbling all over the place.
He's a man who doesn't like to think about the consequences of his actions, or what he says. Which is why he's always apologizing to the people he calls his masters.
It's pretty disgusting, when you think about it.
He envies Rush but not as a leader of the Republican party but as a recipient of a 400 million dollar salary. He is already getting his feet wet on the radio dial.
Michael Steele after all is said and done will be sitting pretty.
Thanks, John.
I read a book about Mormonism called "One Nation Under Gods" which was quite scary. It was written by Richard Abanes.
Apparently, a confidence artist by the name of Joseph Smith is a god.
Oh, yeah; apparently it's okay to disembowel people who won't convert to your One True Religion.
Marrying twelve year old girls is cool too...
The logic here is that if you get 'em young, and knock 'em up regularly, they can't get away...
My MIL's methodist church has declared Mormonism a cult (because it follows a prophet rather than Jesus).
All you ever need to know about Utah's Mormon "founders" in a single lesson.
All religions are risible.
A few are patent frauds perpetrated by cunning individuals.
Scientology is one of these. Mormonism is another.
or Mormonism is 19th Century Scientology...
Either way, poop in one hand and pray in the other and see which one gets stinky...
Well, given the whole notion of "faith," you'd hafta figger god's a bodacious con-artist, itself.
So there's at least a little symmetry...
Watching the war raging in the repuke party has never brought me so much satisfaction.
I'm an ex-Mormon who holds no brief for Mormonism of any variety, and I read Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven with horrified interest. I'm also someone who has long despised Mitt Romney, and think that Glenn Beck is a particularly malodorous portion of equine anatomy.
That being said....
Krakauer's research is sound, his writing taut, and his book eminently worthwhile. But it must be pointed out that Krakauer's subject is not the contemporary Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Salt Lake City-based "mother church" of Mormonism, but rather about schismatic sects and fundamentalist outliers of the movement begun by Joseph Smith.
Fundamentalist Mormon movements share the main church's genotype; their pedigree runs back to institutionalized racial bigotry, polygamy, theocratic dictatorship, blood atonement, and all of the other teaches and practices that made Brigham Young's caliphate so, ah, colorful. But mother church of Mormonism today has sloughed off most of those abhorrent teachings and practices while still claiming the legacy of the figures who introduced them. Fundamentalist leaders like Warren Jeffs, loathsome as they are, can at least lay claim to the virtue of honesty.
Sure, the Lafferty brothers and the other bloody-handed fanatics Krakauer writes about so capably are distant kindred to the church Mitt Romney belongs to, and the leaders of that church should acknowledge that fact. But I don't see that you can hold Romney responsible for the depredations committed by people he considers both criminals and apostates. Doing otherwise is a bit like claiming that because Keith Ellison is a Muslim he must support the Taliban and others of that ilk.
I lived in Utah when the murder took place. You would be surprised how many people with their patriarch mentality thought the Laffertys weren't all that nuts. There are a lot of "Man is ruler never to questioned" Mormons out there. By many Mormons in the faith, women are simply property and their role is to bear children and serve their husbands.
that I'm going to read...In Krakauer's book, he does discuss the LDS church and their beliefs. His does focus on the Lafferty's, but he still links to their history so it shouldn't be dismissed out of hand...All religions have their zealots.
I always figured a slick, handsome liar like Romney would go all the way, but my evil Southern Republican brother-in-law tells me the fundamentalist wackos would never, NEVER vote for a Mormon. He says they hate Mormons like they hate homasekshuls. Maybe more. Who knew?
Did he say why they hate the Mormons so?
Besides the multiple marriages; Jesus already came back; Native Americans are the chosen people things? No, he didn't say...
It gives their tiny little brains something to think about.
My MIL is a methodist (in Arkansas) and she said that Methodists think that Mormonism is a cult because they follow a prophet rather than Jesus.
I've read the book, it is excellent. Also read the Book of Mormon, finishing just a few days before a couple Mormon missionaries came to my door. That was an interesting conversation. ;-)
Like RunAmok said, it is more about the Fundamentalists Mormon sects than the main LDS church. I find overall the LDS church is similar to other fundamentalist churches, such as Baptists. So the Fundi Mormons are even more extreem in their beliefs.
The LDS seem to do like most other churches, ignore some of the more nutty parts of the book. An ex-mormon on another forum mentioned that he didn't even know about the teachings of how dark skin is a mark of god's curse until he left the church. I found that odd as it figures prominently in some of the early chapters. But like other Churches, they priests don't dwell on that I guess.
I had never paid attention to the Mormon religion until Mitt ran for the nomination of his party. I wanted to know the background of the faith. As I read about it, I couldn't help but laugh. I mean no disrespect, but the whole story of its origin read like a bad fairy tale.
No kidding. Joseph Smith must have been on some seriously good drugs.
The root cause of our problems.
The GOP's problem now (amongts scores of problems) is their remaining base if made of haters. They hate everyone, so they might want to consider running a skinhead for president. They'd easily get 20% of the vote. And we'd see the truth of the modern GOP exposed; on display for all to see.
Joe "the plumber" anyone?
Sam is Jewish and not qualified with the republican
base. He is, however, much smarter than Sarah Palin
so there is hope for him in 2012 as VP.
A moose hater and a plumber?
Palin/Plumber 2012
I'm surprised they have that much taste. Apparently, the repugnicans will not be happy until the only member of their party is Jesus himself. They may have to wait for the second coming in order to find a) a party member they approve of and b) a viable candidate for their party (not that Jesus actually would). I can see the bumper stickers now "Republicans, it's time to take back the white house, vote for Jesus in 4012!"
Eh, I don't know if they do. Remember during the primaries when Rush and Coulter both said they'd NEVER support a McCain candidacy, and all of their little followers clucked right along? Well when it came down to it, they still voted for the old fart.
Time remaining before religious dogma and bigotry finally run it's course.
but the good thing is we are halfway there!
So Beck's a Mormon. Hmm. Well, I'll not expound on it, but I guess it might explain why in spite of all the
wacko things he's said, I've never thought he was a Christian Fundamentalist. Guess this is why.
I have always thought of him as a raving lunatic - who is just not very bright. But I guess that would make him a republican too?
I saw a really disturbing commercial before a movie this weekend. Beck is apparently doing what is termed "a comedy tour" soon. The trailer seemed to be making fun of Beck and politics but also throwing in plenty of his fake populist bullshit. It was weird.
I'm pretty sure that even the repugs know that Jesus is a Democrat
Oh no!
You need to go back and read the new testament again. According to my in-laws, "Jesus wants to take food and medicine away from children, because the money changing billionaires in the Wall Street temples need a tax cut."
And liberals a.k.a. "socialists" are evil, because they said so on Fox.
I "read" it while driving back and forth from Bend to Portland. I was on the edge of my seat!
you need not apply to be a rushbo republcan unless you are a white, male, protestant,Christian , evangelical, mid-western,deep-southern,or texas born,misygonistic, limbaugh kowtowing, immigtant hating, anti-moderate, conservative knuckledragging, neocon, anti-intellectual, creationist.
mittsy's got a bit of a problem with the application.
I am a big fan of Krachauer and enjoy his work. Another good book on the modern day Mormon experience is "Leaving the Saints" by Martha Beck. It is an inside story from someone that lived Mormonism in the inner circle and survived. Having lived in Utah at one time, Beck's book is on target.
for the rec. am always looking for new books on religion
Hey everyone... I always thought that Mitt was the GOP's only hope, and that's saying something... I knew the religious right would never get past him being LDS, and if they did, he would have gotten beat up by his own words, and the dems would have loved using the flip-flopped signs... As far as "under the banner of heaven" like others have already stated, its a very well written book, but has very little to do with today's Mormon church... If you are truly interested in Mormonism read the "book of Mormon" or "D&C" and not just the crazy parts lol, you have to read the whole thing.
an excellent review of the Book of Mormon by a guy named Mark Twain in his book Roughing It. I could recommend the review. The Book of Mormon itself is largely unreadable. There are no parts that aren't crazy.
I read this book several years ago. I've always been fascinated by the cultish religions and my daughter was spending a lot of time in the home of a mormon family (friends with the daughter) - I wanted to know more.
It's a very good book - a compelling read.
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never found out, I don't think, because I kept it from them due to their feelings about Mormonism. If we got back together now, I'd be fine with it totally in the open since I could care less about anyone getting in my face over being "unequally yoked."
One of the things that was always uncomfortable for me as an evangelical was the constant accusations of heresy and apostasy between the denominations. My church thought Catholicism, Mormonism, and the Jehovah's Witnesses are heretical. I was soon discovered that certain Christian fundamentalists consider my former sect to be heretical, so on and so forth. It always left me with doubt about my faith.
I say stay away from all that stuff. All you need to know is "Do the
rightcorrect thing. Honor the "Golden Rule". You will do just fine.:)
Remember that Romney is a member of a faith that thought that black people were cursed. Many Mormons didn't even think black people had souls.
They didn't really consider people of color to be fully human.
Personally, I think both Romney and Steele are about as appealing as something you might find floating in a toilet. They're both huge asses. They're both delusional....
And what's more, they're both damaged goods.
Feminist Mormon Housewives
Can't take a few extra versions of Christianity? Or are you just going to say that they aren't "real" Christians anyways?
Inclusive/big tent my ass. I think the only group that would be even more shunned would be atheists. Because, remember, they're not real patriots according to GHWB.
narrative is what makes evangelicals unhappy with Mormons I would suspect. Their version is the real one...
when I was an evangelical). I was told it was because they "added onto the Bible when they were forbidden by God to do so." That's why Jehovah's Witnesses are objectionable too, according to these folks.
I thought everyone was objectionable to those people; for one reason or another.
I always thought of evangelicals as being like the stuck-up, snooty cheerleader types in High School. Always disecting everyone, looking for some reason to reject them for not being as "like totally awesome as they are."
I'm sure if I sat down and thought about it, I could come up with a long list of sects and denominations that my church thought of as not having the "whole truth."
Funny you should say that, at my high school, a lot of the stuck-up cheerleaders were evangelicals (and quite a few wound up pregnant a la Bristal Palin)
The "whole truth" is a personal journey and there are over 6,000,000,000 (the exact number actually tracks with the exact population of the earth) ways into "heaven". No one person can tell another what path is the correct one and every single person can serve to aid others along their individual paths (making sure not to "guide" them onto our path, thus becoming a defacto head of a new religion).
I despise organized religions because each and every one of them has some guy/girl at the top arrogant enough to believe that he/she has found the one (and only) true way and that we must all follow that one path. I chose to form a relationship with "God" and have "Him" lead me on the path that "He" made specifically for me, no-one else can follow my path and I cannot follow the paths of anyone else.
I believe none of us has a "whole truth" that we can claim is correct to the exclusion of all others, so I agree with you wholeheartedly! :)
When I hear him speak & see his hair I become afraid. Thank the Gods he has no chance whatsoever of being elected president. He'd never make it thru the primaries.
They run on their own steam which means no caffeine
or alcohol which is why they look better than
the average American or Evangelical for that matter.
here. And to add to my point about the heresy hunters, since my ex-church held to an Arminian theology, this site probably has an article on my ex-church's sect being objectionable.
First of all, Joseph Smiths credentials with respect to being a prophet in direct touch with God are exactly the same credentials as every single author of every book in the Bible and every verse in the Koran. Same proof, same story, same outcome. This is why modern Christians do not like Mormons, they remind them of the lack of any real proof of the Divinity of anything in their own cherished books. Why, if a whack job can go in a cave and come out a prophet, then anyone can! We can't have that now can we? We only believe guys who lived thousands of years ago.
I think you done hit the nail on the head.
lol there is a lot of truth to that...
I thought their was nothing that could keep Romney from the nomination, but the religious right split their support with the evangelicals going with Huckabee and the Catholics, Mormons, and less freaky folks going with Romney. Darn shame [/snark]
If you think Scientology is a full load you'll love the way Mormonism reared it's ugly and wacky head. The story presented in Krakauer's book just reinforces my fear and distrust of hard core believers of any and every stripe. Man, the human race is so full of shit some times, I wish I was a cat.
As one involved with the mormon cult (married into it for 11 years) I have found their deception true to their history. All of their "secrets" and their "end of the world thinking" get's manifested, eventually, into their deceptive practices. Most of the Joseph Smith legend is false. Smith, had he been reincarnated, could have been Jim Jones. The idea of the "Mountain Meadow Massacre" is how they work.
Currently, I have one son that escaped with me, Christian beliefs in tact. My other son is told "not to talk to me" because we don't believe in Smith. We don't believe in a devil. Nor do we believe dinosaur bones are a "plant" by the devil himself, but a real biological find (Smith didn't know God would reveal himself that way).
Romney has too many inhibitions caused by the mormon cult. Their faith is masked with a superiority complex that is very fragile. If your faith is built on LIES it will eventually reveal itself.
As far as "nice people", just reveal "the truth" to a mormon...that nice-people act goes away quick. This same "nasty attitude" will manifest itself in Romney. His secrets, his beliefs, even his sacred underwear is about a controling personality. That's why the men rape and marry the young girls. The boys get removed. Then they claim it's God's doing.
Really, I swear to you the "president" of the cult CAN'T RAISE THE DEAD. This kind of "cult" brainwashing is all this is. Read "Under the Banner of Heaven". It's more than just a "peek" into history. It is revealling.
Cosmo
that the only difference between a cult and a religion
is the amount of real estate owned.
They were right.
I have spoken.
I would love to hear what "secrets" and "deceptive practices" you think the Mormons have...
I love how you imply that Mormons believe dinosaur bones are plants. I've never heard that one...
I'm not doubting you that there are people in the Mormon religion that have some crazy ideas, but I've learn a long time ago you have to realize what is church doctrine and what is personal opinion, and what are old ideas compared to what the leaders of the church say today...it can be hard for some people to deceiver...
Hey if the Mormon religion wasn't right for you then move on, and find whatever brings you happiness... most of my family has left the Mormon Church, and some have found happiness with other religious ideas, and I am happy to know they're happy. I was never instructed to treat them differently because they left the Mormon religion...As a Mormon I believe we are all god’s children and he loves us all, and we should love one another.
Written like a true-crime thriller. I often recommend it to people!
...I also recommend it to others.
After reading it I admonished my then-15 year old daughter that she must never travel to Utah alone.
Ever.
I read the book a few years ago and was just shocked and amazed. Now Mormons kind of scare me a little. I have also been watching Big Love and let me say that Season 2 just got so down right we4ird about the religion I was really hating Bill Pullman's character at the end of the season.
Although I found a fool-proof way to get rid of Mormons at your door. Seriously this worked so well for me - I was literally black balled by missionaries. I just told those precious little dimwits that the first "bible" was not written in English by King James. I told them to go look up something called the Vulgate - they dis-invited me right away from their little bible study and I have not been visited since - I see them in my neighborhood but they avoid my place like the plague. I love some learnin'!
"Under The Banner Of Heaven", what a book! An amazing book.
It made the hair on the back of my head stand up.
Since they are all saints they are all capable of
revelation directly from God. If society ever does fall
apart you can bet that the mainstream LDS will go
Biblical & turn to "Big Love" polygamy.
I believe that Romney represents the saner faction
of the LDS & their offshoots. I believe that
Beck is very smart, but still the same old Beck
& not even on the funny side of sane.
evangelicals take the conclusion of complementarianism to polygamy, partly because of the End Times prediction that women will outnumber men 7:1, and that all of those women will need a husband and spiritual "head"....
Don't get me wrong, I loved "Under the Banner of Heaven." But it should NOT be read as a primer to Mormonism. It's an interesting book about some aspects of early Mormon history and today's polygamist offshoots, but it is not an accurate representation of what your average Mormon today believes. For that, I highly recommend that everyone read "Mormon America."
http://www.amazon.com/Mormon-America-Revised-...
And their cultlike Moronism. I'm sure they could find some things in common instead of getting into a pissing match to see whose God is superior.
Aside from what they're talking about, which is boring and stupid, wait a minute. The head of the RNC was ON TALK RADIO, uttering opinions about why one candidate lost the Republican nomination last time? That's an incredibly stupid, or non-existent, strategy. Guaranteed, that's nothing but trouble. Sure, we nominated Dr. Dean, who WAS one of the candidates in 2004 -- and can you remember him speaking for or against any candidate... in public? That is in no possible way the right role for a chairman of the party. Boy, they've lost it completely. Anybody want to pick a date for Steele "resigning to be with his family"?
I was raised a Mormon and I read the Krakauer book, which I really liked. But it's important to draw a clear distinction between the LDS and the FLDS. It's like the difference between evangelical Christians and dispensationalist Christians. Even though the latter came out of the former, all religions basically began as cults, and the Mormon church is no different. The only reason they seem really wacky is that there is quite a bit of documentation about the activities of the founder of the church. Most Mormons you meet are pretty apple pie American types who are no more extreme than your average evangelical. Which to me is pretty extreme, but Romney has nothing on the Huckabees of the world.
and I had to back up to be sure the title didn't read Moronism.
Full disclosure: I myself am an unapologetic atheist. My family has had (mainstream) mormon friends here in Michigan, and I have read Krakauer's book.
My conclusion is that to be mormon requires a suspension of disbelief that boggles the mind. Joseph Smith was a (convicted) small-time con man. Yet he still managed to sell the idea that those magical gold plates (which no one else has seen since) revealed their secrets only to him by way of his magical stones. And that Jesus came to America (!) And cursed the evil people with dark skin (!) And all faithful Mormon men (and only men) receive revelations directly from God (!)
It is clear to me that Mormon education takes liberties with history, too. In their world view, the Mountain Meadows massacre was done by indians, or certainly not condoned by Brigham Young. They see themselves as persecuted, and always under siege, when in fact they had a history of moving to an area en masse, and taking it over. They try to distance themselves from their FLDS brethren, when in fact that is the actual direction Joseph Smith and Brigham Young took. FLDS communities are tolerated by the mainstream LDS; seen as a kind of wayword son.
I would also recommend the book Escape! by Carolyn Jessup
its not that they make stuff up, its that they don't talk about it at all... As a Mormon it drives me crazy that they are only giving the pretty side of the stories... I would love the church to lay everything out on the table... that way the church can truly move on, and the anti's can stop playing the gotcha game. I think the church thinks if they don't bring it up, or educate their members on the full history, it will be forgotten, and everyone will be better off not knowing the ugly past.... But I believe that will have the opposite effect...
About thirty years ago, I read a book about an American woman who married a relative of the Saudi family and lived all her married life in Saudi Arabia. I remember thinking how convoluted the relationships were, and I attributed all to the culture and religion. He did divorce her, but not before marrying off their daughter at the age of fourteen. He told her about both after the fact.(If anyone can remember the title of this book, please post a comment with it)
So really, I thought that the book from thirty years ago was highlighting that something was wrong with Islam. Then I read "Escape".
The same kind of unequal relationships, the same lying between "sister wives", the same pitting one's children against another wife's children, the acquiescing to sex in order to protect one's fragile status in regards to other wives--it goes on and on.
The exact same tribal, patriarchal, woman-hating relationships that I found in the first book I found in the Jessop book.
Fire the proof reader. Beck is one "m" short. He's just a Moron.
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