Our examination into Mitt Romney's religious upbringing and foundation brings us to 1978, when Mitt was 31 years old. He was already, one can assume, pretty well-formed in his views of society. It was 10 years after he slogged it out doing that rough Missionary Work living in a castle in France. And it was in 1978 when Mormons decided that the evidence had to be acknowledged... Blacks are Human Beings.
Well, they couldn't just change eternal doctrine, now could they? I mean, look at the way Black people have been described by Mormons throughout time.
Mark E. Petersen was a Mormon Apostle -- a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1944 until his death in 1984.
He said stuff like this in 1957, when Mitt was 10.
If I were to marry a Negro woman and have children by her, my children would be cursed as to the Priesthood. Do I want my children cursed as to the Priesthood? If there is one drop of negro blood in my children, as I have read to you, they receive the curse. . . . There are 50 million Negroes in the United States. If they were to achieve complete absorption with the white race, think what that would do. With 50 million Negroes inter-married with us, where would the priesthood be? Who could hold it, in all America? Think what that would do to the work of the Church! . . . Now we are generous with the Negro.
We are willing that the Negro have the highest kind of education. I would be willing to let every Negro drive a Cadillac if they could afford it. I would be willing that that they have all the advantages as they can get out of life in the world. But let them enjoy these among themselves. I think the Lord segregated the Negro and who is man to change it?"
Bruce R. McConkie, who was in this same Quorum from 1972 until he died in 1985 said stuff like this.
Negroes in this life are denied the Priesthood; under no circumstances can they hold this delegation of authority from the Almighty… The gospel message of salvation is not carried affirmatively to them. Negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned.
He said that in 1958, when young Mitt was 11.
So, under pressure from, well, the civilized world, the Mormon church felt pressure to change their doctrine lest they be considered racist -- which, of course, they were. But how does one just go and change Sacred Doctrine? The church FOUNDER, Joseph Smith, said...
"Had I anything to do with the negro, I would confine them by strict law to their own species, and put them on a national equalization."
His successor, Brigham Young, was no more tolerant.
You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind. . . . Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would put a termination to that line of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which was the flat nose and black skin. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then another cursed is pronounced upon the same race--that they should be the "servants of servants;" and they will be until that curse is removed; and the Abolitionists cannot help it, nor in the least alter that decree.
This view was echoed in two of the LDS most Holy Books!
Mormon 5:15 (prophecy about the Lamanites) "for this people shall be scattered, and shall become a dark, a filthy, and a loathsome people, beyond the description of that which ever hath been amongst us. . . .
Alma 3:6 "And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion."
2 Nephi 30:6 (prophecy to the Lamanites if they repented) "scales of darkness shall begin to fall. . . . they shall be a white and delightsome people" ("white and delightsome" was changed to "pure and delightsome" in 1981).
You can't just call the Apostles into a room and say, "Look, boys! Things are getting hot. We gotta let the Negroes in."
Or can you?
According to first-person accounts, after much discussion among the members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on this matter, they engaged the Lord in prayer. According to the writing of one of those present, Bruce R. McConkie of the Twelve: "It was during this prayer that the revelation came. The Spirit of the Lord rested upon us all; we felt something akin to what happened on the day of Pentecost and at the Kirtland Temple. From the midst of eternity, the voice of God, conveyed by the power of the Spirit, spoke to his prophet. The message was that the time had now come to offer the fullness of the everlasting gospel, including celestial marriage, and the priesthood, and the blessings of the temple, to all men, without reference to race or color, solely on the basis of personal worthiness. And we all heard the same voice, received the same message, and became personal witnesses that the word received was the mind and will and voice of the Lord."[3]
Gordon B. Hinckley, a participant in the meetings to reverse the ban, said, "Not one of us who was present on that occasion was ever quite the same after that. Nor has the Church been quite the same. All of us knew that the time had come for a change and that the decision had come from the heavens. The answer was clear. There was perfect unity among us in our experience and in our understanding."
And who did the Mormon Apostles send out to explain this sudden change?
The same dude, Bruce McConkie, who 20 years earlier said Negroes were not equal with other races.
How did he explain this?
Bald Facedly.
There are statements in our literature by the early brethren which we have interpreted to mean that the Negroes would not receive the priesthood in mortality. I have said the same things, and people write me letters and say, "You said such and such, and how is it now that we do such and such?" And all I can say to that is that it is time disbelieving people repented and got in line and believed in a living, modern prophet. Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whomsoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world.... We get our truth and our light line upon line and precept upon precept. We have now had added a new flood of intelligence and light on this particular subject, and it erases all the darkness and all the views and all the thoughts of the past. They don’t matter any more.... It doesn’t make a particle of difference what anybody ever said about the Negro matter before the first day of June of this year.
Now, since we're all so interested in what President Obama may have picked up in his spiritual development under the tutelage of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright (except for when Obama was out being all Muslim and stuff), is it not fair to ask of Mitt Romney... the young man who was a Mormon Missionary 10 years before the LDS church welcomed Black folks, the church that taught while Mitt was in the Missionary Position that blacks were inferior because they were the children of Cain? The same Mitt Romney who was an adult of 31 years when the 12 Mormon Apostles had this sudden revelation?
Would it not be a fair question to ask, "Gov. Romney? What was your attitude towards blacks while you were a missionary? What did you tell people about your church's rejection of blacks as humans worthy of salvation? When, if ever, did your attitude towards black people change? Do you still hold the beliefs you had in your young adulthood, or -- like everything else you've ever expressed an opinion on -- has your opinion changed to suit the times? What do you believe and when did you start believing it?"
Goose? Meet Gander.
Next time, baptizing dead people and being married forever... even after death. These are the things Mitt Romney believes.
Parts 1 and 2 of our look at Mitt's Religious Foundations can be read (if you DARE) at http://ex-examiner.com. Check out, ya might LEARN sumthin'