I went to see the Broadway Musical called "The Book of Mormon" the other night and I just couldn't help thinking about Mitt Romney and his habit of twisting,obscuring, and bold faced lying during this election cycle. I was curious about what the Mormon church had to say about the subject. I know that the Christian Bible has lying down in stone as being a top ten no-no. Knowing nothing about the Mormon church, I thought I would do a little research on the unbelievable latitude that Mitt Romney seems to have surrounding the subject. How do the Elders of his church feel about it?
I don't know nothin' about no political strategy. I'm a gut-semi-wonk voter. I vote on the issues first and my feelings second and I am truly amazed that the press isn't all over the fact that Mitt Romney is a Bishop of his church and is allowed to get away with so many falsehoods. Somehow this man's faith gets a pass because everyone seems to feel it politically incorrect to question.
So, here's my question. "What do I tell my daughter about lying now? If Mitt Romney is documented as telling one lie after another, how do I tell my daughter that lying is unacceptable? Pillars in our society are clearly accepting it. The entire Republican Party has taken the position of whatever it takes to beat President Barack Obama is acceptable. The Dems aren't off the hook. But the magnitude of lies coming from the Romney camp is historic. From ads to his convention speech, to his latest foreign policy speech more and more lies are documented. When Mitt Romney says something he knows is an untruth, does that make him a liar or just a great politician. How does he face his family and his religious congregation knowing that he's bent the truth, even on the smallest scale?
The character that brought Romney to mind during my evening of Broadway magic was a guy named Elder Cunningham. Boy, did he tell some whoppers! But he told them so convincingly that an entire village pledged loyalty to him. Sound familiar?
We teach our children that lying is harmful and yet half the country is willing to put a person who lies without impunity into the highest office in the land. A man who is a Bishop of his church.
A MAN OF GOD, PEOPLE!
How long would you attend a church if you KNEW that your leader was lying?
I took a look through some articles written for Ensign Magazine, which is an LDS publication and found some insight into how Mormons feel about character, honor, and lying.
July 1984 article penned by Ezra Taft Benson, President of the Quorum of the Twelve
"If there is one word that describes character, it is the word honor. Without honor, civilization would not long exist. Without honor, there could be no dependable contracts, no lasting marriages, no trust nor happiness.
What does the word honor meant to you? To me honor is summarizes in the expression by poet Tennyson, "Man's word (of honor) is God in man" (Idylls of the King, "The Coming of Arthur," line 132). An honorable man or woman is one who is truthful; free from deceit; above cheating, lying, stealing, or any form of deception. An honorable man or woman is one who learns early that one cannot do wrong and feel right. A man's character is judged on how he keeps his word and agreements. Today it is becoming more commonplace for men not to honor their agreements. We read about famous athletes who hire attorneys to help them out of contracts; about the breakup of marriage agreements; about unnecessary personal bankruptcies, fraud and other deceptive practices. Honor has become so exceptional that when a man does an honorable thing it becomes newsworthy...as members of the true church of Jesus Christ, you made agreements with Him at baptism. That is why you are called the children of the covenant. As part of that covenant, you agreed "to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death." (Emphasis mine) At the time of baptism you agreed to keep all God's commandments...He is very specific and clear on how you should conduct your life as a member of his church. His laws are embodied in the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, and latter-day revelations."
So we see that Mormons are very specific about lying being less than honorable.
What kind of man with such a high rank in his church would decide that lying would be better than doing the real work of putting together real policies ideas of his own? What man who professes his faith so strongly would be an example of how to lie your way into the White House? He can't win honestly, so he will try to win through deceit and trickery. We've seen this scenario before in 2000, then again in 2004. Mitt's foreign policy is the same as GWB, but the pretty wonky sounding words are there to obscure the fact that he has no REAL policy ideas, only finger pointing in President Obama's direction. The president has had REAL foreign policy success and yet we still give this robotic voice of the extreme right a platform.
Other Mormon voices like Carol B. Thomas has a few words about integrity:
"We can easily spot...someone with integrity. They're honest. They do the right thing when nobody is watching...they accept responsibility for their actions."
Or Marvin J. Ashton:
"A lie is any communication given to another with the intent to deceive."
President Obama did himself no favors for not calling out Mitt Romney on his un-Godly behavior. Watching him during the debate he looked disgusted by the mendacity on display. But that doesn't mean We should stand by and allow deception to rule the day.
Recently, Chuck Todd spoke of his feeling the corrosive effects of this campaign on our society. Not being a fan of Mr. Todd, I was surprised at this brief moment of insight on his part, but there it is. If he's feeling it, it must be pretty knarly out there.
