Does Mitt Romney Have a Mormon Problem?

What is the White Horse Prophecy and is it important in the presidential race of 2012? The White Horse Prophecy is a statement purported to have been made in 1843 by Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, regarding the future of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and the United States of America. The Latter Day Saints, according to the prophecy, would “go to the Rocky Mountains and … be a great and mighty people”, which is identified figuratively with the White Horse described in the Revelation of John. The prophecy further predicts that the United States Constitution will one day “hang like a thread” and will be saved “by the efforts of the White Horse”.  So is the Church the White Horse or is the candidate the White Horse.  I don’t really think the differentiation matters all that much, the fact is that it has been said that if a Mormon ever reaches the White House, they will take their orders from the Church in Salt Lake City.

Writers such as Richard Abanes and Elaine Wolff have speculated, on the basis of the prophecy, that Mormons expect the US to eventually become a “Mormon-ruled theocracy divinely ordained to ‘not only direct the political affairs of the Mormon community, but eventually those of the United States and ultimately the world'”, and that “a Mormon, if he were elected president, would take his orders from Salt Lake City.” In addition many LDS members of the Republican Party and some LDS Democrats have also been inspired to run for office by the White Horse Prophecy.  As is written below Michael Moody ran for Governor of Nevada in 1982 and made statements to the effect he was doing so to help Mitt Romney in the future.  That would have been 9 years after Romney graduated from college and he would have been around 32 or 33.   The authenticity of the prophecy as a whole, which was not made public until long after Smith’s death, is debated, and the leadership of the LDS Church has stated that “the so-called ‘White Horse Prophecy’ … is not embraced as Church doctrine.” However, the belief that members of the LDS Church will one day need to take action to save the imperiled US Constitution has been attributed to Smith in several sources and has been discussed in an approving fashion by Brigham Young and other LDS leaders.

From the JOD{journal of discourses}:

“The Saints Will Yet Save the Constitution-When the day comes in which the Kingdom of God will bear rule, the flag of the United States will proudly flutter unsullied on the flagstaff of liberty and equal rights, without a spot to sully its fair surface; the glorious flag our fathers have bequeathed to us will then be unfurled to the breeze by those who have power to hoist it aloft and defend its sanctity. (JOD 2:317).”

“How long will it be before the words of the prophet Joseph will be fulfilled? He said if the Constitution of the United States were saved at all it must be done by this people. It will not be many years before these words come to pass. 12:204.”

“The Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith there would be an attempt to overthrow the country by destroying the Constitution. Joseph Smith predicted that the time would come when the Constitution would hang, as it were, by a thread, and at that time “this people will step forth and save it from the threatened destruction” (Journal of Discourses, 7:15). It is my conviction that the elders of Israel, widely spread over the nation, will at that crucial time successfully rally the righteous of our country and provide the necessary balance of strength to save the institutions of constitutional government.”

“If the Gentiles on this land reject the word of God and conspire to overthrow liberty and the Constitution, their doom is fixed, and they “shall be cut off from among my people who are of the covenant” (1 Nephi 14:6; 3 Nephi 21:11, 14, 21; D&C 84:114-15, 117). (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 618-619 & God, Family, Country, p. 345.)”

Perhaps, like the Bible, Mormons would say there are many translations for these entries. However I think they are fairly clear that LDS think they are going to be in a position to save this country and if Proposition 8 in California is any indication, they will pour funds in to a campaign in order to affect the outcome.  You also have to consider that Mitt Romney not only has lied continuously but has flip-flopped all over the place and it would not be beyond the pale for him to lie about this as well.

Consider this, when Mitt Romney received his patriarchal blessing as a Michigan teenager, he was told that the Lord expected great things from him.  All young Mormon men receive such a blessing as they embark on their requisite journeys as religious missionaries.  But at 19 years of age, the youngest son of the most prominent Mormon in American politics, a seventh-generation direct descendant of one of the faith’s founding 12 apostles, Mitt Romney had been singled out as a destined leader.

Upon completion of his foreign mission, he immersed himself in the 1970 senatorial campaign of his mother, Lenore Romney, who was running against Phillip Hart in the Michigan general election. That same year, the Cougar Club, the all male social club at Brigham Young University was humming with talk that its president, Mitt Romney, would become the first Mormon president of the United States. “If not Mitt, then who?” was the ubiquitous slogan within the elite organization. The pious world of BYU was expected to spawn the man who would lead the Mormons into the White House and fulfill the prophecies of the church’s founder, Joseph Smith Jr.  And Mitt Romney has avidly sought to realize this prophesy/expectation.

At BYU, he was idolized by fellow students and referred to, only half jokingly, as the “One Mighty and Strong.”  He was the “alpha male” in the rarefied Cougar pack, according to Michael D. Moody, a BYU classmate and fellow member of the group. Romney, who had been the assistant to the president of the French Mission where he was personally in charge of more than 200 missionaries, easily assumed a leadership position in the club. So it seemed disingenuous to his former club mates when, in a 2006 magazine interview, Romney denied his longtime political aspirations. “I have to admit I did not think I was going to be in politics,” he told the American Spectator.  “Had I thought politics was in my future, I would not have chosen Massachusetts as the state of my residence.  I would have stayed in Michigan where my Dad’s name was golden.”

Michael Moody, a fellow Cougar member, says political success was an institutional value of the LDS church.

“The instructions in my [patriarchal] blessing, which I believed came directly from Jesus, motivated me to seek a career in government and politics,” he wrote in his 2008 book. Moody recently said that he ran for governor of Nevada in 1982 because he felt he had been divinely directed to “expand our kingdom” and help Romney “lead the world into the Millennium. Once a firm believer but now a church critic, Moody was indoctrinated with the White Horse Prophecy.  Like Romney, Moody is a seventh-generation Mormon, steeped in the same intellectual and theological milieu.

“We were taught that America is the Promised Land,” he said in an interview.”The Mormons are the Chosen People.  And the time is now for a Mormon leader to usher in the second coming of Christ and install the political Kingdom of God in Washington, D.C.”

Mormonism defines not only Mitt Romney’s character, but what kind of president he would be and what impulses would drive him in both domestic and foreign policy.  Like his father before him, Romney has charted a course from missionary to businessman, from church bishop to politician, to presidential candidate.  The influence that Mormonism has had on him has dominated every step of the way.

The church is one of the world’s richest institutions, a multibillion-dollar business empire that includes agribusiness, mining, insurance, electronic and print media, manufacturing, movie production, commercial real estate, defense contracting, retail stores and banking, the Mormon church has unprecedented economic and political power.(the picture to the left is the Hawaii Temple on Oahu and is typical of the lavish design all their temples)  Despite their beliefs against any act or tolerance of gambling, Mormons have been heavily invested and exceptionally influential in the Nevada gaming industry since the great expansion of modern Las Vegas in the 1950s.  Mormons have long been recruited into top positions in government agencies and multinational corporations, likely because of their strong adherance to the prohibition of liquor, tobacco and other vices. They are prominent in such institutions as the CIA, FBI and the national nuclear weapons laboratories, giving the church a sphere of influence unlike any other American religion in the top echelons of government.

Mitt Romney was groomed for a prominent position in the church, first as a missionary, then as a bishop, and then as a stake president, becoming the highest-ranking Mormon leader in Boston, the equivalent of a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

Mormonism’s founding theology was based upon a literal takeover of the U.S. government. In light of the theology and prophecies of the Church, not amended by the LDS hierarchy, it would seem that the office of the American presidency is the ultimate ecclesiastical position to which a Mormon leader might aspire.  So it really is a question of whether Romney believes that the American presidency is also a theological position.

Romney is uncomfortable and has said he will not discuss his religion on the campaign trail as he claims, rightly so, that religion is not a constitutional requirement for office of the President.  So, perhaps, the question is whether, based on all of the flip-flops on virtually every policy, he has an underlying religious conception of the presidency and the American government but is fearful of talking which could lead into further information he does not want the public to know.  We do know that at the GOP presidential debate in Florida, Romney claimed the Declaration of Independence is a theological document, not specific to the rebellious 13 colonies, but establishing a covenant “between God and man.”  This would suggest that Mitt Romney views the American presidency as a theological office.

Whether or not the whispers are true it does bear some investigation as we have all known members of religious entities not being candid when confronted with certain aspects of either their doctrine or statements they may have made when they thought no one was looking.  All I can say is I do not want to be in a position to find out if it is true or not.  It is so clear that Romney is not a person who should be trusted with the highest position and office in this land if you only look at his flip flops.  However when you look at the total man, to me, it only gets worse.  He will lie if he has to, what would he do with world leaders?  What would he do with Congress?  But most important of all, what would he do with the people?  We already had a George W Bush, we do not need another Liar in Chief.

Extra Tidbits:

Not sure if this is very well known but a little tidbit of trivia here, Huntsman and Romney are cousins.

Mitt Romney in a presentation to students at Harvard Business School in 1978: “Your children don’t pay any evidence of achievement for 20 years,” Mr. Romney said. But if students failed to invest sufficient time and energy in their spouses and children, their families could become “dogs” — consultant-speak for drags on the rest of the company — sucking energy, time and happiness out of the students. The presentation was a hit: Mr. Romney had proved the value of family time based not on emotion but on yield.

Michael Moody to Romney in his new book-Set Our People Free Mitt-Moody States: “Either you see it or you don’t, and since you still don’t see it, I can’t quietly stand aside and watch you march into the American Presidency with your ankle chained to Joseph Smith. The White House must not be controlled by a man who believes in a phantom ancient culture, believes the fictitious Book of Mormon the most correct book on earth and who reveres Joseph Smith as a Christian prophet. Your political success would advance the Mormon cult kingdom, and that’s unacceptable. Not on my watch!”

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2012/04/201244114433199395.html
On Michael Moody’s new book, “Mitt – Set Our People Free”

Noah Feldman NYT – What Is It About Mormonism?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Horse_Prophecy

Wiki