Mormons Troubled By Trump

On Friday I had a leisurely conversation with a friend who lives in Arizona. Getting caught up on topics ranging from the heat that continues, smokey skies that create coughs, and how the pecan trees are faring were all interesting to hear. But then the topic moved to politics and it was then the the person of Mormon faith on the other end of the line said something startling.

“When Trump and his infection comes on the TV I turn the channel. He brought this on himself.”

This long-time conservative Republican took off on Trump letting me know in no uncertain terms there was no wiggle room left for his candidacy at that home. So asa I read an article in today New York Times it echoed with what I heard on the phone.

According to Jacob Rugh of Brigham Young University, a Voter Study Group from June 2020 showed that among an admittedly small group of 160 respondents, just 42 percent of Mormon women planned to vote for Mr. Trump, compared with nearly 75 percent of Mormon men. The trend is even more pronounced among younger Mormon women: Mr. Rugh surveyed nearly 400 of his former students in May 2020; six in 10 women aged 18 to 29 said they would vote for Joe Biden. In that age cohort, about four in 10 Mormon men were similarly inclined to vote for Mr. Biden.

That underlines a broader point: Mormons as a group do not approve of the president as much as they approve of other Republicans — and given the tight races in those Southwest swing states, that could be a real obstacle for Mr. Trump.

So Mormons’ views on immigration, welcoming the stranger and engaging with people who are “different” don’t jibe well with Trumpism. The Latter-day Saints Church has, not surprisingly, condemned Mr. Trump’s statements on immigration and religious freedom, including on family separations at the border. (This is perhaps even less surprising as the church attracts more Latino members.)

The condemnations have resonated with rank-and-file church women like Sara Nix, from Las Vegas, who said: “Within my community, it appears I’m not the only one frustrated with the president’s rhetoric and policies, as I’ve heard from Republican friends who find Mr. Trump to be more than just uncivil but believe he is on the verge of inciting violence.” She is planning to vote for Mr. Biden.

Mormon Church (Sort Of) Steps Into 21st Century

Every step forward should be applauded….even when they are snail paces.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said on Thursday that it would allow children of same-sex couples to be baptized, a remarkable reversal of church policy from one of the religious groups that has long been a bulwark against gay rights.

The decision rolls back a 2015 rule that had ripped apart congregations by declaring that church members in same-sex marriages were apostates and subject to excommunication, and that children of same-sex couples were banned from rituals like baptisms and baby-naming ceremonies.

Now, three years after the church drove many members away, the change signals an effort to draw them back and represents a broader effort by the church’s newest president to bring the church closer to mainstream American views.

Let us be honest why this is happening.

Mormons are hemorrhaging young members because of exclusionary policies that put them at odds with modern society.  And as such the church’s long term financial and membership components are needing to be reinforced.   Hence a small token.

Basic humanity might be their next change?

Being Mormon Kept Mitt Romney From Military Draft During Vietnam War–Read How He Spins It For Political Campaign

How convenient.

It is always interesting to me how those who love the idea of combat, and have ideas for new wars– be it President Bush (43)  invading Iraq, or Mitt Romney’s seeming desire to initiate combat with Iran–have no military experience.

Worse still, these types of politicians actually found ways to avoid serving in the military.

For Mitt Romney he just sought draft evasion within his Mormon Church.  This is not the first example of Mormons not serving in the same numbers, percentage wise, as those of other faiths.  How convenient.

First read how Mitt Romney evaded the draft, and then read the final paragraph concerning his political spin about the Vietnam War.

At Stanford, Romney was exempt from the draft, holding the 2-S student deferment then given to most undergraduates. He kept it but one year; like his older brother, Scott, Romney left Stanford early to serve for 30 months as a missionary abroad,   as is customary for devout Mormon men.

During that period in France, from 1966 to 1968, he held another draft exemption as a missionary — a controversial one, as critics complained that it disproportionately excluded Mormon men from service.

The Selective Service eventually limited church districts to one religious deferment every six months, sharply reducing draft  exemptions in Utah. But in Michigan, where Romney grew up, the small Mormon population made it unlikely that others competed for the mission that Romney accepted, said Barry Mayo, a counselor at the time to the district bishop. (After returning from France, Romney transferred to Brigham Young University and again secured a student deferment.)

Four decades later, in 2007 during his run for the Republican presidential nomination, Romney told The Boston Globe that while in France, “I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and representing our country there.”

If there was such a longing for combat while Romney was in France why did he not then enlist once back in the states?  Why did he seek to attend a university and get yet another deferment?

Mitt Romney is just full of horse manure from one end to the other.  He has so many varying versions of events and ways to parse and wiggle his way around that if push came to shove he would not be able to provide a straight answer for anything.

Mitt Romney is not prepared to be Commander-in-Chief.

Mitt Romney Listens As J.W. Marriott, Chairman Of Marriott Hotel Chain, Talks Of Magical Mormon Underwear

Mitt Romney sat in a Mormon Church today and heard about the wonders of magical underwear.

J.W. Marriott, the chairman of hotel chain Marriott International Inc., spoke to  the congregation.

Marriott talked about being part of a commission that was established to help  improve the public perception of the LDS church. He served on that committee  with George Romney, the candidate’s father.

Marriott explained that he participated in an interview for a “60  Minutes” feature in which he was asked about his temple garments, which all  Mormons wear under their clothing as a symbol of their participation in the  church.

“I related to him how I’d been involved in a very serious boat accident, here  in New Hampshire,” Marriott said. “I caught fire; my polyester pants had burned  off all the way to my waist. But my undergarments from my waist down to my knees  had not even been singed. There wasn’t a mark on them. And I said, these holy  undergarments saved my life.”

Maybe this was all just a message from God telling you not to wear polyester pants!

How Does Mitt Romney Spend A Vacation Week? Finding Out Who Can Hammer Most Nails Into Board In Two Minutes

Some of this is enough to make one barf.

“This weekend, Mitt Romney is starting his annual summer vacation on [Lake Winnipesaukee]… The Romneys, 30 in all these days, [follow] a … regimen of sports and games known as the ‘Romney Olympics.’ The Romney Olympics have long included a mini-triathlon of biking, swimming and running that pits Mitt and his five sons and their wives against one another. But after Mitt once nearly finished last, behind a daughter-in-law who had given birth to her second child a couple of months earlier, the ultra-competitive and self-described unathletic patriarch expanded the games to give himself a better shot. Now they also compete to see who can hang onto a pole the longest, who can throw a football the farthest and who can hammer the most nails into a board in two minutes – not exactly the kind of events they’ll be giving out gold medals for in London this month.

I wonder if he wears his Mormon underwear for all the events?

“By day, the Romneys kayak and water ski – one sport at which Mitt excels – play tennis and basketball, stage a ‘home-run derby’ and horse around on a slip-and-slide. Most of the grandchildren (there are now 18) put on a talent show on a stage that Papa, as they call Mitt, constructed in the backyard. And he helps them roast s’mores over a campfire and leads them on treasure hunts. He grills chicken and salmon and teaches the kids how to drive his lawn tractor. At night, the adults gather for family meetings, with each evening focused on a frank and full discussion of a different son’s career moves and parenting worries. Each member of the family picks a daily chore from a ‘chore wheel,’ so as to share cleaning tasks evenly.

“And … everyone poses on the lawn for a portrait for that year’s Romney family Christmas card. The grandchildren coordinate outfits; last summer, the girls wore matching orange and yellow polka-dotted dresses and the boys, blue checkered shirts. … Romney’s 13-acre estate features a six-bedroom house, a horse stable with guest apartments above it, a $630,000 boat house, tennis and volleyball courts and a shoreline stretching 768 feet … Romney and his wife, Ann, purchased the home in 1997 for $2.5 million and later bought adjoining land. This year, records show, the estate was assessed at $8 million.”

Mitt Romney Does Not Feel Safe Politically To Speak About His Mormon Faith

Last night from the Jay Leno show where David Gregory from Meet The Press was a guest.

“Let’s be honest, [Mormonism] is the core of who Mitt Romney is. He was a missionary in France for two years. He has been a bishop in the church, which, in the Mormon church, is effectively like a priest. Philanthropically, he’s made huge contributions. He’s had a big impact on the church. And yet he doesn’t talk about it. It’s the core of who he is, and yet he doesn’t feel like it’s safe to talk about.”

Mitt Romney Talks About Being Mormon Missionary And French Toilets

Mitt’s idea of humanizing his personal story on the campaign trail is to talk about toilets.

“Most of the apartments I lived in had no refrigerators,” Romney told a crowd of 300 at a VFW hall here Sunday afternoon, launching into a long anecdote about life as a Mormon missionary in France that touched on the difficulties of shopping before every meal and living in buildings without a shower.

“If we were lucky, we actually bought a hose and we stuck it on the sink, and we’d hold there with the hose and the big bucket underneath us in the kitchen and wash ourselves that way,” Romney said. “And so, I lived in a way that people of lower-middle income in France lived and said to myself, ‘Wow, I sure am lucky to have been born in the United States of America.’”

“A number of the apartments I lived in when I lived there didn’t have toilets,” Romney said. “We had instead the little pads on the ground, OK? You know how that works, all right. There was a chain behind you with a bucket — it was a bucket affair. I had not experienced one of those in the United States.”

Romney first brought up his work with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the debate — the first time during this year’s primary campaign he’d spoken so openly of his Mormonism in such a public setting.

Young And Hip Mormons Dress Around The Temple Garment

There is more discussion this year about the Mormon faith given that the likely Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, is a Mormon.  People are curious.  I do not think there is as much judgmental foundation to the topic outside of the evangelical movement that polls show might have concern about Romneys’ religion.  I find people are just inquisitive, as most people are not connected to someone who is Mormon.

This past week an article first published in The New York Times focused on the effort by younger people to be a part of the Mormon church, but also retain their youthful ways and hip style.

Tattoo fans face tougher obstacles. Those who have tattoos tend to keep them hidden, especially after 2000, when Gordon B. Hinckley, then the president of the church, spoke out against tattoos as “graffiti on the temple of the body” at the church’s general conference.

Still, tattooed Mormons have managed to find one another and form a kind of subculture. “I was blown away by the amount of tattoos I viewed in the showers,” said James Peterson, 32, about his missionary training in Provo, Utah, in the late 1990s. When he went off on his mission to Spain, he and other missionaries would trade issues of tattoo magazines, taking care to cut out images of topless women or devils.

Not only has Peterson kept up his magazine subscriptions, but he has also opened Rogue Parlour, a tattoo studio in Tucson, Ariz. While he still faces condemnation of his profession from family members, last year he added a tattoo on his left arm: a beehive, a Mormon symbol of working together for the common good. “It’s a complicated way of saying I still love the church,” he said.

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But when it comes to dressing young and hip, some Mormons said they face unique challenges. Among other things, many adult Mormons wear a type of underwear known as the temple garment, meant as a symbolic reminder of an individual’s promises to God. Both men and women have their own style of garment, but each consists of two pieces, a chaste knee-length bottom reminiscent of a boxer-brief and a white undershirt.

Jeggings and maxi dresses aren’t an issue, but tank tops and short skirts are, said Elna Baker, Britain Baker’s sister who detailed her struggles with the faith in a 2009 memoir, “The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance.” To cover up the undergarment, some style-conscious Mormons in places like Brooklyn adopt a retro-ironic look from thrift stores, including “Mad Men”-style dresses, or a kind of ’80s secretary look: ruffled blouses, bow collars and high-waisted pencil skirts.

“It’s very much a Zooey Deschanel look,” said Elna Baker, who left the church after her book was published.