Mitt The Hypocrite

The news has been even more unwatchable/unreadable than normal since Charlottesville on Saturday. What is even worse than the media, who I expect to be completely biased and spinning the "news" for the advantage of the political Left, are the milquetoast "conservatives" that are misrepresenting President Trump and virtue signaling for all they are worth, and completely in vain. One of the most egregious, hypocritical examples comes from the Twitter account of former Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney who wrote:

No, not the same. One side is racist, bigoted, Nazi. The other opposes racism and bigotry. Morally different universes.

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) August 16, 2017

Now Romney is entitled to his opinion but it is worth pointing out that Mitt Romney is a Mormon and a graduate of Brigham Young University. As a Mormon, Romney is required to "affirm" that Brigham Young was a prophet of God in the same way that Isaiah was a prophet. What did this prophet have to say about blacks, specifically about miscegenation?

For Marriage to an African. Brigham Young said: "Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God is death on the spot. This will always be so" (Journal of Discourses, vol. 10, p. 110).

This is in the Journal of Discourses and is stated by a "prophet" who claims it to be the law of God, the mixing of the races carries the penalty of death. If someone is divinely chosen to be a prophet of God and says that something is the law of God, a "Thus sayeth the Lord" if ever there was one, the question becomes one of two options. Was Brigham Young wrong, in which case he can hardly be called a prophet, or was Brigham Young right and mormonism ought to enforce this law of blood atonement for miscegenation? The mormon "church" taught until 1978 that blacks were accursed and barred from the "restored priesthood", right up to the point where God magically changed his mind and the mormon church published Official Declaration 2 granting blacks the "priesthood". For the record, Official Declaration 1 records God again conveniently changing His mind and revoking polygamy. So much for a new and everlasting covenant that lasted for less than 50 years. Many religions, including some denominations of Christianity, had racist views but none were so adamant about them as mormonism.

In Salt Lake City stands a statue memorializing a famous racist...

Brigham Young Monument, Salt Lake City, UT

Is Mitt going to call for the statue of Brigham Young in Salt Lake City to be torn down? Would he applaud if Alt-Left antifa took it upon themselves to rip it down and dance on it?

The mormon "church" still sells and uses the teachings of Brigham Young as an official resource.

The flagship university of mormonism, Brigham Young University, still bears his name.

Mormonism was racist to the core long before the KKK was even dreamed of.

Mitt should heed the advice of Jesus for a change and examine the plank in the collective eye of his own "church" before he goes spouting off about the mote in the eyes of someone else.

If Donald Disavows David Duke Will Mitt Disavow Brigham Young?

The latest desperate attempt by the Republican party in cahoots with the mainstream media to derail Donald Trump's inexplicably popular Presidential campaign has to do with the (apparently unsolicited) endorsement of former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke of Trump. Former disastrous Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney went to Twitter to denounce Trump

A disqualifying & disgusting response by @realDonaldTrump to the KKK. His coddling of repugnant bigotry is not in the character of America.

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 29, 2016

OK, so Trump is on the hook for not denouncing David Duke's endorsement. But what about Mitt Romney? Will he denounce the words of a man that he is required to affirm was a "prophet, seer and revelator" .who said this about blacks:

"Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so," (Journal of Discourses, vol. 10, p. 110).

That sounds like something David Duke would applaud. Now granted Young is long dead and is not running for President but Romney's religion requires that he recognize Brigham Young as a prophet, a direct mouthpiece for God of the "restoration". Some may try to brush the quote above and the numerous other examples of vile racism by the mormon leadership as a product of the times that they lived and that the Journal of Discourses is not "official" mormom scripture but when a man who proclaims himself the single unique prophet of God on earth at that time declares that whites who mix their seed with blacks are under penalty of death, not because it was taboo time but rather because it was the law of God and furthermore according to God's prophet would always be so. So really I am not at all interested in faux outrage from a man who is part of a religion that did and must still to be consistent affirm that blacks are cursed as the "seed of Cain" and that interracial marriage as declared by the prophet of God must be punished by death "on the spot". This is not a defense of Trump or a comment on the entire situation, although there are some serious questions to be asked here, but simply a challenge for consistency on the part of a man who lost one Presidential race and is waiting in the wings as a last minute savior of the Republican party. 

So Mitt I will await your disavowal of Brigham Young's racist prophetic declaration of "God's law". Until that time keep your phony indignation to yourself.

What Would Brigham Young Think This Morning?

In the election yesterday we saw the first ever black female was elected to the Congress as a Republican. Mia Love, will represent Utah's 4th congressional district. Her parents fled from Haiti to escape Papa Doc and here is their daughter being elected to the Congress. It is in many ways a quintessential American story and I am pretty happy to see this take place. Here is the hitch. Take a look at the family photo below.

Great looking family! Except that Ms. Love was elected in what is certainly a hugely mormon district. As it happens, those same mormons are all required to recognize Brigham Young as a prophet of God, a prophet on par with any of the prophets of the Old Testament and as such when he spoke he did so on behalf of God. Brigham would not be happy to see his current day followers electing a black woman in a mixed race marriage to represent them in Congress. In fact he would probably be wondering why she had not been put to death or at least her husband Jason Love. You see Brigham didn't much care for blacks, calling them the descendants of Cain and their dark skin the sign of the curse God placed on Cain. They were barred from being "priests" in the mormon church. When it came to the idea of mixed marriages he was even more of a mad dog, calling for the execution of the parties involved....

"Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so" (Journal of Discourses, 10:110).

Notice the emphatic "this will always be so". Doesn't leave much wiggle room, does it? Subsequent "prophets" of the so-called "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" reinforced that blacks were an inferior people and unworthy in both the "pre-existence" and to hold the mormon "priesthood", at least until it became politically inexpedient like polygamy and God suddenly changed His mind. Funny how that works. "This will always be so...until it becomes too uncomfortable in the culture".

Now it is true that many alleged Christians held to pretty ugly racist positions back in the day, and some still do. The difference is that I can say they were completely wrong. Mormons don't have that same ability because to question the statement of a prophet on a matter of doctrine is to call into question the entire system. This is the difference between the Christian faith based on the revealed Word of God and the mormon religion and other cults based on the whims and declarations of men.

While I am sure Brigham Young would be irate this morning, I wish Ms. Love and her beautiful family the very best and hope that she honorably serves in Congress. I hope even more fervently that she and her fellow adherents to mormonism have their hearts changed and that they turn from the false religion of mormonism and into saving faith in Jesus Christ. That is my hope and my prayer for Ms. Love, her family and all of those trapped in the cult of mormonism.

September Dawn

We finally we able to rent the movie September Dawn, a dramatization of the Mountain Meadows Massacre perpetrated in 1857 by a combined force of mormons and Indians, resulting in the death of 120 men, women and children.

From a cinematic standpoint, the movie was decent. Some of the acting is a bit overwrought, the love plot was cheesy and some of the dialogue was over the top. But what the movie managed to capture is life under the theocratic reign of Brigham Young, a man who I think was utterly convinced of his divine appointment as God's prophet. I still am unsure whether Joseph Smith was really deluded into thinking he was a prophet or if he was just a cheap con man who used the story of the Book of Mormon to gain power and women (it is probably a combination of both). But Young was an honest-to-goodness believer in himself and his divine appointment.

The temple ceremony scenes were creepy, but accurate. I am less convinced by the absolutes, the scenes of the kindly Christian preacher with a beautiful sunset behind him contrasted with Jon Voight calling down the curses of Jehovah upon the gentile invaders. But any serious look at the incident indicates that Brigham Young was complicit in the events, either by overtly calling for the attack or at least giving tacit approval. Regardless, the movie is thought provoking. I doubt many mormons will watch it given the "anti-mormon" stamp it has received, but they certainly should.