Posted by
Phil E. on Thursday, May 17, 2007 9:02:52 PM
TIME reporter almost gets itWhen the red phone rings, will it be Salt Lake calling?
"Honey, it's the Living Prophet on the phone!"
(A parody of a TIME mag cover.)
Questioning Mitt's fitness for office
Hugh Hewitt asked Time reporter Nancy Gibbs if she "could point to a single religious view that Mormons hold that would directly call into question Mitt Romney 's fitness for office?" (May 11, 2007, 1st hour.)
Uhhh... what about that secret temple oath, called the
Law of Consecration?
Pregnant pause
For someone who's been a reporter for 22 years, I'm surprised that she's obviously never thought about this before. Especially because she's supposed to be such an expert on religion in presidential elections and supposedly researched Mormonism for her article on Mitt Romney. Listen to the pause when she says, "Huh..." And then listen to her answer. She's very close.
[43 second audio clip.]
So Close!
She almost gets it! She should have said, "Well, you know, Hugh [and Hugh DOES know... he just won't tell you as he runs interference for Brother Romney], Mormons swear this secret oath of allegiance to their church in their temple ceremony, known as the
Law of Consecration. It used to include
a blood oath, until they changed it. It goes like this:
You and each of you covenant and promise before God, angels, and these witnesses at this altar, that you do accept the law of consecration as contained in this, the book of Doctrine and Covenants, in that you do consecrate yourselves, your time, talents, and everything with which the Lord has blessed you, or with which he may bless you, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for the building up of the kingdom of God on the earth and for the establishment of Zion.
And that, Hugh, is disqualifying for office. You cannot swear an oath to your church and swear an oath of office. You will either uphold one or the other."
A distinction without a Difference?
But she's close enough for government work. She says a legitimate question is what happens if the leader of the Mormon church, who Mormons REALLY believe is a "
Living Prophet," weighs in strongly on some issue that touches on your conduct in office.
When the Red Phone rings
This is hard for people who aren't in a cult, who don't blindly follow their leader (i.e. non-Mormons) to imagine, but imagine you really thought there was a guy in Salt Lake City who was a living prophet, who spoke with your god, and therefore (you thought) had all the answers. Now imagine there's some HUGE crisis in your life. Except you're the President and that huge crisis doesn't involve only you, but the whole country.
If it just involved you, no one would care if you called the your prophet. But when it involves the country, we care.
So when the Red Phone rings, will it be the Prophet calling? And what will you do? Tell him to take a hike?
I don't think so.
Calling John Kennedy
And then Nancy Gibbs did what a lot of people do. She tried to compare Mitt Romney to John Kennedy. I've already written at length about this.
Mitt Romney is no John Kennedy! Catholics don't swear an oath of allegiance to their church!Don't vote for Mitt Romney. Don't put a Mormon in the White House. He may eventually lie and tell us he won't take orders from Salt Lake. (According to Hugh Hewitt, Mitt Romney has already said this in
Mr. Hewitt's book.) So then he won't keep his temple oath before god? Then why should you believe he'll keep his constitutional oath?