Romney's religious cult, his “most important treasure”

By Paddy Ryan

Mitt Romney's Mormon faith is a major issue. It raises red flags about his fundamental beliefs. Since President Obama's faith is fair game, then I think Mitt Romney's faith, which was founded on trickery and con-artistry, should be fair game too.

Mitt Romney, who is a certified bishop in the Mormon church, has built his entire life around the Mormon faith. In a little-known commencement speech to his prep school alma-mater, Mitt Romney described his Mormon faith as “one of the most important treasures of my life.”

A religion, started less than 200 years ago by a con-man, a religion that has been exposed as a cult (by all sides of the political spectrum), is Mitt Romney's “most important treasure”. Comforting.

Here are some wacky, out-of-this-world beliefs that Romney and his fellow Mormon's hold:

- God is a man, made of flesh and blood, and he lives on the planet Kolob.

- There is no hell, but there are three heavens.

- The punishment for being a bad Mormon is that you don’t get to reach the third heaven, where God dwells.

- Lucifer was Jesus’ brother, back on the original earth, where God and Jesus dwelled.

- The biblical characters Adam and Eve once lived in America, which is where the Garden of Eden was really located.

- We were all spirit children together with God in the 'pre-existence'.

- People of African descent are "cursed with a skin of blackness” and the curse was based on their performance in the pre-existence.

- Baptism happens for children at age 8 and at age 12 they are allowed to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead, these posthumous "blessings" are intended to "save" ancestors and others who weren't baptized in life or were baptized "without proper authority."

- There will be a literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes, Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent.

- Christ will reign personally upon the earth, and the earth will be renewed and receive its 'paradisiacal glory'.

Although most of Romney's religious beliefs are strange, I think that one of his strangest is the belief in secretive posthumous baptisms. This issue fascinates me.

"A Mormon may propose the baptism of another person posthumously. Church members have performed the ritual on Buddha, Catholic popes, 9/11 hijackers, William Shakespeare, Joan of Arc, Elvis Presley, President Obama's mother and even reportedly Jesus Christ. In 2002, the managing director of the Mormon's family and church history department told The New Yorker magazine that as many as 200 million dead people had been baptized as Mormons.

In 1994, an Israeli genealogist researching her family in the Mormons' computerized International Genealogical Index made a startling discovery. Her grandfather, a religiously observant Jew killed in the Holocaust, had been posthumously baptized as a Mormon. Distraught, she alerted other Jewish genealogists who soon learned that some 380,000 Holocaust victims, including Anne Frank, had been baptized. Plus, Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, and scientist Albert Einstein had received this treatment."

Wow. If that doesn't sound like some shady medicine man, rainmaker, voodoo-magic wizardry, than I don't know what does. How can any sane, rational, intelligent minded person, like Mitt Romney, ever take these beliefs to heart?

Last Monday, top Romney advisor Kevin Madden said,

“The governor’s faith is part of who he is, … It’s informed how he’s raised his family, it’s informed how he’s had a strong marriage.”

I am not a religious person. I understand that all different religious beliefs can sound a little outrageous, but Mormons are definitely in the major leagues when it comes to sounding ridiculous.

Call me crazy but, I'm not comfortable with a President who believes that God is a flesh and blood man living on the planet Kolob, a President who believes that Zion will be built upon the American continent and believes that people of African descent are "cursed with a skin of blackness” based on performance in some fairytale 'pre-existence'. I don't feel comfortable with a President who refers to his faith, which includes these fundamental pillars of Mormonism, as his “most important treasure”.