Article VI Blog

This is a preview of another post I am working on that lists, in very short summary, some religious beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the "Church") that will undoubtedly serve as the basis for religious "stealth attacks" on Governor Romney. A stealth attack is one with the following characteristics:

It refers to Governor Romney's membership in the Church;

It pretends to be either friendly or innocuous, or both;

It raises, often in passing, a point of Church doctrine that is likely to be inflammatory (and often that is stated incorrectly); and

The attack's real goal is to undermine Romney's likely candidacy by appealing to ignorance or religious prejudice.

Our earlier posts about Ankle Biting Pundits provided some examples of this tactic. Here's one from there, which the author contended was a "defense" of the Church:

[T]here is an interesting discussion over at GetReligion.org about how journalists should even talk about this issue without coming off as ignorant and insulting to the Mormon faith, which contains some difficult doctrines that are inconsistent with Christianity, such as, as GetReligion.org points out, a doctrine that holds that men can become gods and have their own universes of subjects in the afterlife.

Now, that paragraph doesn't really tell you much about the Church's beliefs, but it sure does get your attention, doesn't it? "Men can become gods and have their own universes of subjects in the afterlife." Wow!

That attack refers to a Mormon doctrine that is often referred to as "exaltation," by which the Church means that humankind, as the children of God, can someday live in His presence as families and be like Him. Now, that's a whole lot of doctrine stated in a single sentence, but I hope it gives you the idea.

Here's Terry Mattingly, writing on exaltation and Romney at GetReligion:

I made no judgment on whether evangelicals . . . should be politically prejudiced against Gov. Romney. I just said that some of them WOULD hold exhaltation [sic] and other issues against him. And I said that this WOULD turn into a story that MSM reporters are going to have to handle. . . .

So the MSM is going to be torn. . . Do they (a) cover this as another example of rampaging religious right fundies who take everything too seriously or (b) do they jump on and help take down the sexy Republican?

In other words, "Let's them and them fight. I'll watch."

Just for the record, here are two recent statements by Gordon B. Hinckley. President of the Church, that I think add important context to Mormon beliefs about the afterlife and the notion of exaltation:

“We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost” (A of F 1:1). This is our primary declaration of faith. We speak unabashedly of the living reality of the Lord Jesus Christ. We declare without equivocation the fact of His great act of Atonement for all mankind. That act brought assurance of universal resurrection and opened the way toexaltation in our Father’s kingdom.

More:

I do not equate my body with His in its refinement, in its capacity, in its beauty and radiance. His is eternal. Mine is mortal. But that only increases my reverence for Him. I worship Him “in spirit and in truth.” I look to Him as my strength. I pray to Him for wisdom beyond my own. I seek to love Him with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. His wisdom is greater than the wisdom of all men. His power is greater than the power of nature, for He is the Creator Omnipotent. His love is greater than the love of any other, for His love encompasses all of His children, and it is His work and His glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of His sons and daughters of all generations (see Moses 1:39).

Back to the stealth attackers. One can only guess at their motives. Some are using the tactic to undermine Governor Romney's candidacy; others simply dislike the Church's teachings. There are surely other motives.

My response to such attacks: Why would anyone inject deep Mormon doctrines about the afterlife (or any other subject) into a discussion of the political viability of a candidate who happens to be a Mormon? It's hard to imagine honorable reasons for doing so. It's easy, however, to imagine many dishonorable reasons for flagging such subjects, including an attempt to cast the candidate in a bad light and to appeal to ignorance about, or outright prejudice toward, his religion.

An analogy: Let's say we were back in 1960, when John Kennedy was running for president and his Catholicism was an issue for many protestants. Let's say a pundit or blogger asked, "Is Kennedy presently a mass-going Catholic? If he is, when he takes the communion wafer does he really believe the wafer and the wine are transformed into the blood and flesh of Christ in his mouth?"

Would such an inquiry be tolerated– then or now? No, and that question was just as irrelevant to Kennedy's candidacy in 1960 as questions about Mormon views of the afterlife are to Romney's candidacy now. It was also just as prone to inflame prejudice and capitalize on the ignorance of some people.

Almost everyone's religious faith contains elements that seem strange to outsiders. Mormonism is no exception. Stealth attackers seem ready to exploit that fact on their own candidate's behalf, and their apparent willingness to do so says much more about them than it does about Mitt Romney.

As 2008 nears, I believe we will see a blogospheric "whisper campaign" about Governor Romney unlike anything ever yet attempted in American politics. One question some have raised about such efforts is whether they can really succeed now, given the speed with which the blogosphere can challenge distortions and false innuendos.

So we'll put that question to the test. I'm going to try to anticipate and call attention to those whisper attacks and tactics. Where appropriate, I'l do my best to educate readers about the context in which the Church's underlying doctrines and beliefs should be viewed.

I have no intention of engaging in Mormon apologetics or discussing religious doctrines in detail, just adding context, as I attempted to do above regarding the afterlife. By doing so I hope we can help elevate the 2008 campaign discussions to something consistent with the spirit of Article VI.

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