A Great Appearance
In his "Meet the Press" appearance, Mitt Romney showed that he has the intelligence -- and the media savvy -- to do a good job in a presidential campaign.
Romney handled the interview with aplomb, including the oft-asked questions about his "flip flops." Watching the interrogation, one almost hoped that he'd tell Tim Russert that they actually aren't flip flops (flipping one way, and then back) -- they're just flips. And the point is that he's a guy who can learn from experience and amend his policies in ligh tof new knowledge or new information. 'Scuse me, hasn't the press just spent at least six years condemning President Bush for stubbornly holding to his policies despite what they deem to be changing facts or information? Then Romney does it, and that isn't right either. Almost makes one wonder if the problem is that they're both Republicans, so nothing they do will ever be good enough for the MSM . . .
Tediously but predictably, Tim Russert spent a chunk of time at the interview's outset performing a theological probe on Romney, asking about his religious faith. Most offensive were Russert's attempts to somehow pin on Romney the Mormon Church's failure to allow blacks into the ministry until 1978. Russert's a Catholic, after all -- and does his Church's refusal to permit women into the ministry to this day mean he's a sexist? Of course not. Does his membership in the Catholic Church mean that he necessarily agrees with his Church's position on women priests? No. So let the whole Mormon-black thing go, already -- at least insofar as it's used to suggest that Mormons (and/or Romney) are (or might be) racists.
Romney handled the interview with aplomb, including the oft-asked questions about his "flip flops." Watching the interrogation, one almost hoped that he'd tell Tim Russert that they actually aren't flip flops (flipping one way, and then back) -- they're just flips. And the point is that he's a guy who can learn from experience and amend his policies in ligh tof new knowledge or new information. 'Scuse me, hasn't the press just spent at least six years condemning President Bush for stubbornly holding to his policies despite what they deem to be changing facts or information? Then Romney does it, and that isn't right either. Almost makes one wonder if the problem is that they're both Republicans, so nothing they do will ever be good enough for the MSM . . .
Tediously but predictably, Tim Russert spent a chunk of time at the interview's outset performing a theological probe on Romney, asking about his religious faith. Most offensive were Russert's attempts to somehow pin on Romney the Mormon Church's failure to allow blacks into the ministry until 1978. Russert's a Catholic, after all -- and does his Church's refusal to permit women into the ministry to this day mean he's a sexist? Of course not. Does his membership in the Catholic Church mean that he necessarily agrees with his Church's position on women priests? No. So let the whole Mormon-black thing go, already -- at least insofar as it's used to suggest that Mormons (and/or Romney) are (or might be) racists.
posted by LadybugUSA at 8:13 AM
3 Comments:
The media has reported the Mormon-black thing as about admission to the priesthood.
But that isn't what it's about.
There is a rather popular conception that a central belief of Mormonism is that black skin is God's mark of inherent inferiority. Mitt Romney soundly repudiated that notion by addressing it. Romney was prepared to address it because he knows the popular conception is out there. And the question was fair game for Russert because that popular conception is reflected in national polls showing widespread unease with a Mormon President.
It is not about admission to the priesthood (if it were, your point about women in Catholicism would be relevant), but rather about whether a potential President has privately held beliefs that millions of Americans are inferior forms of life that do not deserve equal application of the law. It's about whether Mitt Romney has a reluctance to take care that the law be faithfully applied to all citizens.
His answer was: "No."
Mortimer
That is not true. Mormons don't believe that the black skin indicates an inferiority of any sort. There is an explanation but I will let the readers do the research themselves, a good learning experience.
Before all the non-LDSers start waxing knowledgeable about something they know nothing about, try visiting blacklds.org and find out from actual black Latter-Day Saints that no one knows why and there is nothing doctrinally that explains it. All this discussion is just conjecture as to the reason that black men were not ordained to the priesthood. Stop assigning your own biases to another's church.
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