Dear fellow Latter-day Saints and those friendly to our faith:
As a life-long member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one might be quick to assume, that like so many others of our faith, I too, swear my undying allegiance to Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination. (I leave out Jon Huntsman purposefully as he appears to be the GOP’s red-headed step-child for now.) One might assume that I and others of our faith are in lock-step with Mr. Romney’s views on foreign policy, taxes, social security, social programs, the size of government and restoring the “hope of America” to the world, as his new catch phrase appears to be following the Fox News/Google GOP debate Thursday, September 22, 2011. One might assume that as Latter-day Saints we all need to stick together and support “one of our own” in the run for the highest political office in the land.
Where this Latter-day Saint is concerned, every one of those assumptions would be incorrect.
With Mitt Romney now polling at 41% in the State of New Hampshire among “likely GOP primary voters” (that’s code for establishment party activists who have a land-line telephone) it is time to take Mr. Romney to task for what this Latter-day Saint believes are a host of political philosophies in direct conflict with more than 150 years of LDS doctrine and beliefs concerning this great nation and the founding documents used to guide and direct it. I have questions that I would ask “Brother Romney” if I were to pass him in the hall of one of our chapels and since I don’t see any CNN/LDS debate planned by the networks to provide the more than six-million Latter-day Saint members in the United States a forum in which to query Mr. Romney (and Mr. Huntsman), I shall ask them here.
I challenge Mr. Romney to explain himself regarding the following five key points of LDS doctrine and political philosophy. These questions reflect not just my own personal beliefs and convictions, but those of respected leaders of his own faith who have fearlessly and unapologetically stated their views and prophetic wisdom regarding the fragility of the American way of life our nation’s founders fought to create and prayed with their might we would preserve.
The following words, for example, were spoken by former Secretary of Agriculture under Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ezra Taft Benson in 1962, “No true Latter-day Saint and no true American can be a SOCIALIST … OR SUPPORT PROGRAMS leading in that direction. These evil philosophies are incompatible with Americanism and the true gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Mr. Romney, please explain how your decision to force the residents of Massachusetts to purchase health insurance through a government mandate is in keeping with the fundamental doctrine of the agency of man, the freedom from government control over the individual’s right to choose and the warnings LDS leaders have given against the worldwide socialist movement which seeks to enslave the hearts and minds of men everywhere under the flag of “equity”, “fairness” and “public welfare”.
The skyrocketing cost of health care is less about the bills of the uninsured being laid at the feet of the insured and more about government intervention and the insurance companies themselves. History has adequately proven that health care costs have risen in direct (actually exponential) proportion to the level of insurance entanglement and control of the health industry. Your Massachusetts plan did nothing to establish a competitive environment in which the market would drive the costs of services to a sensible level, but in fact accomplished the opposite and provided the model upon which Mr. Obama’s unquestioningly socialistic and crushingly oppressive health care plan was built.
Mr. Romney, please enlighten this Latter-day Saint on how your close alliance with and near complete reliance upon members of the Council on Foreign Relations is in harmony with the question you are required to answer in order to enter into one of our sacred temples. Do you, Mr. Romney, “affiliate with any group or individual whose teachings or practices are contrary to or oppose those accepted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or do you sympathize with the precepts of any such group or individual?” Their organization’s own website clearly outlines one of its fundamental purposes, to bring about a one-world government and to promote the socialistic agenda throughout the world. Its worldwide membership includes heads of State, leaders of media and entertainment enterprises and the wealthiest and most powerful financial leaders in the world. Is your purpose in aligning yourself with this organization to bring about fundamental change within the hearts and minds of its membership? Or do you in fact, support their objectives? Judging by the political decisions you have already made and your statements along the campaign trail regarding “saving Social Security” and “increasing defense spending”, it would appear that we already have the answer to that question.
Why are the likes of Peter Flaherty, Ellen Bork, Glenn Hubbard and Vin Weber advisors to your campaign? It would seem that not only have you aligned yourself with this organization, but you have invited some of its members into your inner campaign circle as “trusted advisors”. I invite you to recall your Book of Mormon history and note that, for a time, Lehonti once held Amalickiah to be one of his “trusted advisors” and if you recall, that didn’t turn out so well for Lehonti.
Mr. Romney, please explain why the GOP establishment so vigorously supports your candidacy? This, the party which has allowed government growth and spending over the past 70 years to run unchecked, which has done nothing to reign in the Federal Reserve’s reckless destruction of our currency, which has, since World War II, either actively or passively thrust our nation and its sons and daughters into wars which were never declared by the voice of the people, which has allowed the failed United Nations to continue to subject us to abuse and ridicule on the world stage, and which has moved so far toward the middle of the political spectrum that they are virtually indistinguishable from the left?
What we need, is not a candidate the GOP establishment gets behind with such blind vigor to protect the status quo, or worse yet, continue our nation’s creeping movement toward socialism and the ultimate destruction of what the Founders worked so hard and tirelessly and at risk of their very lives to create. We need a candidate who will guide our nation toward its rightful home. The home maintained by the message of Ronald Reagan, the home maintained by Barry Goldwater, the home maintained by Robert Taft and the home built by Thomas Jefferson.
Mr. Romney, please explain why you ask us to place another politician in the White House instead of a statesman? You might be fooling some with your claim of not being a “career politician” because you were only the Governor of Massachusetts for four years and you “didn’t inhale” (some might find this issue-dodging quip amusing, but I certainly don’t). As a businessman myself, having worked and consulted for several large, corporate enterprises over a span of more than 15 years and associating with all executive levels, I know all too well just how much of a politician one must be to climb the ladder, reach the top and then stay there. In actual fact, Mr. Romney, you are no less a politician with all your media sound bites, party-line platitudes and quippy one-liners than that of Franklin Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy or Barack Obama.
And finally Mr. Romney, please explain why you appear unable to stand consistently behind critically relevant constitutional issues such as abortion, guarantees afforded citizens by the second amendment to the Constitution or the abuses of government mandates against the citizens of a free nation? Your inconsistencies lead us to ask, “Who is the real Mitt Romney?” If you don’t know yourself, then how can you expect any of us to know?
No one, Mr. Romney, least of all me expects perfection from our elected officials. We do, however, expect honesty, consistency and conviction to certain principles. Not knowing whether you are for or against abortion, for or against gun rights, for or against government mandates are areas where we cannot afford to have leaders who are weak-minded, lacking in conviction or bold enough to defend their position – controversial or otherwise. We need leaders whose ideologies stand the test of time, whose beliefs are clear, whose wisdom is evidenced by what they have said 20 or even 30 years ago and which time has proven to be accurate and even prescient.
Our nation stands at the edge of collapse along an economic and ideological scale not seen since the fall of the Roman Empire. Ezra Taft Benson, J. Reuben Clark, J. Edgar Hoover and many other great leaders and statesmen of their time proclaimed the danger of the loss of freedom; as with Abraham Lincoln they warned us, “If it ever reaches us [the forfeit of our freedom], it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.”
What we need to lead this nation away from the cliff Mr. Romney, is not a politician; not a neo-conservative shape-shifter with fancy rhetoric and hollow platitudes which sound good to the GOP lemmings dazzled by smooth and flattering words. What we need is a statesman, a true leader who not only sees and understands the precipice upon which our nation now stands, but one who is willing to tell the truth, do what needs to be done, avoiding what is politically expedient and tackling what is critical to the survival of our liberty, our peace, our families and our example to the world. Indeed we [America and Americans] are the “light of the world”. But is the light emanating from our nation one of the shining example of freedom, liberty and the un-restrained pursuit of happiness; or is it from the glow of our rockets and weaponry on the horizon of nations who neither invite nor appreciate our involvement in their political and cultural affairs?
That great statesman, Ezra Taft Benson chillingly foresaw our day and stated with absolute conviction that there would be many in high political places that would either knowingly, or under deception, further our nation’s advance toward socialism. He knew that well-intentioned men would become participants in the erosion of our liberties and the centralization of power in the federal government thus paving the way to American enslavement and bondage to an elite few. He knew too, that other, less visible figures would be working purposefully, calculatingly toward these ends.
Mr. Romney, are you one of the deceived or one of the purposeful? Either answer in my mind, disqualifies you for the highest office in the land and I cannot lend you my support, even if you and I happen to share a common faith-based foundation.
As we draw ever closer to the day when our beloved Constitution will hang, as it were, by a thread, some members of the LDS faith will recall the prophecies of the “Elders of Israel” who will step forth to rescue it. But, as then Elder Benson queried, “…how can the elders be expected to save it if they have not studied it and are not sure if it is being destroyed or what is destroying it?”
I mean not to levy an attack on you personally, Mitt Romney my brother and fellow citizen with the saints. It is Mitt Romney the politician I have issue with and I am afraid for those members who lend their support for your candidacy simply because you are a Latter-day Saint. I am afraid for those who do not even perceive the illness that is destroying the very foundation of our nation, our society, our liberty and our freedom and who look to you as the physician with the cure. I am afraid for you and your family; for Mr. Huntsman and his. As modern day Latter-day Saint Apostle, Russell M. Nelson said recently in a worldwide general conference, “Rarely in the future will it be easy or popular to be a faithful Latter-day Saint.” Is this the time to rally together as a faith and support those who will help to save this great nation? Absolutely. Are there true statesmen already on the front lines behind whom Latter-day Saints may unite who are nearly as prescient as our ancient and modern prophets have been? Yes, yes there are Mr. Romney and I hope you and others of our common faith will unite behind them and their message of liberty to take back what is rightfully ours.
Most Respectfully,
Aaron B. Walker
[email protected]
Latter-day Saint, American
Merrimack, New Hampshire
Originally published: http://onemansrants.com/2011/09/28/open_lette/
Great LDS gift ideas here, such as the Constitution of the Kingdom of God from the recently released Joseph Smith Papers Project
I have watched Romney since he ran for President some years ago. The Spirit has touched me, that if he had stood up for his Mormon Beliefs and Understanding, with the Book of Mormon as his guide, he would have won the election. Instead he let the Professional Politicians and Political advisers who run your election, run the show.
I have sense seen, he appears to be nothing more then a Company face front man for the Gadianton’s
I couldn’t have said it better. Latter Day Saints need to study and think, not follow blindly. The power of discernment is easily obtained but some basic study of gospel principles is necessary first
During the presidential debates, Romney had opportunities to answer questions right out of the Articles of Faith, but he choked. He might well be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
brother Romney lost his way politically many years ago. I wouldn’t vote for him to be the community dog catcher. He would only catch cats if the dogs wagged their tails…I forgot him a few years back. He should look for another hobby to pursue…When I see his name in print I always skip the article…Simply, he is a washed out has been.
I do not believe I could be more saddened by the fact that I sincerely believe what I have just read is as true as anything I can imagine concerning my Brother Mitt Romney. Since I believe my faith in Mitt is attributed more to the fact that his spirit left our Heavenly Parents home just 17 days before I began my journey here. While we have never met, I am convinced we were kindred spirits there. I am still convinced he is a good and honorable man, but he would need to embrace the values of our Founders far more than he has shown thus far. He would also need to “give up his summer cottage in Babylon” as was said by Elder Neal A. Maxwell. My list of mentors at this point is Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith Jr., Ezra Taft Benson, W. Cleon Skousen and many others.