An great interview with Anne Wilde, leader of a polygamy advocacy group.

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Andrea Moore-Emmett is an award-winning journalist and the author of God’s Brothel, a book detailing the history and current practice of polygamy in the United States.  She was also the researcher for Inside Polygamy, a documentary broadcast by A&E and the BBC.

We spoke by phone and discussed the abuses she uncovered in organized polygamy, the FLDs, and the raid on the YFZ ranch.

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After much fanfare, the next great “swift-boat” campaign has revealed itself and turn out to be just another embittered anti-Mormon playing on a distant past link with Mitt Romney to get some ink and sell a few books. This Ed Decker wannabe claims to expose the true danger of a Mormon in the White House, but all he does is recycle some very old lies about what Mormons actually believe. (I won’t cover that here — if you want to know what Mormons really believe, ask one. You will find them persistently and at times even annoyingly eager to share.)

As reflected by Captain Ed’s dismissive post on this wackadoodle, this is nothing new. (more…)

Kenneth Anderson at the Weekly Standard captures the concern that many moderate conservatives have about the emerging dynamic of the Huckabee/Romney conflict within the Republican Party. Specifically, while many non-evangelical conservatives have been sympathetic to evangelical concerns about the anti-religious prejudices they face from many elements on the left (what Anderson calls the “predictable bigotry of the NPR cohort”, but now find themselves outraged at the willingness of many evangelical conservatives to embrace some of the grossest and most dishonest forms of anti-Mormon bigotry as their main reason for preferring Huckabee to Romney. (more…)

Governor Mike Huckabee has just done the right thing. Yesterday he personally apologized to his main competitor in Iowa Mitt Romney, for the comments he made about the Mormon Faith in an interview with New York Times Magazine.

He apologized immediately after yesterday’s debate in Johnston, Iowa. The former Governor of Arkansas explains: “I said, I would never try, ever to try to somehow pick out some point of your faith and make it an issue, and I wouldn’t. I’ve stayed away from talking about Mitt Romney’s faith. I told him face-to-face, I said I don’t think your being a Mormon ought to make you more or less qualified for being a president.” (more…)

Mike Huckabee’s campaign is beginning to make explicit what has long been merely implied — that Huckabee is the anti-Mormon candidate.  This move towards taking the cover off of the anti-Mormon darker side of Huckabee’s meteoric rise comes in an upcoming New York Times article where Huckabee asks, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?” In doing so, however, Huckabee may be making one of the biggest political blunders of the modern era by excommunicating a key component of the Republican “values” coalition. (more…)

The occasion of Mitt Romney’s speech on the role of faith in politics has brought anti-Mormonism out of the woodwork. For example, Chuck Adkins dredges up the notorious professional anti-Mormon Ed Decker to regurgitate distortions and outright falsehoods about Mormon religious beliefs that Decker has been selling in book and movie form since at least the early 1980s. Decker’s particular choice for this effort is to revive his old conspiracy theory about Mormons using a presidential run to take over the country and abolish the Constitution, leading to theocratic Mormon rule. Adkins doesn’t even raise an eyebrow at the fantastic scenario:

To many Mormons, this is the beginning of the prophetic ‘End Times’ scenario of the last days of America and the Mormon theocracy that would usher in the millennial reign of Christ. It is in the very blood stream of Mormonism. It is part of the corporate DNA of a whole people group and a subject rarely discussed with outsiders… (more…)

One things that bothers me most about American elections, is that the campaigns and debates are seldom truly about the issues: when the candidates do talk about issues, they throw out a one-liner and that is it, and an important part of every campaign is to attack the opponent - not on his or her views, but personal attacks. Let me give you an example:

Gathering for their April meeting at the county courthouse, Republican activists from Warren County, Iowa, planned for this summer’s county fair and vented about illegal immigration.

And then the county chairman for Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, Chad Workman, made an unexpected digression: He took direct aim at Mitt Romney’s religion, according to four people at the meeting.

Workman questioned whether Mormons were Christians, discussed an article alleging that the Mormon Church helps fund Hamas, and likened the Mormons’ treatment of women to the Taliban’s, said participants, who requested anonymity to discuss the meeting freely.

One participant summed up Workman’s argument this way: “The fundamental flaw of Mitt Romney . . . was that he was Mormon, not because he thinks this way or that way on one issue.”

Workman did not return calls seeking comment.

Of course he did not, he’s probably ashamed of himself - and rightfully so. These tactics are pitiful. I suggest that McCain speaks out against tactics such as these and fires Workman. McCain and others might “disavow attempts by supporters to highlight Romney’s faith,” but - in this case - words are not enough. Actions speak louder than words: fire every single person who attacks Romney for his faith; that’ll quickly put an end to it.

An interesting article at the New York Times about Mormon support for Mitt Romney. Although most Mormons are positive and hopeful about Romney’s candidacy, they are also afraid that the Church will, once again, be attacked by opponents (for whatever Romney says or does).

Mormons remember the early days of their religion - they were persecuted; the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith Jr., was killed by a mob; the Mormon community had to flee to Utah in order to survive…

I have to admit that I find articles like this interesting to read, but it also bothers me that the NYT finds it necessary to spend attention on this particular subject (once again). Again, they emphasize Romney’s religion; not his political views.

So - I have decided that this was the last time that I linked to an article about Romney’s religion. From now, every article about Mormonism and Romney will be ignored by me.

Lets talk politics, not religion.

A great post by Jason at The Moderate Voice about Romney’s problem: yes, that he is a mormon.

Evangelical Christians at the heart of the Republican base are heirs to a long tradition of anti-Mormonism, harking back to pulpits in the midwest in the 1830s where Mormonism was disdained and feared, even to the point of openly promoting violence and leading ultimately to a historically unprecedented “order of extermination” — an official government authorization of genocide against the Mormons. Intolerance towards Mormons based on both sincere and dishonest disagreements with their religious doctrines has persisted through the years, resulting in the refusal of the Congress to seat a Mormon representative and a 3-year battle before seating a Mormon Senator. Numerous books and movies by self-styled anti-Mormon “scholars” seeking to “expose” the religion have been promoted and displayed through the network of evangelical congregations. In spite of the Church’s century-old rejection of the doctrine of “plural marriage”, the popular image of Mormons within the evangelical community remains one centered on polygamy.

On the other hand, often extreme theological differences have often been overridden by a strong political alliance. Utah is one of the most reliably Republican states in presidential politics, usually exceeded only by Idaho, which is also heavily Mormon. And while early Mormon life was actually a socialist commune, Mormons in the 1950s and later developed a “Boy Scout culture” combining large-family-based conservativism at home with a firm, often strident anti-communism abroad. Mormon politicians like Orrin Hatch hold powerful positions in the Republican Party and provide reliable support for conservative policy programs.

Along with Rudy Giuliani’s support for abortion rights, Romney’s candidacy forces Republican voters to confront directly the question of what kind of party they want to be. Will it be a party based on traditional conservative principles or a party based on evangelical religious principles?

It’s a fascinating issue: I personally know Republican voters who are dedicated to change the direction their party is going. Many more moderate, and traditionally conservative Republicans aren’t happy with the influence of the so-called Religious Right. I hope for the Republican Party that traditional conservatives win this battle: less emphasis on the so-called social issues, and more on fiscal conservatism.

That is what the Republican Party needs.

The Washington Times reports that Christian conservative leaders have indicated that, if Fred Thompson decides to run, he can count on their support.

Thompson will be able to appeal to a significant part of the conservative / Republican base, that much is clear. Will it be enough for him? We will see, first he has to announce his candidacy. What is clear beforehand, is that a Thompson run will hurt… Giuliani quite significantly. For now, many Christian conservatives seem to settle for Giuliani: they refuse to vote for Romney because he’s a Mormon, they refuse to vote for McCain because they don’t trust him and because he made a job out of pissing Christian conservatives off back in ‘00.

If Thompson announced that he’ll run, and he will, everything changes.

Nice, religious bigotry in action:

While some evangelical Christians are defending the presidential candidacy of Mormon Mitt Romney from an attack by Al Sharpton, another prominent pastor is going further in his condemnation – saying a vote for the former Massachusetts governor is a vote for Satan.

That’s the word from Bill Keller, host of the Florida-based Live Prayer TV program as well as LivePrayer.com.

“If you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for Satan!” he writes in his daily devotional to be sent out to 2.4 million e-mail subscribers tomorrow.

O great, the idiots speak out.

Religious fundamentalists unite! A Mormon running for the White House, o no! Send e-mails, write letters, the Mormon must be stopped! Lord knows that only good, fundamentalist, born again Christians can be good presidents!

Those Christians who worry about Romney’s Mormon faith should, in my opinion, just take a closer look at how Romney behaves: how he lives. What moral values he adheres to, the relationship between him and his wife, the way they brought up their sons, etc. etc.

More importantly, though, they should take a look at what policies he favors: pro-life, anti-stem cell research, fiscally conservative, aggressive stance in the war on terrorism but not overly aggressive, etc.

They should take a closer look at his resumé, they should look at his political credentials; how he saved the Olympic Games of Salt Lake City, how he became Governor of Massachusetts as a Republican and the type of Governor he was. They should look at the so-called Bain-way: no positive affirmation with Romney.

The election is not about who is the best Christian, but about who will make the best president.

This would almost make me endorse Romney.

If I were American that is.

More at The Nation, Preemptive Karma and NewDonkey.com.