Take a gander at this great, concise article by Nate Oman.

Here are the key graphs:

In 1902, Utah elected Reed Smoot to be its U.S. senator. Unlike Romney, who temporarily occupied positions of local church leadership in Boston, Smoot was a Mormon apostle, a life-long member of the church’s second-highest governing council. Activists and journalists insisted that Mormon theocracy was again rearing its head and that Smoot would take political orders from church leaders.

The result was a four-year congressional investigation of Mormonism. Ultimately, church President Joseph F. Smith appeared before the Senate. He disclaimed any theocratic agenda; he insisted that Mormons were loyal citizens of the U.S., and he pledged that the church would not direct or seek to dominate Mormons elected to political office.

We now have more than a century of experience with that pledge. While the church occasionally acts politically — as do all American denominations — it has abided by Smith’s promise. Robert Bennett, for example, a former three-term Republican senator from Utah and a practicing Mormon, insists that in 18 years in office, church leaders never instructed him on how to vote on a single issue. Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate and a Mormon, says the same thing.

Prior to the Vatican II council of the 1960s, the Catholic Church was formally opposed to many of the core features of liberal democracy, such as religious freedom. Given historical experience, however, it’s ridiculous to imagine a believing Catholic like Joe Biden as part of a subversive Roman agenda.

Seeing Romney’s candidacy as a Mormon plot is equally outlandish. We now have twice as much experience with post-Smoot Mormonism as we have with post-Vatican II Catholicism

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/mormon-plot-wasn-t-article-1.1014874#ixzz1l9U2cd3u

Let’s face it: being an unmarried Latter-day Saint is really rough. We are a church focused on marriage and family. Adult church lessons often are taught with the assumption that everybody in the audience is already married. But in every ward I have been in, there are many adults who are not married, and many of them despair of ever getting married.

So, what kind of comfort can we offer these people?

Many Church members do not know that Book 2 of the Church Handbook of Instructions is on-line. In the handbook we find the following:

Faithful members whose circumstances do not allow them to receive the blessings of eternal marriage and parenthood in this life will receive all promised blessings in the eternities, provided they keep the covenants they have made with God.

Notice the word “will.” If you keep your covenants you will receive all “promised blessings” in the eternities. What are the “promised blessings?” The assumption, if you read the handbook, is that you will have your own eternal family.

Similar promises have been made by modern-day prophets. But I thought I would highlight this promise in the handbook. I know many people who feel alone and lonely as they proceed through the years unable to find a spouse and form their own families. I hope this promise in the handbook will bring them comfort.

What do you think?

We are getting way too political on this blog, even for a hyper-political person like myself, but I couldn’t let this go by without highlighting it. Sen. McCain, who took advantage of (some) anti-Mormonism to win the Republican nomination in 2008, now sees anti-Mormonism as a factor again.

From the story:

“We haven’t had time to do a real analysis of the Romney race in South Carolina, but once we break that down, there was some element of anti-Mormonism in that vote,” McCain asserted. “I’m not saying all of it, but there were elements there. There was nothing that Mitt Romney could have done.”

Discuss.

This article claims Mitt Romney “underpaid” his tithing because he came close but didn’t quite pay the full 10 percent.

This article was actually pretty fair and generously quotes Church members.

This article says Romney gave the Church part of his “most lucrative business deals.”

I have spent some time explaining to non-members that saying the church “requires” 10 percent tithing is a bit inaccurate. There are people who tithe on gross, there are others who tithe on net. All of us have had times when we haven’t been able to pay any tithing — or have paid very little — but still consider ourselves in good standing. In my case, I usually don’t tithe for the first few months of the calendar year (this is when I am paying off Christmas bills) but make it up later in the year.

Should you deduct any alimony payments you make from your 10 percent? I asked a bishop once and he shrugged and asked me to pray about it. So, in reality, the “requirement” is a matter of my own conscience and personal revelation, not some strict standard determined by a harsh paymaster.

On a positive note, several non-member friends have made positive comments about Mitt’s tithing being generous and a sign of true Christian charity. So, perhaps this media obsession with his tithing has some positive aspects in that it shows that Mitt truly is who he pretends to be, at least when it comes to his personal money and his Church activity.

Amazing absolute proof of human evolution.

Read the rest of this entry »