Lileks on Hugh on Romney

Lileks' bleat starts a bit slow today. It sounds like he's suffering fromt he same sort of spring cold that I've got, runny nose, etc. Then he gets into a review of Hugh Hewitt's latest book "A Mormon in the White House?: 10 Things Every American Should Know about Mitt Romney." His review of the book leads to a few statements about Romney and Mormons that I found interesting. For instance:

"Romney’s religion isn’t the main reason his campaign isn’t out front by 10 points. There’s something else at work; could be the YouTube flip-flop problem. But I think I know what it might be. He’s in a hard position: he’s too good to be true, but he’s truly that good."

Lileks mentions that he recently had a pair of Latter-day Saint missionaries knock on his door, and although he wasn't interested in their message, he adds this comment about their desire to offer service if he needed any help.

"If at that moment I had some sort of domestic emergency that required me to leave the house but also required someone to stay at the house – I don’t know, to watch a scientific experiment or take a cake out the oven (a cake – for the Pope!) – I would have trusted both of them to hold down the fort until I returned, and I know I would have found both of them sitting in the living room when I returned, with nothing in the house out of place or moved to a pocket.

Surely how one lives one’s life is as important as the things the curious things they believe, no?"

Say what you want about our beliefs. Hey, I know that it takes a lot of faith to believe and live as we do, and if you don't have it then you can't be expected to understand or accept the many non-emperical aspects of our religion. But, you can't argue with the fact that we, as a whole, are a good and wholesome people. I don't say that with pride, it just naturally follows from living how we're taught to live, and very many Mormons do.

I haven't yet read the book myself. I haven't decided if I will or not. I don't think I can learn anything about Romney's religion and the fact that he was a Stake President tells me an awful lot about him personally. I could buy the book to loan to friends, but most of the people I work with are so far to the left that Romney isn't on their radar screen and most of my non-Mormon friends are not interested enough in Politics to read a whole book.

LDS Church is a Christian church

From a USNews article about Mitt Romney by Michael Barone:

"The LDS Church is a Christian and an American church"

I would have thought that the real name of the the church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, would have made this an obvious statement, but many "Christians" don't agree.
This article talks about how a lot of the money Romney raised in the first quarter of 2007 came from Mormons. I love how many people want to say that the Mormon Church helped provide the money, as if Bishops stood up and read a letter from the First Presidency telling us to donate to Romney. I'm sure that individual Latter-day Saints donated to Romney, but that is on their own and not as a result of any church influence.

Hugh Hewitt was doing his part to point out that not all of the Utah money is from Mormons, but some comes from individual who saw Romney in action with the SLC olympics. The HH post also links to a Washington Post Q&A about Hugh's new book. When someone said that core LDS beliefs (Joseph Smith seeing visions, etc.) was weird, Hugh responded with a reference to more mainstream Christian miracles and then this:

"Lots of Americans believe lots of weird things. Democrats believe raising taxes will help the economy. We should decide debates on the weirdness of beliefs in the public policy arena, not the theological."

That was great.

Those icky Mormons

An article by Alex Beam of the Boston Globe explains why he thinks that a Mormon, Mitt Romney, could not be elected as the President of the Unites States. He attempts to cast a shadow on Mitt Romney and all Mormons, but really only ends up rambling through a few stale "insights" into Mormon theology, doctrines and history. It was a pretty poor attempt to slander the church, but I found a couple of quotes amusing.

"The Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormons call themselves"

Like we are really "The Mormons" but just refer to ourselves by some other name. Alex Beam, as the Anti-mormon calls himself.

Another good quote.

On the plus side, Romney and many observant Mormons seem to lead exemplary, enviable, and productive lives centered on the traditional nuclear family.

We only "seem to" lead exemplary lives. Don't be fooled by the appearance that the Mormons are an enviable and productive people. The really only "seem to" lead exemplary lives. They really believe that founding prophet Joseph Smith received a "revelation that the Garden of Eden was in Independence, Mo., and that Jesus Christ visited America shortly after his resurrection." How shocking.

I kept expecting the author to say, "Don't tell anyone, but do you know what I heard about the Mormons?" Maybe he should have submitted it as a fourth grade language arts essay.

Mark Steyn summed up Mr. Beam's hightly intelectual rationale as:

"The Mormon church creeps out Mrs and Mrs America. It’s all just too freaky weirdy icky."

Mark also provides some interesting information about LDS population and demographic statistics.

"Romney is different...he’s a profoundly decent man"

Dean Barnett posted a good essay on Hugh Hewitt's blog about Mitt Romney. He used to work for Romney and he discusses the fact that Mitt is a genuinely good and conservative guy. Now facade necessary.

"I knew Romney was special a decade before my brethren in the conservative punditocracy came to the same conclusion. But it is worth noting that I came about the conclusion the same way they have – from first-hand exposure to the guy.
As every reader of this site knows, I don’t find our political class to be particularly impressive. I find them intellectually incurious, pathologically ambitious and morally unmoored. The Democrats are worse than the Republicans, but it’s not a runaway.
But Romney is different. First of all, he’s brilliant. When you spend even a little time with him, you see how his mind attacks a problem from every conceivable angle. This requires an intellectual curiosity and an intellectual industriousness that is foreign to nearly all of our politicians.
Second, he’s a profoundly decent man. All that stuff about what a perfect family he has and how committed he is to it isn’t a crock. And he’s really nice – his affability is no Clintonian act."

He points out that to meet Mitt Romney is to know that he is special. I've seen similar comments before from people who met him in person, like when I went to meet with some Southern Baptists earlier this year. My fellow Latter-day Saints and I would recognize this as the fact that he is worthy of the companionship of the Spirit of God, but others just see that there is something special about him.