While Mitt Romney condemns polygamy and its prior practice by his Mormon church, the Republican presidential candidate's great-grandfather had five wives and at least one of his great-great grandfathers had 12.
Polygamy was not just a historical footnote, but a prominent element in the family tree of the former Massachusetts governor now seeking to become the first Mormon president.
Romney, who seems to be nothing more or less than your generic moderate pro-business Republican, has to be figuring that he bought himself a real pig in a poke here. He may not have banked on most of America being somewhat unfamiliar with Mormonism, and thus apprehensive.
But hit pieces like this little polygamy number do nobody any favors. Romney, like every mainstream Mormon, has decried the practice, which continues primarily in a couple of heavily inbred enclaves, most famously along the Utah-Arizona border, but also in British Columbia.
The argument over polygamy frequently gets falsely entangled with the gay marriage argument, but they are profoundly different. Polygamy, as practiced by the current FLDS members, is a serious social problem on many levels, from corrupt church leaders monopolizing property and business ownership in the towns, to the grifting of the state welfare system. Not to mention the inbreeding, child rape, coerced marriages, and hundreds of displaced teenaged boys, thrown out of their homes and towns because they are viewed as competition for child brides by the old perverts running the towns. The two issues are in no way comparable, and any idiot who brings up polygamy as a response to the notion of legalizing gay marriage should instantly be branded an intellectual charlatan.
How far one wishes to take this depends on one's agenda. If Mitt Romney is responsible for the FLDS, then Comb-Over Tony Scalia is responsible for Opus Dei (which he is actually a member of) and other secretive Catholic organizations. And everyone is South Carolina owes Al Sharpton an apology for keeping Strom Thuromond in office for roughly 74 years. (Actually, South Carolina owes the entire country an apology for that.)
Genealogists have found that civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton is a descendent [sic] of a slave owned by relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, a newspaper reported Sunday.
....
According to the newspaper, the genealogists found documents establishing that Sharpton's great-grandfather, Coleman Sharpton, was a slave owned by Julia Thurmond, whose grandfather was Strom Thurmond's great-great-grandfather. Coleman Sharpton was later freed.
I'm certainly not sticking up for Romney as a candidate -- he needs to start getting his story straight, for better or worse, on where he stands on issues. Even a lightly moistened finger to the wind should tell him that the "repeal Roe v. Wade tomorrow" crowd, while intensely committed (oy), do not represent any sort of serious real-world constituency. Just take a stand and stick with it, pal.
No, it's not Romney's political stances that prompt one to come to his defense, but I think these cheap personal smears add nothing to any serious debate. Mormonism is indeed a cult. So are Catholicism, Hinduism, and all the rest. There are manifestly silly and ridiculous things to be found in the backstories of all of them, as well as the ugly episodes of racial and sectarian bloodshed. The only difference between a "cult" and an "organized religion" is money, power, longevity, the way that the difference between a "language" and a "dialect" is an army.
The very first sentence of the AP article -- indeed, the first thirteen words -- should have been enough. That tells you what Mitt Romney's position on the practice of polygamy is. He's been married for 37 years to the same woman, and is running against two multiply-married men. That's about all we need to know about that subject.
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