Mitt, if you read this, stay in the race

Ken Jennings recently wrote an opinion piece in the New York Daily News. If you’ll recall Ken Jennings is the Latter-day Saint who became somewhat famous after winning over two and a half million dollars on Jeopardy in 2004. He suggests that the only way to get Mormonism out of the race is for Mitt Romney to withdraw. That makes sense but I hope he doesn’t.

Mitt, if you read this, please stay in the race, all the way to the end. Being the smart man that you are, I’m sure you can appreciate how much good you are doing by being in the race. I believe the Church is receiving more attention than it ever has because you are running for the office of the President of the United States. Thank you Mitt Romney.

If Mitt Romney is elected to the office, it will restore my hope in the decency of the people of America. If not, it will only confirm what I have long suspected, that we are on a long slow slide to dissolution as a great nation. Don’t get me wrong. I love America and appreciate the benefits and blessings of living in this great land.

But win or lose, it is amazing to see the number of articles about the church in recent months. Yes, I agree with Ken that a lot of them are negative and full of lies, but hey, we are used to that, aren’t we? Ken points out two specifics that are particularly troubling lately – the sly innuendo by Mike Huckabee about Jesus and the devil being brothers and the tirade by Lawrence O’Donnell.

I wrote about this previously but I loved Ken’s response: “The truth, Huck, is that Mormons believe that God is the Father of us all, which does, I guess, in some sense, make Jesus and Satan brothers. And by the same logic, we also believe that Moses and Orville Redenbacher and Attila the Hun and Neil Diamond are brothers. Happy now?”

The opinion piece made big news in Utah, where a writeup of the column was the most popular news item for a few hours today on the Deseret News Web site. I am glad that Ken is speaking up. He is a high profile Latter-day Saint and is doing a good job of using his celebrity status. Thank you Ken. Well done. Those were good explanations offered.

The race for the office of the President to the United States really is a popularity contest, isn’t it? We vote for the man or woman who we think most represents us or who we feel can best lead the nation today. I’m still convinced that both Mitt represents me well and can do the best job of leading the nation. But will America feel the same way? I wonder.

What do you think? Should Mitt drop out of the race like Ken Jennings suggests? I agree that will probably stop the pundits from saying stupid things about Mormons. Do you feel as I do that no matter what they say, the attention helps bring the church more into the light?

3 thoughts on “Mitt, if you read this, stay in the race”

  1. It’s such a shame that Jennings’s statements were historically inaccurate. It appears that neither he nor Romney want the history of the LDS church to be discussed honestly.

  2. Tim Malone, MCSE

    Hi Brian,Yes, it can be tough to be accurate or even logical in such a short space as a newspaper column. I’m not sure I agreed with Ken’s ‘by the same logic’ reasoning about mortals being brothers. As descendents of Adam that much is true but Jesus and Satan are only brothers in the spiritual sense. He did not make that point very well, did he?The history of polygamy in the early Mormon Church is extremely interesting and by the far the thing most people still associate with Mormons. I of course was not there but have read many accounts of the practice from many different viewpoints – participants, children, descendants, leaders and opponents.There is a lot to discuss, and honesty requires a full examination of the facts where we have them available. I for one hope that honesty is the driving force for all who investigate the history of the Mormon Church. And yes, I agree that Mitt Romney made a major mistake in not mentioning that Joseph Smith saw the Father and the Son in the First Vision. Perhaps he was referring to that when he said, “and perhaps some others.”

  3. Yes, I feel that the attention that Romney brings to the church will help to advance our cause. One of the things I have to remind myself of is that we have nothing to be ashamed of, and we need to be more courageous in proclaiming and supporting our religion.

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