Unbelievable Wealth and Misogyny: The Mormons

It’s a religion with over 14 million members, worldwide. Six million Mormons and counting live in the United States. A religion whose members are a close knit community. A very secretive religion, their rituals are unknown to outsiders. A few years ago, a friend of mine was a bridesmaid in a Mormon wedding, but being a non-Mormon, she was unable to attend the wedding ceremony. Very furtive indeed.

1913 stained glass image of founder Joseph Smith

If you’re wondering how wealthy and powerful Mitt Romney and his Mormon followers are, simply look at what they are in charge of: Clear Channel Communications, (Rush Limbaugh’s boss!) The Boston Celtics, AMC, Burger King, Jet Blue Airlines, Marriott Hotels, Dunkin Donuts, Black & Decker, Toys R Us and Dominos Pizza to name a few. Bain Capital even owns the Weather Channel, so you can bet they’ll be minimizing any commentary on global climate change. They are growing in numbers and are not concentrated exclusively in mountain states anymore.

But why are they so powerful? Here’s my take. The religion was started by Joseph Smith, who promised gold to farmers if they followed him. He conned 33 (or more) women into marrying a “prophet” such as himself. The religion, and its followers grew immensely due to plural marriage and high birth rates, obviously. The customary 10% tithing of all its members, a great deal of loyalty to its followers, vis a vis employing fellow Mormons, has helped increase its wealth. Mormonism is a uniquely American religion, embodying as it does many of the virtues of the frontier United States: self-reliance, individuality, and high expectations of morality. However, their morality often comes into question. Many folks have learned by their experience of working at LDS-owned companies, there’s often a mistreatment of non-Mormons. (Bain Capital has pending lawsuits where plaintiffs were essentially fired for not being Mormon).

Plain and simply put, they take care of their own. I don’t understand how women buy into this religion, their status being incredibly subservient to men. Women are viewed as inferiors of their husbands. (God forbid a woman doesn’t get married or is gay) The faith is a constant paradox: A woman is also instrumental in enabling her husband to achieve celestial glory and eventually godhood, where she is eternally and forever subordinate to him. The end result of this being the eternal promotion of male authority. Often this logic is turned circular upon itself. Where, a woman’s place as subordinate to a man is described as an eternal principal, divinely created, with associate promised blessings to come. Without her servitude to husband (via his powerful priesthood), HER eternal promise is not fulfilled! A woman cannot hold the priesthood and should ALWAYS defer to her husband on all family matters. The only thing a woman should be doing is having more children. It seems rather contrary to the ERA of the 1960′s, doesn’t it?

Mormonism, I believe, is more of a tradition and socioeconomic support system, not a moral code. Followers continue on with traditions because their parents (like George Romney) were church members. They will figuratively cut the throats of those who don’t believe as they do. It’s part of their endowment ceremony after all. It is DEFINITELY an issue we must bring to the forefront of this campaign. It is the primary loyalty of any self-professed Mormon, especially a bishop like Mitt Romney. If elected president, his first loyalty, you can bet, will not be to the people of the United States. It’ll be to the members of the Mormon faith. Taken from those in the know, they play dirty and are far from fair. But that’s a story for another day…..

Tags: Atheism, GOP, LDS, Mitt, Religion, Romney