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December 15, 2010

Mitt Romney euphemises Mormonism

That's a polite way of saying he uses orthodox Christian terms to half-lie about Mormonism. He's already javascript:void(0)trying to soften up the Religious Right!

In talking about his religious work, he says:
I served for 15 years as a lay pastor in my church and saw the heartbreak of joblessness up close.


Ahh, Wikipedia gives the short and sweet answer:
The church has no salaried ministry; however, general authorities who demonstrate need receive stipends from the church, using income from church-owned investments. All area and local authorities are unpaid and continue in their normal occupations while serving in leadership positions.

Nor does it have a "church" if by that he meant a congregation. It's called a "ward."

Nice try, Mittster.
In short, Mormonism has no lay pastors in the sense Christian churches do.

In fact, it has no pastors in the sense Christian churches do.

In fact, it doesn't even use the word.

Mormons are, in that way, most like Quakers amongst traditional Christian denominations. Maybe the Mittster wants to be the second Dick Nixon?

3 comments:

  1. Pastor n. - spiritual overseer; especially : a clergyman serving a local church or parish

    Bishop n. - one having spiritual or ecclesiastical supervision. From the greek episkopos, meaning "overseer"

    So is it dissimulation or just good politicking by choosing his words carefully to be better understood by a wider audience?

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  2. Well, the two aren't mutually exclusive, at least not in this case!

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  3. Romney is using language that 90% of Americans understand, or at least grasp. If he had said "During the 15 years I served as Bishop of the Belmont Ward and President of the West Boston Stake" people would think Bishop = Catholic, Ward = Hospital, President = Politician, Stake = misspelling of Steak. And infer that Romney is in fact a politician who used to serve steak as a Catholic bishop at a Boston hospital ward.
    Like anyone with 2 brain cells, he was communicating in a way that he would be best understood. An OpEd in USA Today is not the place to do a 5 minute explanation on the structure and policy of the Mormon church. He was simply communicating the fact that he had personally counselled and helped those affected by job loss. Please spare us the "Romney uses polling and political consultants to chose his toothbrush" hogwash ; - )

    ReplyDelete

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