Op-Ed by Brannon S. Howse 

follow Brannon on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/wvwonline

I am not in the tank for any candidate and as a Christian author and Bible teacher, I do not endorse candidates. However, while watching the March 3, 2016 speech by twice failed Presidential candidate Mitt Romney I thought for sure he was talking about the founder of his Mormon religion, Joseph Smith, or Mormon leader Brigham Young. Was he not? Fraud, con man, liar, imagination, racial bigotry, immoral, unstable were the descriptions I heard and I just was certain Mormon Mitt could have been talking about Mormon Founder Joseph Smith. 

Joseph Smith was not a martyr. He was a thug and a shyster. According to numerous historical accounts he was a thief. Smith died like many other Old West gunslingers. A friend had smuggled a six-shooter to Smith in jail, and when a group later assembled to confront Smith for his crimes, the Mormon founder began shooting. Smith was killed in the gunfight he started. 

Prior to his death, Joseph Smith founded the cult of Mormonism—the cult that believes God was a man of flesh and bone who evolved to become God and who now lives on a planet near the star of Kolob. There, this god engages in eternal sexual relations with his goddess wives, the offspring of which he sends as spirit babies to earth. Every Mormon man who lives a good Mormon life and has his marriage sealed in the Mormon temple is promised a similar eternal state. In the afterlife, he and his wife can become a god and a goddess, have their own planet, enjoy endless sex, and send spirit babies to another planet of their own. For Joseph Smith to teach that as the foundation of his religion requires some serious unstable thinking, ego and  imagination.

So I was sure Mitt was talking about Joseph Smith in his speech, was he not?

But then there is Brigham Young boasting about the con men and liars in his movement:

“I have many a time in this stand dared the world to produce as mean devils as we can. We can beat them at anything. We have the greatest and smoothest liars in the world, the cunningest and most adroit thieves, and any other shade of character that you can mention. We can pick out elders in Israel [what they call the Mormon Church] right here who can beat the world at gambling; who can handle the cards; can cut and shuffle them with the smartest rogue on God’s footstool…We can beat the world at any game. We can beat them because we have men here that live in the light of the Lord; that have the holy priesthood and hold the keys of the kingdom of God.”

(news, VI 91., as quoted by Pastor Bruce Kinney  in his book Mormonism, The Islam of America 1912.) 

So I was sure Mitt was also talking about Brigham Young in his speech when talking about con men or bullying and intimidation. Was he not?

Then when it comes to marriages and morality the New York Times on November 10, 2014 reported:

[quote] “Mormon leaders have acknowledged for the first time that the church’s founder and prophet, Joseph Smith, portrayed in church materials as a loyal partner to his loving spouse Emma, took as many as 40 wives, some already married and one only 14 years old.” [end quote]
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/us/its-official-mormon-founder-had-up-to-40-wives.html

And then it is reported that Brigham Young has as many as 24 wives:

“Young’s family multiplied until he had twenty-five wives and forty-four children. This account is vouched for by his eldest son and seven of  his wives. But no one thinks this list is complete for in almost every town in Utah he had women ‘sealed’ to him and no one knows how many children he had.”  (Mormonism, The Islam of America by Bruce Kinney, in 1912)

So I was sure Mitt was talking about Joseph Smith and Brigham Young in his speech when talking about sexual exploits. Was he not?

Then, of course, if the concern is for bullying people there is the little account of the Meadow Massacre in 1857 carried out by Mormons. A 2002 New York Times headline read: “Reopening a Mormon Murder Mystery; New Accusations That Brigham Young Himself Ordered an 1857 Massacre of Pioneers.”  The article reported:

[quote] On Sept. 11, 1857, a group of California-bound pioneers camping in southern Utah were murdered by a Mormon militia and its Indian allies. The massacre lasted less than five minutes, but when it was over, 120 men, women and children had been clubbed, stabbed or shot at point-blank range. Their corpses, stripped of clothes and jewelry, were left to be picked apart by wolves and buzzards.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- the Mormon church -- has steadfastly denied responsibility, first blaming Indians and later a rogue church official for the crime. But now two authors who have studied the massacre say Brigham Young, the formidable church leader who built a Mormon kingdom in an oasis in the arid wilderness of the Rocky Mountains, masterminded the killings and then conspired to cover up his role.

''He did it,'' said Will Bagley, a history columnist for The Salt Lake Tribune whose book ''Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows'' (University of Oklahoma Press) has been a best seller in Utah since it appeared in late July. ''The evidence is unambiguous.’'

Sally Denton, an investigative reporter based in Santa Fe, N.M., whose book ''American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows'' will be published by Knopf next summer, also holds Young responsible for the crime. ''He was an absolute dictator,'' she said. ''Nothing happened in the place that did not happen under his direct orders.’' [end quote]
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/12/books/reopening-mormon-murder-mystery-new-accusations-that-brigham-young-himself.html?pagewanted=all&pagewanted=print

Then there is the cruelty of the Mormon Danites or Avenging Angels that killed untold numbers that “were offensive to the church” as described in great detail by author Bruce Kinney.

Here is an interesting article on the Mormon Danites: http://www.nytimes.com/1860/02/01/news/from-utah-troubles-among-the-danites-matters-in-mormendom.html?pagewanted=print

Then there is the issue of racial remarks. The August 18, 2012 New York Times reports the following about Brigham Young and the Mormon Church:

[quote] “It was Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, who adopted the policies  that now haunt the church. He described black people as cursed with  dark skin as punishment for Cain’s murder of his brother. “Any man  having one drop of the seed of Cain in him cannot hold the  priesthood,” he declared in 1852. Young deemed black-white  intermarriage so sinful that he suggested that a man could atone for it  only by having “his head cut off” and spilling “his blood upon the  ground.” Other Mormon leaders convinced themselves that the pre- existent spirits of black people had sinned in heaven by supporting  Lucifer in his rebellion against God.

The priesthood ban had sweeping ecclesiastical consequences for  black Mormons. They could not participate in the sacred ordinances,  like the endowment ceremony (which prepares one for the afterlife)  and sealings (which formally bind a family together), rites that Smith  and Young taught were necessary to obtain celestial glory.” [end quote]
source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/opinion/sunday/racism-and-the-mormon-church.html

According to numerous reports the LDS church changed their policy after the IRS, under Jimmy Carter, sent the LDS church a little message. As another article on http://www.politicususa.com/2012/06/10/voice-god-irs.html states: 

[quote] So which was it? A direct message from God to the President of the  Church of Latter Day  Saints? Or – and far more likely – a direct  message from the Internal Revenue Service by way of then U.S.  President Jimmy Carter threatening to revoke their non-profit status if  they continued to discriminate against blacks? [end quote]

So I was sure Mitt was talking about Brigham Young in his speech when talking about racial comments, was he not? 

And then there is Mitt himself. As Greg Jackson pointed out in 2012: 

Mitt Romney, Fiscal and Social Liberal:

• Unilaterally, illegally & unconstitutionally instituted same-sex “marriage” falsely claiming the “court ordered him to.” Proof here and here

• Signed the forerunner to Obamacare (Romneycare) into law which includes $50 tax-subsidized elective surgical abortions including late-term abortions into law (3 years AFTER his fake “pro-life conversion.”) Proof here

• Boosted funding for homosexual “education” starting in kindergarten. Proof here

• Opposes a ban on homosexual scoutmasters. Proof here

• Promised the homosexual Republican “Log Cabin Republicans” he wouldn’t oppose “gay marriage” in return for their endorsement. Proof here

• Instituted a quasi-socialist healthcare plan endorsed by Hillary Clinton, Teddy Kennedy and Planned Parenthood that destroyed the Massachusetts’ economy. Proof here and here.

• Forced Catholic Charities, the nation’s #1 adoption and foster care service to place children with same sex couples even though he was under no legal obligation to do so as even former Governor Michael Dukakis has acknowledged.

• Increased taxes and fees by close to a billion dollars which destroyed the Massachusetts’ economy and opposed the Bush Tax Cuts. Proof here

• Voted # 8 RINO by Human Events. Proof here.

• Passed over Republican lawyers for three quarters of the 36 judicial vacancies he faced and nominated 2 open homosexuals. Proof here

• Criticized Joint Chief of Staff, Peter Pace for saying that homosexual acts were “immoral.” Proof here

• Supports passage at the state level of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act which would force churches and other religious organizations to hire homosexuals and transvestites or face criminal fines and prosecution. Proof here

• Romney supported McCain-Feingold “campaign finance reform”, McCain-Kennedy “comprehensive immigration reform” (i.e. amnesty), and parts of the McCain-Lieberman “carbon cap and trade” bill and opposed the Bush Tax Cuts. Proof here

 So what gives? Is Romney really concerned about conservative values, morality, not following the beliefs of a con man, a bully, someone that is unstable, dishonest, racial tensions and a fraud? If so, great! When can we expect the speech by Mitt Romney denouncing Joseph Smith and Brigham Young?

I was certain that Mitt today was describing either Smith or Young today when I heard Mormon Mitt’s speech, but I guess not. 

 I doubt a speech by Mitt denouncing the fraud, lies, bullying, immorality, manipulation and violence by Joseph Smith and Brigham Young as leaders of their religious cult will ever occur since Joseph Smith and Brigham Young are well respected by the LDS (Mormon Church), of which Mitt Romney is a member according to countless news reports and his own words:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oklAi3rpb_U

Brannon Howse is author of numerous books including his latest: The Coming Religious Reich. Available here:
http://www.worldviewweekend.com/products