by Madeleine Kando   

I read somewhere that there are fourteen million Mormons worldwide and that Mormonism is one of the fastest growing religions in the world. Their global distribution is extremely wide-spread. Aside from China, some countries in Africa and most of Greenland Mormons are found pretty much everywhere.

All religions have an element of fabrication in them, but the one that tops them all is certainly Mormonism. Its founder, Joseph Smith, was a charlatan and the whole religion is based on pure fantasy and is a figment of this man's imagination.

Smith, who was a clever con artist, claims to have discovered and translated the 'Lost Book of Abraham' from an Egyptian scroll which he bought from a traveling salesman. If you delve into the details of this episode in Mormon history, you realize how much of it is false. It was impossible for him to have read and understood the hieroglyphics because no one at that time had any knowledge of Egyptian writing.

The Book of Mormon, which was also 'revealed' to Smith, is full of idiotic facts that no one of sound mind could accept as true. For example, it says that Mormons are really descendants of one of the lost tribes of Israel who moved to America. These Hebrews left scriptures written in Egyptian, but Israelites didn't speak Egyptian, they spoke Hebrew. This is as absurd as claiming that American history would have been written in Russian.

The most repulsive aspect of the Mormon Faith is its past practice of Polygamy, which was established by Joseph Smith himself, after his wife discovered that he was having an affair with a 17 year old girl. He conveniently decided to tell her that God had given him instructions to have multiple wives. One of his 'plural wives' was a 14 year old girl. Before he died, Smith managed to 'marry' (it was called 'sealing' in those days) forty-eight wives, many of whom were still married to their legal husbands. Not surprisingly, he was eventually murdered. How can anyone follow a religion with such a scoundrel of a founder?

Romney doesn't like to talk about his family history for very understandable reasons. Many members of his family were polygamists, including Parley Pratt, his great-great grandfather who had twelve wives. Pratt was murdered by Hector McLean, the legal husband of one of his wives. Romney's great grandfather Helaman Pratt was also a polygamist. He had at least four wives. Romney's entire ancestral family had to flee the United States and settle in Mexico because of this practice. They became outlaws.

There are already fifteen Mormons in Congress, and now we have a Mormon running as a Republican Presidential Candidate. Romney supporters like to remind us that it is un-American to focus on a candidate's religion and they compare the current situation with the time when JFK was running for President. Because Kennedy was a Catholic, people at the time questioned whether his allegiance would be to the Constitution or to the Pope. His religion notwithstanding, he turned out to be fine President.

Romney, however, is not just any Mormon. He is a High Priest in the Mormon Church. That is the equivalent of a Catholic Bishop. Would people not have raised some questions if JFK had been a Catholic Bishop?

The Mormon church's stance on staying out of politics does not include what church leaders feel are 'moral issues'. We saw an example of that during the Proposition 8 campaign in 2008, when same-sex marriage was banned in California. Mormons contributed more than 50% of the campaign funds even though they only make up 2% of the population. It was similar to a Fatwa issued by the Ayatollah of Iran. Romney is oath-bound to abide by his Church leaders' edicts and he is quoted as saying: “I believe in my Mormon faith, and I endeavor to live by it." Does that means that he endeavors to live (and govern) by his faith and not by the American Constitution?

While Romney, in his speech on religious freedom, said that no one religion should dictate our laws, he made it very clear that he believes religion in general should play a role in state affairs, saying that, “Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.” I agree that religion requires freedom but why would freedom require religion?

It is said that people get what they deserve, especially when they are ignorant of the facts when it comes to electing presidential candidates. But all this information is available. If Romney makes it to the White House, it will be one of the saddest days of my life, but we will all be complicit in having let him get there.