A Mormon president?

It may be hard to believe, but the 2008 campaign for president is already underway. Although the first primary elections and caucuses won’t be until next January, those candidates with their hat in the ring must raise funds and prove to possible donors that they are viable, strong, and can win. Naturally, leading the Democratic pool of candidates is Hillary Clinton, being pursued by Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, and Joe Biden. Republicans are countering with Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Sam Brownback, Duncan Hunter, and Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney announced his candidacy at a special event at Dearborn’s Henry Ford Museum. He chose this site because of its focus on innovation and invention, and because of the candidate’s belief that America needs to step up to the challenges of the future by similar emphasis on technological advance. Mr. Romney is the son of former Michigan governor George Romney. He became a household name in America by being the head of the successful 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic games, and then served one term as governor of Massachusetts. As governor in an uber-liberal state like that, Romney made statements which seem to link him to positions on abortion and gay marriage that would be unacceptable to most evangelical Christians. Now that he is running for president, another aspect of his background has come into question.

You see, Mitt Romney is a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints—a Mormon. And much like the election of 1960 made Americans ask if the United States was ready for a Catholic president (John F. Kennedy) because one would wonder if the president’s highest loyalty would be to his office or to the pope, so the question of Romney’s Mormon background has erupted. However, it is not the question of his highest loyalty that even makes his Mormonism an issue. It is the fact that, prior to Utah’s admission to the Union as the 45th state in 1896, the Latter-Day Saints had an official church doctrine approving of and encouraging plural marriage—polygamy. Now someone has dug into Mitt Romney’s background to discover that his Mormon ancestors were polygamists. Is that really a surprise?

Does this mean that a President Romney would promise to make polygamy legal in this country? Is that the great fear of his Mormonism? In the 19th century, polygamy and slavery were sometimes called the great residues of barbarism that needed to be eliminated, prompting Lincoln’s predecessor, James Buchanan, to send forces into Brigham Young’s Deseret empire in the so-called “Utah War” or “Mormon War” in 1856-1857. However, considering the trend in society toward redefining marriage in nontraditional ways (that is, between any consenting adults), it is somewhat puzzling how the media is making something that was rejected by Mormons over a century ago as a disqualifier for a Romney candidacy.

President Bush has often been ridiculed by the secularists of this world, including European leaders, for praying for God’s guidance. They even have called him “scary” and suggest that he believes that “God told” him directly to invade Iraq. What happens when some of the more bizarre beliefs of Mormonism make it to the mainstream media? Will Mitt Romney be ridiculed for believing that he will be a god of his own planet and will populate it with spirit children of himself and his goddess wives?

The constitution guarantees that there will be no religious test for any elected office. It will continue to be a sign of the growing secularization of American politics if Mitt Romney’s candidacy is undermined not by his qualifications as a leader or his position on the issues, but on his religion.

Carnival Time!

What makes a story interesting? For many, it is the action. For others, it is the fascinating characters. For still others, the author of an interesting story can hook them with vivid descriptions of the setting. However, most would agree that the best stories skillfully combine plot, character and setting into a good read.

We might view history similarly. After all, history is God’s story. There is action. Things happen. Something causes a resulting effect. Then there are the interesting characters. It may be difficult in a survey course to go into much biographical detail, but such accounts remind us that the world’s movers and shakers were and are human beings like we are. For a goodly number of people, however, the most interesting component of the story that is “history” is the setting. How did people live? What were there homes like? What customs did they have? How does that compare to my own experience?

I’ve been pondering this notion for a week or so. What if we could put together a time capsule of our life since the beginning of 2007? What would we include, so that when it would be opened in 100 or 1000 years, those who live at that time would have an insight into the type of people we were? I tune in the news for interesting stories and hear about the tragic death of Anna Nicole Smith, and wonder why she was so famous? Then I hear about a woman astronaut who drives from Texas to Florida wearing a diaper so she doesn’t need to make a bathroom break in order to stalk and confront a rival astronaut over a third astronaut, whom they both loved. If that’s not enough, I see that Brittney Spears checks into rehab, checks out of rehab, and goes to shave her head. Perhaps she has become enlightened, and become a Buddhist monk. So what would people of the future think about our culture if they could open a newspaper from 2007? The events themselves are pathetic, and the fact that people follow the stories with such fascination is equally so.

Today, Tuesday, February 20, 2007, marks a cultural phenomenon that not only is international in scope, it is inter-century in duration. Whether you call it Carnival, Karneval, Mardi Gras, Fassenacht, Fasching, or just Fat Tuesday, millions of people engage in one huge bacchanalia before Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. Many customs associated with religious festivals are actually pagan in origin. Certainly the date on which Christians celebrate the birth of Christ was actually a pagan festival known as Saturnalia, the triumph of light over darkness. The Church simply “baptized” the day and made it Christmas, the triumph of the light of the world (Christ). “Easter,” on which we celebrate the resurrection of Christ from death, has many symbols of pagan fertility associated with it—bunnies, eggs, etc.. Even the word “Easter” is a derivative of “Astarte/Ashteroth,” the Phoenician consort goddess to Baal. The rank paganism associated with Halloween (all Hallows’ eve) goes without comment. And then there is Carnival.

Carnival means “Farewell to meat.” It could mean, just as easily, “Farewell to the flesh,” because many participants view this as one last time to have “fun” (translate, “sin with abandon”) before giving it all up for Lent. But what about the crazy costumes, the gaudy beads, the garish masks? A video I have for German class describes the entire scene without any Christian connection, simply saying that the celebrators are “driving out winter.” So from January 6 to Fat Tuesday, whenever that falls (because the date of Ash Wednesday depends on the date of Easter, which we know occurs on the first Sunday following the first full moon following the vernal equinox), millions of people make noise, wear scary masks, and party in order to chase winter away. And we smile at the hajjis throwing their 42 stones at the Satan pillars.

By the time many of you read and comment, Carnival will be over and Lent will have begun. I am curious to see whether the chapel speaker this week mentions the fact. Whether your church observes the season of Lent as a time of repentance and spiritual discipline before Easter is a matter of Christian liberty, and we dare not condemn those who practice it or those who choose not to, simply to try and understand each other as well as we can. I hope that those who do make a sacrifice for Lent will use that experience in a positive, reflective way, focusing not on our own pride and accomplishments, but on the sacrifice Jesus made for us. Then it will be Christ’s love that motivates us to say “Farewell to the flesh” and “welcome to the Spirit!”

Black History Month

Crispus Attucks was one of the five casualties in the Boston “Massacre.” Aside from the fact that Samuel Adams, propaganda meister extraordinaire, exaggerated the event in order to inflame patriotic passion, is there any reason we should remember the name of this particular victim? Crispus Attucks was black. His martyrdom demonstrates that African-Americans contributed more to the founding of this country than simply slave labor.

Last week, we discussed the topic of the Super Bowl and the ads that were believed to be memorable or ridiculous. No one brought up the ads that celebrated the unique occasion that this was the first Super Bowl to feature two African-American head coaches. Here is a spot from Coke. Here is another from Frito-lay. Watch them—they only take 30 seconds each.

February is also Black History month. From the History.com web site, we can learn that this celebration actually began as “Negro History Week” in the 1920’s. It is safe to say that the experience of Black Americans has changed a lot in the past 80 years. But there still is a need for young African-Americans to have positive role models, to know that their lot in life does not have to be the street or the prison.

Here is your assignment for the week: Once you have followed the link provided above to History.com’s web page on Black History Month, then click on “African American Icons” from the menu on the left. Read one of the biographical entries and summarize the contributions made by your choice. Please don’t repeat a choice that someone else has already made, or the moderator will have to reject your posting. (And keep it respectful.)

Super Sunday

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. By the time most of you read this and respond, the big game will be history, and there will be great celebration in either Chicago or Indianapolis.

I saw a story this morning about a church that wanted to host a Super Bowl party, complete with big screen projection TV, snacks, and a good clean alcohol-free and smoke-free environment. Sounds a lot like what Mr. Crafts invited us all to at Common Ground, right? According to this story, copyright laws prohibit the showing of the Super Bowl if the screen is bigger than 55 inches or if admission is charged. It sounds like most of these churches, when notified of the NFL's ruling, simply agreed to comply with the law. How did Grace Point adjust to the ruling?

Many people view the Super Bowl as much for the commercials as for the actual game. I've been reading Michael Crichton's ( Jurassic Park) latest novel, Next, which explores the whole area of genetic research, including stem cells, cloning, and other hot-button issues of ethical conflict. In the story, one geneticist tries to pitch the idea of using genes to create fish that can glow with a corporate logo--and it wouldn't be exploitation of the environment, it would be more like sponsorship and protection. Why advertise like this? Because Americans receive exposure to some 3,000 advertising inputs per day, whether it be television, radio, popup ads on websites, and the like. We are so conditioned to a barrage of advertising that we have learned to ignore it. In order to be seen, and remembered, an advertisement must be unique.

One such unique advertisement is on the pregnant belly of this Chicago woman, who wanted to see her beloved Bears so desperately she auctioned off space on herself in order to get Super Bowl tickets. You may not remember many of the ads you see, but Ubid.com is certainly counting on people remembering their name as it appears on Ms. Gordon's pregnant belly. Perhaps that's why Super Bowl advertising is so expensive. Companies know that people will actually be watching and voting on the best commercials. It's not only the championship of the NFL, but the championship of the best marketing departments in the country, too!

I'll try to update this post after the game and we can share opinions about the cleverest ads. More importantly, I'd like to ask about the effectiveness of advertising and how our school and the churches who send their students here ought to be promoting ourselves.

UPDATE: Here is a review from CNN on the advertising spots. Most instant surveys are rating the Bud Light spots (paper, scissors, rock) highly. Blockbuster's ad with animals using a real mouse to order was popular. I thought it was interesting that the Doritos ads were user-submitted and not produced by some marketing wiz on Madison Avenue.