Opinion of Lief

[Napoleon]

You know the drill.

[Napoleon]

Lief is a consistently great poster and actually has a sense of humor. Easy FF vote.

In a thread about some protestor alleging that Mitt Romney was a racist, I made the following post:

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The post was subsequently deleted and I was infracted two points for "discrimination/hatefulness." Now, apparently pointing out literary and theological facts is now hateful.

Let's take a look at Mormon scripture, shall we?

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The Lord God, according to the Book of Mormon (which is, according to the Mormon faith, more correct than any book on earth), created a "black" race that were "loathsome" and an "idle, mischievous and subtle" people.

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Later in the Book of Mormon (which I again must emphasize is believed by Mormons to be the most truthful book ever written and the word of God), it is stated that these people can be saved, but when they are they will be come white and "delightsome" once again. In 1981, "white and delightsome" was changed to "pure", when Mitt Romney was in his mid-30s.

Whiteness being a sign of pureness and goodness and blackness being a sign of sinfulness is in fact a common motif in the Book of Mormon (see 1 Nephi 11:8, 1 Nephi 11:13, 1 Nephi 12:23, Alma 3:6, Jacob 3:8).

Let's see what some Mormon Church leaders had to say about black people:

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So the facts back up my first sentence. Even if you disagree with my conclusions (and there are certainly some passages in the Book of Mormon that contradict the more sickeningly racist ones), based on the text there is plenty of evidence to come to them. They are not hateful, nor are they discriminatory, but instead opinions based on the actual, factual, physical text of a literary and theological work. Nothing negative is said about people of the Mormon faith; it is an opinion about a book.

Now, perhaps the infraction was instead for alleging that there is evidence enough to believe that Mitt Romney might be a racist? I don't think one can discriminate against a single person, though perhaps the moderators disagree. Surely it's been allowed for years on this forum to voice negative opinions about famous individuals, even individuals on the forum, through the FF/HP polls. Mitt Romney has made it clear that he believes deeply in his faith, he has held leadership positions in the Mormon church, he has gone overseas to convert people to the religion, he attended a Mormon university with strict rules and guidelines based on the Mormon faith and culture. He regards the Book of Mormon as scripture and true, and has as such taught it to his children.

The Mormon church retained its racist policies until well into Mitt Romney's adulthood. The racist portions of the Book of Mormon largely remain in tact to this day. To my knowledge, Romney never spoke out about these policies when they were still in on the books. It is only since he has entered public life that he has denounced them.

In conclusion, I ask that my infraction points be removed, that my post be returned to the thread, and the moderators apologize for being overzealous and stifling a free exchange of ideas. My post said nothing hateful or discriminatory about followers of the Mormon faith; it was simply, based on the facts of Mormon scripture and the facts of Mormon church policies, critical of a single politician, which on a forum devoted to political debate and discussion, should not be a punishable offense.