Regarding “The McLaughlin Group” telecast of Dec. 9, 2007, on KUER and KBYU:Lawrence O’Donnell’s comments regarding the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on “The McLaughlin Group” telecast of Dec. 9, 2007, have no proper place in the political discourse of our nation.
I realize the slash and burn format of “The McLaughlin Group” encourages throwing sucker punches. Few regular viewers tune in expecting civility. Perhaps, Mr. O’Donnell thought his role on this particular episode was to demean Mitt Romney by demeaning his faith. If that is the case, he demeaned only himself with his bigoted tirade against the LDS Church.
Members of the LDS Church have seen religious bigotry for much of the Church’s existence. Simmering just below the surface, the ugliness has come to the top of the cauldron as an obstacle to Romney’s candidacy in a Republican Party that has overly relied on public piety as a political tactic. I was saddened to see a Democratic voice joining the GOP chorus calling for the rejection of a candidate for public office based on their religious beliefs.
There are many legitimate reasons to oppose Governor Romney's candidacy, which we do. His ever-changing positions on matters of public policy and his past job performance leave many areas for appropriate disagreement.
Mr. O’Donnell, Democrats in Utah do not associate ourselves with your commentary. We reject it entirely. Utah Democrats refuse to become collateral damage because of your misguided attack on a Republican candidate for President of the United States. To do otherwise would undermine fine Democrats who are members of the LDS Church, most prominently on the national stage is U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Members of the LDS Church claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may. And, they honor the civic compact of our nation by believing in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
That’s how it is in America, Mr. O’Donnell. That is our social contract. I think you owe Mitt Romney, the members of the LDS Church, and the Democratic Party an apology.
Wayne Holland
12 comments:
Here, here Mr. Holland!
A fine, fine, thing the stand up Utah Dems have done here. The Democrats are truly the party of all the people!
Well stated.
Great job. Thanks for posting, Rob.
Very well-written. Now we just need to find candidates, from either party, who are willing to articulate our truly common values instead of worrying about positioning and how it's going to play in a focus group.
The bigotry of these talking heads (so much for the PC liberal stereotype), and the timidity of our national candidates to stand for the obvious principles that create and govern our system will continue to leave us cynical and dissappointed.
I think Romney missed an opportunity to take a stand on this same higher ground and show some leadership moxie himself. huckabee is such a light weight and yet he has them all running scared.
Excellent comments. Kudos to Wayne Holland.
I was impressed with this statement for many reasons, but what really stands out to me is that Holland seems to be speaking for Utah, not just the Democratic Party.
Nice
Thanks Wayne. I'm sick of the spin masters going out and finding their "bitter balls of hate" that represent their point of view; then twist it into a stereotypical guilt by association play.
It is my sincerest hope that we all get away from the "religious litmus test" mentality and move toward the "genuine human interest litmus test" mentality that has been severely lacking.
Well done Wayne.
I find it interesting that this letter does not address the substance of O'Donnell's criticism (which admittedly was stated in an unproductive way) that Romney, who followed the "Faith of his Fathers", could be seen as supporting the position that the Mormon Church held regarding African-Americans until the late 70's. I would have liked to have seen this addressed. I agree in principle with the letter that it was probably an inappropriate way of raising the issue.
And P.S., and I assure you I am not trying to start an argument here, just looking for your opinions, how was it a "sucker punch" for O'Donnell to cite to the church's positions just 30 years ago? It would surely be unfair to ascribe these views to someone born after 1978, but Romney was an important adult member of the church at that time, no?
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