{"id":46277,"date":"2018-02-20T00:04:34","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T07:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=46277"},"modified":"2018-02-20T01:11:26","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T08:11:26","slug":"mitt-romney-multiple-worlds-middle-initials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/02\/mitt-romney-multiple-worlds-middle-initials.html","title":{"rendered":"Mitt Romney, Multiple Worlds, Middle Initials, and Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Las<\/a>
The Las Vegas Nevada Temple (LDS Media Library)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Every once in a while, I read a complaint by some critic of the Church or other about the odd and uniquely Mormon habit of using middle initials in the names of Church leaders \u2014 leaders like Heber J. Grant, David O. McKay, Harold B. Lee, Spencer W. Kimball, Gordon B. Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson, Russell M. Nelson, Dallin H. Oaks, and Henry B. Eyring.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This complaint always reminds me of still other<\/em>\u00a0Mormon leaders, such as Ulysses S. Grant, General Robert E. Lee, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Warren G. Harding, Herbert W. Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, General George A. Patton, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Edward M. Kennedy, William F. Buckley Jr., and Gerald R. Ford.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mormons are so weird<\/em>!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I enjoyed this piece by the ever-interesting Jeff Lindsay:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJoseph Smith and the Concept of Multiple Inhabited Worlds: Just Simple Borrowing from Others?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, along the way Dr. Lindsay calls attention to yet a few more errors (rather redundantly, by this point!) in the lamentable \u201cCES Letter\u201d that has confused and misled more than a few good people out there.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mitt Romney has announced that he is seeking to represent my adopted home state, Utah, in the United States Senate. \u00a0I\u2019m very pleased about this, and I support him enthusiastically. \u00a0But I\u2019m including the following three items for their explicit or implicit Mormon connections, not as political statements:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Atlantic<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cWhy Romney Is Running for Senate: \u00a0The former Republican presidential nominee extolled his adoptive state\u2019s values as a better option for his party, and his country, as he announced his bid for Senate.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In order to fully understand that Atlantic<\/em> ad, it might not hurt to have watched the advertisement<\/a> in which Governor Romney announced his candidacy:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CK_t8BWD3uw<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s this, which I find (among other things) quite odd:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

National Review<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cRomney Is a Misfit for America\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

To be clear, Michael Brendan Dougherty\u2019s article doesn\u2019t represent National Review<\/em>\u2018s official position. \u00a0A number of writers at National Review<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 Kathryn Jean Lopez, for example, and, most notably, David French \u2014 have been vocal admirers of Governor Romney for many years.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Dougherty\u2019s argument remains strange.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For one thing, I\u2019m quite confident that, as a one-time missionary and a long-time lay Church leader, Brother Romney has spent considerably more time dealing with \u201cordinary people\u201d and their everyday problems \u2014 e.g., financial need, marital disharmony, substance abuse, depression, problem children, unemployment, and the like \u2014 than the politicians whom Dougherty presumably regards as less patrician and more \u201cdemocratic.\u201d \u00a0A Latter-day Saint bishop or stake president \u2014 and Mitt Romney has been both \u2014 simply cannot escape involvement in such matters. \u00a0(I speak here with some slight authority, as myself a former bishop.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For another thing, Mitt Romney isn\u2019t seeking<\/em> to represent America right now. \u00a0He\u2019s seeking to represent Utah<\/em>. \u00a0\u201cHe has no idea,\u201d says Dougherty, \u201chow to make a majority of voters choose him.\u201d \u00a0Well. \u00a0Really? \u00a0He was elected governor of the heavily Democratic state of Massachusetts. \u00a0He also won enough Republican primaries to become the party\u2019s 2012 presidential nominee. \u00a0And I would be delighted to bet money against Dougherty that Mitt Romney will handily win a majority of Utah voters and will easily be elected to the Senate of the United States.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In case anybody is interested: \u00a0I accepted an invitation just Monday afternoon to participate July\u2019s FreedomFest 2018.<\/a>\u00a0 I will be speaking on whether faith and reason can be reconciled, and will very likely also be chairing another session. \u00a0I\u2019ll share details when I know them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Oceanside, California<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Every once in a while, I read a complaint by some critic of the Church or other about the odd and uniquely Mormon habit of using middle initials in the names of Church leaders \u2014 leaders like Heber J. Grant, David O. McKay, Harold B. Lee, Spencer W. Kimball, Gordon B. Hinckley, Thomas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[329,332,323,326,335,55,338],"class_list":["post-46277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anti-mormonism","tag-critics-of-mormonism","tag-michael-brendan-dougherty","tag-mitt-romney","tag-mormon-leaders","tag-mormonism","tag-national-review"],"yoast_head":"\nMitt Romney, Multiple Worlds, Middle Initials, and Me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Every once in a while, I read a complaint by some critic of the Church or other about the odd and uniquely Mormon habit of using middle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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