Son of Mormon Prophet Maxes out to Mitt

Although Mitt Romney has said that he will not take orders from the LDS (Mormon) church, it is clear that many Mormons are excited about his candidacy.  He has received millions of dollars in donations from people in Utah, and many of them are Mormons.

I began to wonder if any of the so-called “General Authorities” of the church had contributed to Mitt.  So I went to opensecrets.org to check.  I couldn’t find any.  I guess they’ve sort of figured out that would be too obvious.  

But I was surprised to find that many of the children of the first presidency of the church (the prophet and his counselors) had maxed out their donations to Romney.  (OK, I wasn’t really that surprised.) Details on the flip.

The president and prophet of the LDS church is a cute old guy named Gordon B. Hinckley.  Gordon is now 97 years old, and has had some trouble keeping his nose out of politics lately.  For example, in April 2003 he said

As citizens we are all under the direction of our respective national leaders. They have access to greater political and military intelligence than do the people generally …  Furthermore, we are a freedom-loving people, committed to the defense of liberty wherever it is in jeopardy.

It may even be that He will hold us responsible if we try to impede or hedge up the way of those who are involved in a contest with forces of evil and repression.

Whoops!  Cat’s out of the bag there!  All of you who marched against the war will be Held Responsible by Him!  Sounds like a Bush supporter to me!  Then, in April of 2007, he presided over the award of an honorary doctorate of public service to Dick Cheney by BYU, the church’s university (follow the link for the most precious picture of the prophet and the neocon pope).

Furthermore, Gordon Hinckley has long used the family jet of Republican Utah Governor Jon Huntsman and his father to get around.

Well, now it looks like conservative politics run in the family.  Hinckley’s son Clark B. Hinckley, a big shot at Zion’s Bank, an outfit with longstanding official ties to the church, has donated $2300 to Mitt.  And so has his wife.  Now they are certainly free to do this.  But do you think they forgot to mention it to dad beforehand?  Do you think the prophet disapproved?  I don’t.

I also found that children of the late James E. Faust, one of Gordon Hinckley’s counselors in the first presidency, and Henry B. Eyring, Faust’s replacement, have also given near the maximum to Mitt.  The list of donors to Romney contains the surnames of many Mormon General Authorities that I don’t have time to dig into.  It is enough that the children of three of the four most recent top Mormon leaders have given generously to Romney.

It is a joke for these people to try and act like Romney will be independent of Salt Lake.  The Mormon elite are salivating at the power that would come with control of the White House.

And I am a lifelong, practicing Mormon (for now). I even served a mission in Paris like Mitt (though 20 years later).  I’d like to write a bit about that too, but it will have to wait.  For now, I’m seriously reevaluating my relationship with a church that is beginning to look more and more like a branch of the Republican party, and complicit in the murders and torture of the Bush administration.

Here are the details:

FAUST, MARCUS G MR

OAKTON,VA 22124

MARCUS G. FAUST P.C./ATTORNEY

3/2/2007

$4,200

Romney, Mitt

FAUST, SUSAN MRS

OAKTON,VA 22124

SELF-EMPLOYED/CONSULTANT

3/2/2007

$2,100

Romney, Mitt

EYRING, AMY R MS

ASHLAND,MA 01721

HOMEMAKER

6/25/2007

$2,300

Romney, Mitt

EYRING, JOHN B MR

NORTH SALT LAKE CI,UT 84054

LEVCACLIA/EXECUTIVE

6/25/2007

$2,300

Romney, Mitt

EYRING, MATTHEW J MR

ASHLAND,MA 01721

INNOSIGHT LLC/MANAGING DIRECTOR

1/10/2007

$2,100

Romney, Mitt

HINCKLEY, CLARK B

SALT LAKE CITY,UT 84105

ZIONS BANCORPORATION/EXECUTIVE

3/26/2007

$2,300

Romney, Mitt

HINCKLEY, KATHLEEN H

SALT LAKE CITY,UT 84105

HOMEMAKER

3/26/2007

$2,300

Cross posted at Daily Kos.