What if he gave less than 10% or 15% to the Church? That's a possibility.

Mormons are insular. Your standing in the Mormon community is everything.

This may sound silly to folks who don't know Mormons, but being exposed as a tithe-cheat could, for the whole Romney family, be as bad as Mitt being picked up for exposing himself at a schoolyard.

how many bishops of any religion have
run for office (any office) in this country?

And just what the heck did Willard do
as Bishop?

The Mormon church is too cheap to hire preachers for its congregations. Instead, they get one man from the congregation to lead services on Sundays, visit widows and orphans, and do all the other things a parish preacher does, for a couple of years and call him the bishop. When his time is up, another man from the congregation volunteers to be the bishop. And so it goes. In the non-Mormon Christian churches they'd call them "lay ministers."

to deities on distant planets
with all the nifty secret handshakes
and cool costumes and such.

Deities on distant planets aren't much into magic underwear.

Or start his own church of Romney to avoid taxes.

People could almost understand if he carried a huge capital loss forward, and used it to reduce or eliminate taxes the following year. But if hes playing accounting games to avoid tithing, he'd be a pariah in the mormon community.

He doesn't even have to play accounting games to hide income from the church. His tax return are private. He could report income of $100 million to the IRS and give the church $5 million.

The church assumes he made $50 million. The LDS tithe police are something to be reckoned with, but a person of Romney's standing probably wouldn't be asked by the church for tax returns to review to see if he was meeting his holy obligations.

And to a highly placed Mormon, such a scandal would be worse than a sex scandal or having a drinking problem. The LDS church is all about money.

First Romney has a cadre of very smart tax accountants, and has surely taken advantage of all the tax loopholes the wealthy are afforded. I am sure he has stayed within the law, that is what the real problem is, the wealthy can, and do pay very little in taxes.

As for his tithes, there is no Mormon tithing police. As a mormon I tithe 10% and a little more to other church funds, and have never been asked for proof of income. I also give to the DNC and Montana Democratic party, and am continually asked for more. I am not sure what Romney's deal is, but it has nothing to do with his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Let's move beyond the "Mitt Romney is Mormon, How Spooky" and get talking about the real issues that wont alienate mormon democrats and independents so we can re-elect President Obama.

Jayce Cox
Helena Montana

But I will continue to rely on my real-world experiences with many Mormons.

Spookiness aside, your statement that you know that Romney has not under-tithed is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read.

You know this? Is this because of Romney's high moral character?

Extraordinary.

Welcome to DU, but coming here to tell people how reliably ethical Mitt Romney is may be a poor fit.

The spirit told me! Just kidding, you will see that Romney is a full tithe payer, it's ingrained in our culture. I think he's an idiot and money hungry, but I'm sure he is a full tithe payer. If your experience with mormons was all in utah than I would understand your point of view. Those Utah Mormons make us all look bad.
PS Thanks for the warm welcome
Bless your heart

providing it secondary to producing the evidence relative to running for POTUS. He would be volunteering the information to the church, which would then know if he did what he was supposed to do as far as the church goes.

Your asked if its a full accounting - if you say yes and then proof comes out that it was not Romney's current Bishop theoretically could call him in for a chat and possible discipline. I doubt it would happen though, not because of the circumstances but because of whom he is. The Church does have a history of treating "celebrities" differently than "normal" members (Donny Osmond and his not going on a mission is an example, or the Church using Brandon Flowers in commercials despite the fact that he both smokes and drinks).

All that being said, I seriously doubt he is hiding his financials because of tithing. Its more likely something else. (Which I find interesting that he tries every legal way to not pay taxes, yet in other countries the Church openly tells its members to no seek refunds on their church tax and pay their tithing - for example in Norway everyone is taxed for the state church as a tithing, you can ask for it back if you are not a member of the state Church, but the church has asked the members to not do so; this may have changed in the last 20 years but thats the way it was when I lived there)

Most mormons welcome national attention, but this has been difficult for most of us to stomach. Things we hold dear mocked openly and our kids bullied. The Second Coming would be a welcome relief at this point. Just an opinion of a Mormon liberal democrat.
Thanks
Jayce Cox
Helena, Montana

and I am very sorry if this is causing any grief for any of you. The very idea of children being bullied is repulsive.


I would suggest that you don't use your real name on the internet. It is amazing what people can find with the information you included in that post. If I were you I would edit the post. Using your real name for a screen name isn't a great idea either. You really should start over now when you only have 5 posts.


But more to the point.... Isn't there a prophecy that someone of your faith will become President? I am more than just a little surprised that Romney's candidacy is not seen as a good thing by the church.

But playing the anonymous poster game is not for me. Look me up, google me, come knock on my door. In my day we wrote letters to the editor that included our name and address. I have nothing to hide nor be ashamed of. There is no prophecy that a mormon would some day be a US president. It would be nice if we could break through the stained glass ceiling, I had always hoped it would be Harry Reid.
But I do sincerely appreciate your kind response and advice.
Thanks
Jayce

I can assure you the "White Horse" prophecy is indeed misrepresent. Its not a prophesy, and its not official doctrine. It's nothing more than a faith promoting rumor based on statements Joseph Smith may or may not have said, and in no way did he say these statements as doctrine or even official church teachings.

there is more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Horse_Prophecy

It should be noted when reading this that prior to Brigham Young settling in the Salt Lake Valley they were intending to go to Victoria Island Canada. Not only does the supposed prophesy not have any reality in history its not even accurate according to Church History.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/mormon/mormon760.html

Identity theft can make your life a nightmare...

Welcome, enjoy your stay...

You'll find, unfortunately, that there is a rather vocal group of folks here who make fun of *any* religion. It's unfortunate and I'm sorry. Thanks for being willing to speak about your experience of your religion.

Growing up Mormon in a small town in Montana, I learned early on that I had a lot of misconceptions to correct, but not to take it personal. It's nice to know that there is still respectful dialog going on about honest questions we may not be willing to ask in person.
Thanks for the welcome and the respect!

The mormon gospel of prosperity will forgive pretty much any other kinds of transgressions as long as full tithing is paid.

It's all about the money, baby. That's why SLC has Mittens' back...

Sorry. I just do not buy it.

First, the Mormon vote is trivial. It will not get Mitt the White House, and both Mitt and the Mormon Church know it.

Second, why play the Mormon card when many of your constituents do not like the LDS church.

Third, to many of those who do not care, many will not be voting for Mitt.

Mitt's screwed by even reminding people that he's a Mormon. Heaven help him -- so to speak -- if underwear gets into the dialog.

It is about the opinion of Mormons which is incredibly important to Romney, and his wife, and all his kids. (And will continue to be the most important thing until they die.)

Imagine if your taxes showed you had cheated on your spouse. Your advisers say, "We did some polling and nobody cares, so this won't be a damaging issue. Release the returns."

And you say, "my wife would care. My children would care. My friends would care."

Not everything is politics. The high regard of your tight-knit community means everything to some people, and nobody is into everybody's business like Mormons.

I do not know if my theory is true, but I know it is sufficient. Romney would do anything to hide such an indiscretion.

But that indiscretion would have little political impact.

First, how many of his advisors are Mormon? Uh! Few to none? Wouldn't they make the election not about the LDS church?

Second, even if he didn't tithe to the LDS church, who would care? Would that have any effect on the electorate above and beyond Mitt not releasing the returns?

Third, we all know what this is about. It's about the timing of his tenure at Bain, his compensation, and putative lying on either his filings, or to the US public.

Any hypotheses that go beyond this may be fun, but not likely.

Certainly, it is unlikely to be his tithing to his church. You know, as we all do, that he wouldn't sabotage his own campaign on that issue. We all know that this is big. So, if this is just about tithing, why doesn't Mitt release the returns?

Interesting as it is, your argument doesnt convince me.

As anybody who has seen the show would know.

I suspect that the real reason he doesn't want those returns to be disclosed is that he's actually a whole hell of a lot richer than he's been letting on - like billionaire rich. There are a lot of multi-millionaires out there, some of them in politics. But billionaires? How would a billionaire play in Peoria these days?

losing the presidential race.

short changed the Mormon Church, it would be a plus in public opinion for Romney!