Demonstrating that he will stoop to any lengths to endear himself to Christofascist extremists, Mitt Romney spoke at the commencement at Liberty University - the late Jerry Falwell's lasting stain on Virginia today. Appearing at Liberty was part of Romney's pandering campaign to endear himself to the Christianist base of the Republican Party. As the Richmond Times Dispatch reports, during his speech, Romney endeavored to stress his shared values of family and service. The service part, of course, is aimed solely at those who are willing to submit to Mormon beliefs. And as for family values, Romney glossed over his family history that makes a mockery of the Christianist claims that throughout history marriage has been "one man and one woman." Truth be told - and telling the truth is not something Romney likes to engage in - Romney's ancestors were champions of alternate "lifestyles to use the terminology the Christofascists like to direct against gays. This tidbit from Wikipedia tells it all:
Miles Park Romney (1843-1904) was born in Nauvoo, Illinois, the son of Miles Romney.[1][2] He was the president of the St. George Social Hall Company and the St. George Dramatic Association, and also served as a chief of police, attorney-at-law, newspaper editor, and architect.[3] Romney's son was Gaskell Romney, his grandson was George W. Romney and his great-grandson is Mitt Romney.
[Miles Park] Romney, on April 7, 1885, joined a party leaving Arizona to find land outside the U.S., in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, on which his family could settle, free from fear of his arrest.[8] Romney died on February 26, 1904, in Colonia Dublan, Mexico.
[Miles Park]Romney's five wives, in order of marriage, were Hannah Hood Hill, Caroline "Carrie" Lambourne, Catharine Jane Cottam, Alice Marie "Annie" Woodbury and Emily "Millie" Henrietta Eyring Snow.
If that this equates to "one man one woman," Mitt Romney is very seriously math challenged. But it gets worse. Even Fox News - typically a/k/a "Faux New"s on this blog - has more details on Mitt "Etch A Sketch" Romney's family background that show the lie of his comments at Liberty University today. Her e are some highlights:
Romney's great-grandfather, Miles Park Romney, married his fifth wife in 1897. That was more than six years after Mormon leaders banned polygamy and more than three decades after a federal law barred the practice.
Romney's great-grandmother, Hannah Hood Hill, was the daughter of polygamists. She wrote vividly in her autobiography about how she "used to walk the floor and shed tears of sorrow" over her own husband's multiple marriages.
Romney's great-great grandfather, Parley Pratt, an apostle in the church, had 12 wives. In an 1852 sermon, Parley Pratt's brother and fellow apostle, Orson Pratt, became the first church official to publicly proclaim and defend polygamy as a direct revelation from God.
Romney's father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, where Mormons fled in the 1800s to escape religious persecution and U.S. laws forbidding polygamy. He and his family did not return to the United States until 1912, more than two decades after the church issued "The Manifesto" banning polygamy.
"When you read the family's history, you realize how important polygamy was to them," said Todd Compton, a Mormon and independent historian who wrote a book about the polygamous life of the church's founder, Joseph Smith. "They left America and started again as pioneers, after they had done it over and over again previously." . Carmon Hardy, a polygamy expert and retired history professor at California State University-Fullerton, said polygamy was "a very important part of Miles Park Romney's family."
While it's true that one doesn't get to pick their family, one DOES get to choose whether they will knowingly tell lies for political expedience. The truth is that Mitt Romney's family tree makes monogamous same sex marriage look pretty run of the mill compared the the generations of polygamous m2012arriage that were the norm in Romney's family tree for nearly well over a century. Whenever Romney opens his moth to bloviate about "one man one woman" marriage "throughout recorded history," his nose needs to grow like Pinocchio. His own family proves the lie of that claim. Oh, and then there's the problem of the Old Testamant, including bit not limited to King Salomon's 700 wives and 300 concubines. If Leviticus continues to apply to gays, then what about the Old Testament approved form of marriage - polygamy?.
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