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| Source:Salon- If Mitt Romney is a Socialist, then I'm a Hippie-Evangelical living in Mecca. |
“You are cursed because of your riches!”
It was a bummer message that nobody wanted to hear. Samuel the Lamanite stood alone atop the great wall of the city of Zarahemla to warn the inhabitants of their pending destruction.
Now you have probably never heard of this Samuel, nor the capital city that was once the center of the Nephite nation. But Mitt Romney certainly has. In 6 BC, as the story goes, somewhere on the American continent, the inhabitants of this mythic city had grown decadent. There were extreme class divisions. Politicians were corrupt. The government disregarded the sick and poor.
Sound familiar?
God had called Samuel to essentially Occupy Zarahemla, to stand up and speak out against corporate greed and wealth accumulation. For his trouble, he was promptly thrown out the front gates. Undeterred, he bravely scaled the city’s exterior wall, evading a barrage of arrows and stones to stand defiant. He offered Zarahemla a choice: repent or be destroyed by God. Like any of us who have ever witnessed the ranting of a doomsday prophet, the Nephites couldn’t be bothered. Four hundred years later, Samuel’s prophecy would sorely come to pass. After decades of perpetual wars and extreme environmental upheavals, the inhabitants of Zarahemla were wiped completely off the continent and out of history.”
From Salon Magazine
Hopefully this is not a news flash for anyone, but I’m not an expert on religion. I’m also not ten-feet tall, if anyone is wondering that as well. I’m especially not an expert Mormonism, which is probably one reason why I’m Agnostic. A devout Agnostic (if there’s such a thing) but what little I do know about Mormonism, is extremely little, as small as Danny DeVito (which is probably only enough to fill up a bottle cap) that there is a communitarian aspect to Mormonism. That they live together in compounds, that sort of thing.
To suggest that Mormons are Socialists and they believe all people should live this way, have multiple spouses (at least for men) that sort of thing, is a big stretch. The only socialist religion out there (if you want to call it a religion) would be Atheism, or really militant or fundamentalist Atheism that you see on the Far-Left. The belief that there is no God and today’s so-called Progressives (Socialists, in actuality) tend to be Atheist. The closest thing we have to a socialist religion in America would be what is supposed to pass as progressivism today, which is another way of saying democratic socialism.
Today’s socialism really, is a very collectivist, communitarian, share and share alike philosophy: “That we are only as strong as our weakest link. That we need a strong, large centralized, bloated, I mean big government to mandate, I mean ensure economic equality in America. That we don’t have rich, middle or poor people. That we are all the same and equal”. That’s what progressivism is supposed to be today from today’s so-called Progressives. And if this was a religion, it would be a socialist religion.
And as much as today’s, well Socialists in America, may complain or hate religion, they have as much faith and belief in the state, especially the federal state to take care of and look after and manage the people’s well-being, as the Religious-Right believes Jesus will do those things for the people. The Religious-Left in America (and yes, there is such a thing) to call Mormonism a socialist religion or to link Mitt Romney to socialism at any point, is a stretch and pretty humorous.
Calling Mitt Romney a Socialist, is like calling people who have salad with their steaks, a vegetarian. A blind person wouldn’t believe that because they could smell the beef: “Where’s the beef, right in front of my nose.” But people are welcome to say and believe anything they want, in a liberal democracy, including Socialists who wished we weren’t a liberal democracy. And if anything Socialists have more freedom to express themselves in our liberal democracy, than in a social democracy because of our liberal First Amendment.
