A video is trending and recirculating this week that shows Republican Mitt Romney sparring with WHO NewsRadio 1040 talk show host Jan Mikelson about Gov. Romney’s Mormon faith’s view on abortion…in 2007!
The conversation briefly takes a detour into Romney’s apocalyptic worldview (as articulated by his Mormon faith), during which he clearly articulates that the second coming of Jesus will come on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, a process that will split the Mount of Olives to such an extent that Jesus will reign during a coming millennium from the two resulting venerable holy sites of Jerusalem and Missouri.
The video is here:
In the above video, Gov. Romney appears to lose his cool when discussing his stance on abortion with Mikelson after the on-air interview is over.
One newsworthy item that is being omitted by many reposting the video is that while the video is genuine, it records an off-air discussion that took place in 2007!
So this is not new. Still, it reveals the underlying apprehension many Evangelical Christians feel about voting for someone that who shares a belief in the existence of God (and a political ideology), but with whom they disagree on the fundamental tenets of the Christian faith, like the second coming of Jesus, the creation of the universe, the role of Missouri in a post-apocalyptic state, etc.
Mikelson asks the (by now well worn) question of why Gov. Romney appeared to be for a women’s right to choose an abortion while the governor of the heavily Democratic state of Massachusetts, and then opposed to it when running for president as a Republican.
Gov. Romney attempts to argue that while he (and his church) are fundamentally opposed to abortion, that there are some Mormon Democrats in Nevada and Utah (like Nevada Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid), who are part of a party that allows others to make personal decisions about abortion, but who may be personally opposed to the practice. However, Romney reasserts that the Mormon faith does not allow a Mormon, to “participate it, encourage, or in any way support abortion.” So, Romney claims that while those other Mormon politicians may align themselves with the Democrats, they are staunchly pro-life and anti-abortion (a position on which Harry Reid has been quite consistent).
This is the point at which the conversation sidetracks into a discussion of the Mormon view of the second coming of Christ. Romney begins by repeating the refrain, “I know my faith better than you do. You don’t understand my faith like I do.”
Romney then goes on to correct Mikelson about how:
“Throughout the Bible, Christ appears in Jerusalem, splits the Mount of Olives, to stop the war that’s coming in to kill all the Jews – our church believes that – that’s when the coming in glory of Christ occurs. We also believe that over the thousand years that follows, the millennium, he will reign from two places – that the law will come forth from one place, from Missouri, and the other will be in Jerusalem.”
Romney then abruptly brings the discussion back to the issue of abortion, articulates his position by stating that while he is personally opposed to abortion, he offered others the choice to decide for themselves (rather than call for an outright ban on abortion) while he was running for Governor of Massachusetts. He then changed his position when it actually came down to signing legislation permitting abortion.
To be fair to Mitt Romney, this was an off-air conversation, after the interview was over, that was recorded on the in-studio camera, and then released to YouTube (a standard procedure with guest interviews. For instance, here is the YouTube video of me when I appeared on KMJ 580′s Ray Appleton Show in Fresno back in 2010.) Romney’s camp stated that they did not know that Romney’s in-studio, post-interview conversation would be recorded (a fact that I haven’t decided helps or hurts the candidate’s perception as one who will say whatever an audience wants to hear in order to get elected).
To see the interview in context (and to see why Romney thought this wasn’t being recorded), view The Week‘s article here.
To see the entire 2007 interview in context, watch below:
So, while the question still remains whether a person behaves differently on camera versus off camera (I’d guess that we all do to some extent), Mikelson does expose (albeit it 5 years ago) the lingering rift between Evangelicals and Mormons when it comes to specific issues of faith.
The video ends with Gov. Romney walking out of the studio.
Keep in mind that he is being interviewed by very conservative WHO Iowa radio talk host, Jan Mikelson, who sparked outrage of his own when he appeared to agree with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s stance on gays.
So this is conservative vs. conservative, which if we look back to the Republican primaries, is precisely where the questions about Romney all began: conservatives questioning whether Romney was conservative enough to represent the Republican party.
Filed under: christianity, iowa, politics, religion | Tagged: abortion, apocalyptic, conservative, iowa, Jan Mikelson, Jerusalem, KMJ, millenium, Missouri, Mitt Romney, Mormonism, Mount of Olives, ray appleton, second coming, WHO NewsRadio 1040 | 3 Comments »
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