Man, that entire article pisses me off. First, this came up in 2008 (http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=frwiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1rUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1457,6030085&dq=romney+mexico&hl=en) when examining his Mormon roots (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,254362,00.html). This treats it as some sort of news, and I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that NBC is demagoguing the issue, the really offensive part is here:
In his public life Mitt Romney has said and written little about his ancestors' history in Mexico. In one oft-repeated quote he said his family left the U.S. for Mexico to escape persecution for their religious beliefs.
In fact, Romney's great grandfather, Miles Park Romney, led that first expedition to escape not persecution but prosecution for polygamy, or what Mormons called ‘plural marriage.'
While those who treat gay marriage as a top issue shouldn't be silent about this, the editorializing here that somehow the Mormons should have been ashamed about their points of view on plural marriage/polygamy and the implication that they somehow earned the "persecution" because it was actually "prosecution"...ugh.
The reality is that the American treatment of Mormons is among the worst treatment of religion this nation has seen. It's doubly shameful considering our founding, and to treat Romney's family fleeing as some sort of cowardly act of sin is really appalling to me. I mean, for god's sake, a governor actually filed an extermination order (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Executive_Order_44) to try and drive the Mormons out of Missouri, if not worse.
I'm no fan of Romney, but the fact that this sort of religious bigotry is tolerable really frustrates me. Gotta be afraid them scary Mormons will marry TWO of yer daughters, right? Those who this tripe is directed to will appreciate the fact that his family was escaping religious persecution, not be horrified by the fact that he's "a fourth Mexican" = i.e., his father was born in Mexico because the United States forced his family out due to his beliefs.
no subject
While those who treat gay marriage as a top issue shouldn't be silent about this, the editorializing here that somehow the Mormons should have been ashamed about their points of view on plural marriage/polygamy and the implication that they somehow earned the "persecution" because it was actually "prosecution"...ugh.
The reality is that the American treatment of Mormons is among the worst treatment of religion this nation has seen. It's doubly shameful considering our founding, and to treat Romney's family fleeing as some sort of cowardly act of sin is really appalling to me. I mean, for god's sake, a governor actually filed an extermination order (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Executive_Order_44) to try and drive the Mormons out of Missouri, if not worse.
I'm no fan of Romney, but the fact that this sort of religious bigotry is tolerable really frustrates me. Gotta be afraid them scary Mormons will marry TWO of yer daughters, right? Those who this tripe is directed to will appreciate the fact that his family was escaping religious persecution, not be horrified by the fact that he's "a fourth Mexican" = i.e., his father was born in Mexico because the United States forced his family out due to his beliefs.
Geez.