Recently during a "60 Minutes" interview with Mike Wallace, Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney made the following statement:

"There is part of the history of the church’s past that I understand is troubling to people," Romney says. "Look, the polygamy, which was outlawed in our church in the 1800s, that’s troubling to me. I have a great-great grandfather. They were trying to build a generation out there in the desert. And so he took additional wives as he was told to do. And I must admit I can’t imagine anything more awful than polygamy."

Mitt Romney, as everyone by now knows, is a devout Mormon, as even Mike Wallace alluded to during the early part of the interview. So, when he tells a national audience that he "can't imagine anything more awful than polygamy," one has to wonder if he's telling the truth. Why? Because as few people know, Mormonism still has within its "Standard Works" (the Mormon source for "official doctrine" among Mormons) a full section dealing with the topic of polygamy, and those who think it's "awful" are destined for damnation for refusing to practice it. Notice the following from Doctrine & Covenants [D&C] 132:1-4.

To:Joseph Smith

1 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you my servant Joseph, that inasmuch as you have inquired of my hand to know and understand wherein I, the Lord, justified my servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as also Moses, David and Solomon, my servants, as touching the principle and doctrine of their having many wives and concubines-- 2 Behold, and lo, I am the Lord thy God, and will answer thee as touching this matter. 3 Therefore, prepare thy heart to receive and obey the instructions which I am about to give unto you; for all those who have this law revealed unto them must obey the same. 4 For behold, I reveal unto you a new and an everlasting covenant; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory.

Of course, the rest of this particular "revelation" to Joseph Smith goes on to outline just what can be expected if one is married to the right person (another Mormon), in the right place (the Mormon temple), and by the right authority (a Mormon priesthood holder), with specific references to polygamous marriage and the condoning of it, namely exaltation unto godhood. Moreover, in D&C 132:54 there is stern warning that God allegedly revealed to Joseph to pass on to his wife, Emma, that if she objected to the idea of polygamy, that she would be destroyed.  So, it is quite clear throughout that polygamy is anything but "awful," at least according to such an authoritative Mormon source, but instead is a blessing from God, and is something to be obeyed if the faithful Mormon is truly desirous of salvation.

Nevertheless, lets assume that Romney does believe that there is nothing more awful than polygamy. What is also safe to assume? That the Mormon Church is awful, given that its leadership practiced polygamy for several decades after the supposed prohibition was uttered by Mormon President Wilford Woodruff. Hardly. In a Mormon's mind, the Mormon Church is the Kingdom of God on earth, if not God himself, and can do no wrong, despite a never-ending list of bad doctrine leading to bad behavior.  In fact, one cannot attain "true" salvation without being a member of the Mormon Church.  So, with all of that riding on the line, the Church cannot be "awful," can it?

How about, Mitt Romney believes that the Book of Mormon, or more specifically, the Doctrine & Covenants  is "awful." Not on your life. Mormonism would completely fall apart if it was ever admitted that any part of the extra-biblical writings which make Mormonism what it is were "awful" or in error. And that despite the fact that there is nothing verifiable to support anything the Book of Mormon has to say, much less the twisted renderings of D&C 132 which openly condones plural marriage.

Well, if Romney would never consider either the Mormon Church or the Book of Mormon to be "awful," then what about Joseph Smith? After all, he's the one who first introduced the idea of polygamy to the Mormon people. Besides, Joseph Smith not only practiced polygamy (some report he had as many as 33 wives), but Joseph's ventures led him to not only marry children (Helen Mar Kimball was 14; Fanny Alger was 16), the children and their mothers (Patty Bartlett and Sylvia Sessions), but the wives of other men (Zina Huntington, Marinda Johnson, Sarah Kingsley), while they were still married to them, as well. First of all, it is anathema for any Mormon to speak ill of the "prophet," so Romney is not going to do that, and that despite all the perversions that the "prophet" engaged in and propagated. Second, if a Mormon ever expects to succeed in becoming a god himself one day, and part of the requirement for attaining such a lofty status is to receive a "certificate" of approval from Joseph Smith, then fear of forfeiture will also keep Romney's mouth shut for attributing awfulness to Smith.

How about God? Isn't he "awful," since He's the one who ultimately mandated polygamy in the first place? Not at all.  How could anyone condemn God, who's an actively practicing polygamist himself?  And that includes Jesus.  Former Mormon apostle Orson Pratt once wrote,

Now, we have no reason to suppose that this increase would continue, unless through the laws of generation, whereby Jesus, like his Father, should become the Father of spirits; and, in order to become the Father of spirits, or, as Isaiah says, "The Everlasting Father," it is necessary that He should have one or more wives by He could multiply His seed, not for any limited period of time, but forever and ever: thus He truly would be a Father everlastingly, according to the name which was to be given Him.

So, if Romney does not believe that any of the aforementioned are "awful," then just how can he believe that polygamy itself is awful?  The fact of the matter is, he cannot.  Romney no more deplores polygamy than he does his Mormon faith, which is "awful" by biblical standards.  Instead, what we have in Mitt Romney is another mealy-mouthed Mormon who is unwilling to tell us what he really believes when asked, but hides those beliefs underneath his collar out of expediency.  For he knows that if he ever actually divulged his Mormon beliefs and his devotion to them in public, his political campaign for President of the United States would suddenly suffer cardiac arrest.

The United States does not need another presidential leader with a forked tongue, much less does it need someone with the kind of religious pedigree which would cause a Mitt Romney to say one thing before the TV cameras and something else in his heart.  What the United States does need is a presidential leader who says one thing because his heart's motives are pure.  Romney's motives are not pure, they are "awful."  And only those dumb enough to listen to the one-pronged message coming from his two-forked tongue will laud him otherwise.