Mitt Romney: ‘We’re all children of the same god’

In all the analysis of last week’s Presidential debate, something slipped through the cracks.

Sure, we all saw Obama’s “professorial” demeanor. Everybody noticed that Romneybot 2000 was replaced with a Real Live Human. Romney was aggressive and combative, impressing viewers; Obama, not nearly enough. FactCheck.org told us that neither candidate told the entire truth, fact-checking many of their claims.

But ChristianNews.net picked up on one assertion of Romney’s that wasn’t fact-checked.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made reference to a universal god during Wednesday night’s presidential debate via a single statement not particularly related to the debate issues at hand.

“We’re a nation that believes that we’re all children of the same God,” Romney said.

But are we? Even among the religious, do Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, and Deists all believe they are children of the same god? What of the 19% of Americans who are non-religious? Do they?

Probably not.

Christiannews.net fact-checked the Mormon god for us, looking to the writings of the First Mormon, Joseph Smith:

During the 1990′s, Romney, a former Mormon bishop, was in charge of overseeing LDS affairs in his city in Massachusetts. He also worked as a Mormon missionary in France for a time, and continues supporting the Latter Day Saints by tithing ten percent of his income to his local Mormon establishment. Tax returns submitted by Mitt Romney indicate that in 2011, Romney donated an estimated $4 million to Mormon causes. Therefore, many consider Romney to be an authority on Mormonism and strongly dedicated to its cause and beliefs.

According to the writings of Joseph Smith, the founder of the LDS religion, Mormons believe that God was originally a man that lived on another planet, and that men must learn how to also become a god.

“We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea and take away the veil so you may see,” Smith wrote in Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. “[H]e was once a man like us. Yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ did.”

“[Y]ou have to learn how to be gods yourselves,” Smith continued. “[T]he same as all gods have done before you.”

Mormon writings also outline that Jesus and Satan are purportedly spirit brothers, and that both offered to die for the sins of the people, calling out, “Here am I, send me,” according to Abraham 3:27 in The Pearl of Great Price. The LDS “Church” teaches that like Jesus and Satan, every person is a spirit brother or sister that has always existed. But, in order to do become a god, they must follow both the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Requirements include being baptized into Mormonism, tithing to the LDS “Church” and performing baptisms for the dead.

That sure doesn’t sound like the Bible God I was raised with (American Baptist). And it doesn’t sound much at all like the reincarnation cycles of Hinduism, or the many deities of different Native American tribes.

Mr. Romney, having had his Mormonism in the spotlight for many years, could not possibly be ignorant of the substantive variance between the Mormon god and the Christian god, and that of the numerous other religions practiced in the United States. Surely, he is also aware that a substantial minority of Americans are non-religious.

Mr. Romney has stated that “We’re a nation that believes that we’re all children of the same god.” Secular News Daily rates this claim, if I may borrow the phrase, “Pants on Fire”.

Related articles:

1. Cass: Romney Must Renounce "Mormon Hostility to Christianity"
2. Religious Right Author Says Romney's Mormon Faith Makes Him Unfit For Office
3. Fischer Is Not Fooling Anyone With His Latest Attack On Romney's Faith
4. Mitt Romney’s Troubling Views on Religion in Government
5. Fischer: "If Anybody Is Out There Saying Something Is A Cult, It's The LDS Church!"