Santorum’s hitman and the racist LDS Church

It’s easy to see now why the voters of Pennsylvania gave Rick Santorum the boot six years ago. Now that he’s decided to play the same Mormon card that worked so well for the equally bright Rick Perry, I hope his defeat in the upcoming primaries is even more humiliating. Tomorrow morning the honorary chairman of Santorum’s Florida campaign, Rev. O’Neal Dozier of the WorldWide Christian Center, plans to hold a press conference in Pompano Beach with a group of other bigoted African-American pastors. Their purpose? To ask Mitt Romney to “openly renounce his racist Mormon Religion” in order to “foster and maintain good race relations here in America.” Their unstated purpose, of course, is to benefit Santorum by reminding Southern voters of Romney’s faith before they cast their ballots the following day.

Now let me get this straight. The Rev. Dozier has labored for decades in his ministry, and has all of 2,000 souls to show for his efforts. I don’t know whether he knows the definition of chutzpah, but it takes a considerable amount of it for him to presume to label a church “racist” that has over 350,000 members and 1,000 congregations in Africa (the LDS Church’s fastest-growing region), 1.2 million members and 2,000 congregations in multiracial Brazil, and many black members in the Caribbean, Central and South America, and the United States. In my last blog post, I profiled a black Mormon who is running for the presidency of Mali. As a biracial Mormon, I laugh at the pastor’s ignorance and arrogance.
 
The good book tells us that by their fruits ye shall know them. The Mormon Church is building chapels and temples in Africa and Brazil at a record rate, sealing black couples together for eternity, calling blacks to leadership positions (including callings as senior Church leaders and spokesmen), bringing blacks into the Abrahamic covenant, and keeping black families together throughout the world through gospel-centered teachings. As far as I can tell, the good reverend is living off his flock (he reportedly drives a Mercedes and likes expensive suits) while preaching that homosexuality “makes God want to vomit” and that Islam is a terrible religion. It’s actually a badge of honor for Mormons to be on Santorum’s religious hitman’s list.

There’s no need for me to revisit LDS Church history here, because Santorum and his proxies should be looking to the future instead.  Romney has won the overwhelming share of the Mormon vote everywhere, while Santorum has lost the Catholic vote in every major state. I guess his coreligionists can spot a fraud when they see one. Things must be going badly for Rick if he’s nominating bigots as honorary state campaign chairmen. This country deserves better, and so does Rev. Dozier’s flock. If he wants to see black Christians who are enthusiastic about their faith, he should do as I did and visit Mormon congregations in South Africa. Heck, maybe he can hold a similar press conference in Johannesburg featuring his “racist Mormon Church” message.  I’ll pay his airfare if the Mormons there buy it.