Letters to the Editor
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Romney and the Lawrence Welk Show
This article unfairly characterizes the Mormon religion in general. A line exists, between the religious right, and the Mormons, on the issue of the war. The Mormons have always been an ethno-centrist culture. Read their history. Many young Mormons do missionary work, regardless of the personal sacrifice or the benefits.
Now that this close community has offered one of its own to the highest elected political office, there is bound to be a lot of scrutiny. There are things to question, about the way Mormon values actually undermine family values, how the idea of an elitist heaven, and gaudy, byzantine chapels speak more to Egypt than the Christian heaven. Someone suggested that real people should get to ask the questions at the debate. I agree completely.
Romney may be a chickenhawk, and his insulated childhood makes him a perfect match for his Republican predecessor, who used his wealth and connections to avoid service. Before you blame his religion, remember, Utah gave many of its sons in the war in Vietnam.
Perhaps that singing group was thinking of an audition for Lawrence Welk, the popular television entertainment program of the time, which was supported in syndication, after Welk's death, by the core of religious performers on the program, predominantly Mormon. The show still runs on PBS. There was never any mention of the war at any time on that show, which is guilt by omission, but a interesting symbol of the Mormon attitude toward the war, then, and now.