Romney’s “Mormon” Draft Deferment Not Legal

[JaneyVee]

Draft Dodger Demonstrated for Vietnam Draft then Ran to France
by Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

Wikipedia gives Romney’s history, showing him to have dropped out of college at 19 and, instead of going to Vietnam as most Americans, he left for France but not covered by any deferment other than one claimed as part of a “private agreement” to name all Mormon children “ministers” according to Mitt’s biographers.

The US Constitution says otherwise, from page one onward. There is no language in the Federal Register supporting this claim, no court decisions and, as there were no African Americans allowed in the Mormon Church at the time, such a decision would have also been a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 and the Equal Protection provisions of the Constitution.

It wasn’t until 1978 that the challenges to the Mormon Church as legitimate due to their racists policies was settled by the IRS allowing them the legal status of a religious organization. Prior to that, they had the same tax standing as the KKK.

No ACLU lawsuit, no complaints against the then “whites only” Mormon Church and a bizarre number of contradictory stories to make Romney seem like something other than a felon, not very convincing stories at that.

Long, DAMNING evidence ahead: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/09/10/romneys-mormon-draft-deferrment-not-legal/

[StrictlyRockers]

1. Another Neo-con chickenhawk.

Beating the war drums and then running for the hills. NICE.

[nc4bo]

2. Oh dear - not sure what to say.

Seriously

[Spider Jerusalem]

3. The Constitution is silent on the issue

"make no law respecting an establishment of religion" means "shall not create an established Church"; a deferment from military conscription for ministers of religion (any religion) is not a law "respecting an establishment of religion", reading comprehension fail, for whoever wrote this. And it wasn't "all Mormon children"; according to what I can find, it was one every six months from each Mormon ward (congregation) in the country nominated for a deferment, and only of those who were going on a mission (which not all Mormons did). You can take it up with the Selective Service Board that granted the deferments in the first place; we can argue about whether they should have granted those deferments, but they were quite clearly legal at the time.

[elleng]

13. The establishment clause

has generally been interpreted to prohibit 1) the establishment of a national religion by Congress, or 2) the preference by the U.S. government of one religion over another. The first approach is called the "separation" or "no aid" interpretation, while the second approach is called the "non-preferential" or "accommodation" interpretation. The accommodation interpretation prohibits Congress from preferring one religion over another, but does not prohibit the government's entry into religious domain to make accommodations in order to achieve the purposes of the Free Exercise Clause.

[Spider Jerusalem]

16. Neither of which applies, in any case

[Angry Dragon]

4. Romneys flee to America, Romneys flee to Mexico, Romney flees to France

Willard's money flees from IRS

[chollybocker]

5. Surely, many religious people served in Viet Nam.

Just not those with governor daddies.

'Fortunate Son,' John Fogarty once sang.

[FreeState]

7. The we're lots of LDS that were in Vietnam as well

&feature

[kestrel91316]

11. My dad's roommate at the base in Thailand he was stationed at

during Vietnam was Mormon, FTR. He was a USAF officer like my dad.

Not sure if the enlisted ranks had many LDS draftees.

[FreeState]

6. Mormon missionaries are ordained ministers

They always have been. The government has always recognized them as such. This article is running on the misstated belief that blacks couldn't be members of the church until 1978. There haven been black members since the church started. Brigham Young made it so that blacks no longer could hold the priesthood - that was changed in 1978. Women still can't have the priesthood. The church was never seen as the same level as the KKK by the government.

The above article has so much wrong it's laughable.

[braddy]

15. There were black Mormons, but they were not eligible for church issued draft deferments.

The church submitted their own exemptions to the draft board for approval, they were only for non-blacks.

No black man could receive the exemption that Mitt received and other (non black) Mormon missionaries got.

As far as the government and Mormonism and the KKK, the government got tough with Mormonism.

"In 1862 the United States Congress passed the Morrill Act, which prohibited plural marriage in the territories, disincorporated the Mormon Church, and restricted the church's ownership of property. "

[FreeState]

18. They were not ministers thats why they were not eligible

that fact doesnt change the OPS wildly misstated facts and the dact that government never has regarded the Church on equal footing with the KKK. The article in the OP is deeply flawed and full of half truths. There is plenty to attack Romney on - what the OP brings up is not one of them.

Not sure what polygamy has to do with the KKK or serving as ministers as mentioned in the OP - they are not related as far as I can tell.

[braddy]

20. You keep calling them Ministers, the word is Priest, the Melchizedek Priesthood

and of course no black could be allowed that role, all black men were forbidden to receive a draft deferment from the Mormon church.

Black Mormons were drafted and dying, while white Mormons could ask for church deferments.

While we were watching 'Star Wars' , and Luke Skywalker, and Saturday Night Live, Mormonism was teaching racism.

[LunaSea]

8. Kick

Are the fonts the right height in the linked article?

[B Calm]

9. Letting the You People fight the war. .

[fishwax]

10. the argument that Mitt is a felon for what he did is rather unconvincing

Chickenhawk, no doubt, but what he did was hardly a felony or illegal. And I doubt it required his father to pull many strings. It is true that mormon missionaries were generally treated as ministers and so were awarded draft deferments. That started to change in the late 1960s, when the selective service began to limit the number of missionaries the church could count towards deferments. I don't know exactly when that change was made, but the bottom line is that the church was limited in how many missionaries it could exempt.

The article in the OP quotes the H. Bruce Franklin article in Counterpunch asserting that

the Selective Service entered into an agreement with the LDS that required the church to specify just one “minister” for each geographical district.

Since there were relatively few Mormons in Michigan, and Governor George Romney had considerable influence in the church, Mitt quickly received an official appointment as a Mormon “minister of religion,” consecrated by a draft deferment from the Selective Service.

The author of the OP article appears to interpret "geographical district" along the lines of a state:

The first “stinko” that comes out is the statement “Since there are relatively few Mormons in Michigan.” Actually, Michigan has tens of thousands of Mormons (42,000) and has one of the biggest Mormon populations in the Midwest.

I believe the agreement was not organized around geographical districts, but actually allowed each ward/branch (congregation) to exempt a new missionary each six months. I have no idea how many people attended the Bloomfield Hills ward where Mitt Romney grew up, but I'd be a bit surprised if they produced more than one missionary every 6 months back in the 60s.

[jsr]

12. How to stay out of harm's way in style and comfort:

Get a Book of Mormon, a tie and a bicycle.

[Cronus Protagonist]

14. HE NEEDS TO SHOW AMERICA HIS DEFERMENT PAPERS

I won't believe that he's anything but a fugitive until I see the actual documents.

[iamthebandfanman]

17. have you read some of the other pieces

on that website?
i dunno what to think of it ?

[flyguyjake]

19. Figures... The rich feel

they supersede the law. Just look at all these young punk actresses that have gotten into trouble. No doubt Romney's Daddy hid him in France to avoid his future "baby maker" from possibly getting honorably killed in war. Mormon's can't have their men dying before producing 20 babies! Disgusting!

[KamaAina]

21. Veterans Today is a hate group according to SPLC

thus, not a credible source for DU.

http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2011/01/06/buyer-beware-veterans-today-and-its-anti-israel-agenda/