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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWas "Romney’s “Mormon” Draft Deferment Not Legal" ?
One senior editor at Vterans Today argues that Mitt Romney's deferment was not legal for a variety of reasons. Most glaring of these is the LDS policy on non-whites holding any positions within the church and how this put LDS at odds with the Civil Rights Act of 1965.
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 wasnt 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.
...
Every effort is made to make Romney look like something other than a felon, some articles admit political strings, some refer to illegal deals. But what we dont find is any support in the form of an entry in the Federal Registry nor any court challenges which would have most certainly been filed by the ACLU, SPLC, NAACP and other groups who would have immediately gone to court if a whites only church had been offered a special privilege.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/09/10/romneys-mormon-draft-deferrment-not-legal/
Lots of detail there and a discussion of how LDS eventually, sort of reconciled, with the IRS and Civil Rights laws in 1978 -- "a revelation."
Stuff on the "Cain doctrine" which I had never read before. A disgusting explanation of why the Mormon church holds that African descendants are to be banned from the temple and priesthood.
And he works in Sheldon Adelson before concluding "This is the faith of Willard Mitt Romney, and they clearly taught him how to Etch-a-Sketch with the best of them!"
11 Bravo
(23,922 posts)Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)Kind of nasty and nonsensical, but why let that get in the way of a good Slur.
Bryant
ret5hd
(20,433 posts)I dispute the Characterization of the Mormon Church; I also dispute the use of the term Illegal.
I also think its worthwhile to note that while there were a limited number of deferments available on these grounds, Romney was not the only one to receive them.
Bryant
SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)Then it was legal. What "might" have happened had someone pressed the issue on civil rights grounds is irrelevent, since no one did.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)He was arrested and found guilty on draft evasion charges, stripped of his boxing title, and his boxing license was suspended. Meanwile Mitt was in France, teaching that black people live under the curse of Cain. Man of honor: Mohammad Ali. Man of dishonor: Willard Romney
KurtNYC
(14,549 posts)quite a contrast
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)males in Utah used the same Crux to avoid the draft in the sixties and seventies. Poor Mormon males ended up in the military via the draft,only the better off dodged the draft.