A Gut Wrenching Roller Coaster Ride

In the weeks leading up to the 2012 Presidential election last Tuesday, especially after the first debate in which President Obama performed so poorly, it seemed as if the momentum was swinging towards former Governor Mitt Romney and that he had a good chance of being elected the 45th President of the United States of America. Most LDS Church members and conservative Christians supported him for his economic management skills and his Christian values. However, on election day a larger number of supporters of President Obama's liberal policies voted for him, especially in the key swing states whose electoral college votes were somewhat undecided and the key to either candidate winning the election. Even though the electoral college results were lopsided, there was only a  2.7% difference between the two candidates. Many Romney supporters were devastated by the loss, not so much because their candidate didn't prevail, but rather out of concern for our country, the weakening of the Constitution, and erosion of Constitutional rights.



Dr. Ed Lauritsen, author of "Mormons Under the Microscope" (http://books.google.com/books/about/Mormons_Under_the_Microscope.html?id=A4HYraTaVbAC)
offers in this email note some possible explanations for why it might be for the best that Mitt Romney was not elected President of the United States.

By Dr. Ed Lauritsen.

My dear friend in Tucson’s late husband was his [Romney's] Mission President.  Knowing that she and many of his other friends would be feeling distressed last night, he penned the following.  She passed it on to me and; likewise, I pass it on to my friends....

It is Election Night 2012, and I'm sitting here at my computer listening to Governor Romney's concession speech, trying to come to grips with his defeat---our defeat. And into my mind comes three interesting thoughts. The first comes with a scripture:  

"Behold, I will hasten my work in its time." (D&C 88:73).
    
If the Lord's "work" is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39), and if that process begins by hearing about the Church and seeing its members, then the sooner and the faster the greatest number of people can see and hear about the Latter-day Saints---especially about exemplary Saints like the Romneys---the more the work is hastened. And though the Church has 55,000+ missionaries who are quietly and patiently roaming the world knocking on doors, the Lord has brought the LDS Governor and his LDS family into the very homes of millions of people around the U.S. and the world via TV, radio, and Internet for more than a year now---people who might never have received or accepted the missionaries or LDS neighbors, let alone have learned about the LDS way of life. But now they have listened, watched, and learned, and many of them will likely be more curious and receptive to the missionaries in the future. And that also goes for many of the Evangelicals, Protestants, and Catholics who locked arms with the Latter-Day Saints (thanks to Glenn Beck) during this long presidential campaign. Bottom line: the Romneys lost a hard-fought political battle, but they---and the Church---won a decisive, long-awaited cultural and spiritual victory in opening the minds and hearts of millions.
    
Another post-election thought: "Be careful what you pray for."
    
Had Romney won, it is highly doubtful that he and his team would have been able to rescue the nation's wounded economy from the purposeful destruction that Obama has intentionally inflicted upon it, Obama having done so in order to "fundamentally transform" our free enterprise system into a Socialist state. Had Romney won, the only possible way to have saved the nation and its economy would have been to make deep cuts in the welfare and entitlement programs---cuts that would have been branded "murderous, discriminatory and racist" at every turn by the Liberal mainstream media. And the ever-increasing drumbeat of these accusations over the next four years would have given license to thousands---perhaps millions--- of malcontents to take to the streets in "civil unrest" (aka anarchy). As such, Romney's never-ending vilification would have soon painted him---and his fellow Mormons---as the enemies of America, with all the resulting antagonism, stress, and persecution of the Church, both at home and abroad. As is, over the next four years, right-wing zealots---not Christian Conservatives--- will likely become increasingly resistant, confrontational, and possibly violent in response to the creeping Socialism. Thus, "social unrest" may begin at the other end of the political spectrum, likely precipitating equally violent responses from the pro-Socialist masses.
    
And this foregoing scenario brings me to the third and final thought tonight, one which also was accompanied by the written word, this time in the form of a powerful metaphor by Hugh Nibley. I close with it:
    
“On the last night of a play, the whole cast and stage crew stay in the theater until the small, or not so small, hours of the morning striking the old set.  If there is to be a new opening soon, as the economy of the theater requires, it is important that the new set should be in place and ready for the opening night; all the while the old set was finishing its usefulness and then being taken down, the new set was rising in splendor to be ready for the drama that would immediately follow. So it is with this world. It is not our business to tear down the old set---the agencies that do that are already hard at work and very efficient---the set is coming down all around us with spectacular effect. Our business is to see to it that the new set is well on the way for what is to come---and that means a different kind of politics, beyond the scope of the tragedy that is now playing its closing night. We are preparing for the establishment of Zion.”
    
Nibley, Hugh. Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless: Classic Essays of Hugh W. Nibley, Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center, 1978, p. 302