So frustrated, I don't even know what to say...

I just followed a link to an article in The Daily Beast about Mitt Romney and his religious background. I have to admit, I am so frustrated and angry right now, I'm near tears and shaking. It's not that the article lambasted my church or spread blatant lies about Mormonism; rather, it was that every statement was written with an insidious bias which definitely spoke silent volumes of: "This church is full of controlling fanatics and brainwashed lemings who are not Christians."

After rehearsing Mitt's upbringing in a family who lived their religion every day, allowed others to do the same, and strived to teach their children to do hard things and value HARD work, the following statement undercut any positive impressions the reader might have felt about Mitt's father and family.

"If Mitt chafed under the demands of his idiosyncratic father and his faith, he didn't show it." Idiosyncratic? For teaching his children to work in the garden on Saturday and pray daily? Really?

The article accused Mitt of being conflicted about his faith...giving examples of teenage pranks as the evidence. His LDS mission was dissected into bits and pieces that really just illustrate that at 19, Mitt was very much like any other 19 year-old boy, trying his best to do a good thing but still human and learning to be an adult.

Anyway, I couldn't finish the article. It just went on and on, subtly twisting facts to create a picture of mormons that got weirder and more fanatical as it progressed. I realize that my "mormon" faith has many people up in arms, but the fact that people will read THAT article and fully believe that I would knowingly not only be a part of, but LOVE a religion like that false picture created, highly, HIGHLY offends and saddens me.

I don't so much care that Mitt Romney comes off sounding pathetic and manipulated by his mormon heritage, as I care that people will believe The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints resembles anything close to that portrayal. Or that mormons, any of us, would be a part of an institution fitting that description.

If you want to know about the church that Mitt Romney belongs to, please learn about it from a Mormon. Get to know a Mormon that loves being Mormon. Go to mormon.org. Or follow my link to why I am a Mormon. Wouldn't you want me to do the same for you and your beliefs?

My Mormon.org profile

Our Family: An Improv Sketch

So Cody was in a troup of actors performing an "Improviganza" last week and our family ended up being the subject of the big finale sketch. (How do these things always happen?) Anyway, they asked for volunteers from the audience to share their marriage stories and Cody prepped me ahead of time that I HAD to raise my hand. They then proceeded to ask Ren and I how we met, how we got engaged and how life was after marriage. I couldn't really tell them the WHOLE story (how we dated, he got fresh with me on his couch and then got the "just friends" talk, etc.) that might have ended up not-so-family-friendly in the hands of high schoolers, so I took a little artistic license with the fact that we've known each other since he was 13 and I was 12. I told them we met at a church dance, then again at BYU where I gave him the "just friends" talk, then magically fell in love, got married and had seven kids. Ren told them life ever since has been a roller coaster, tornado and hurricane all mixed together.

Well, since these kids actually know a few members of our family, they got things scarily accurate! They also incorporated a funny comment Curtis had made earlier in the show when they ask the audience to yell out suggestions for an awkward moment they could act out. Right at a moment when things were totally quiet, Curtis yells out from the second row, "That awkward moment when you're holding hands with someone and get punched in the face!" The host wanted to know how often that had happened to him. ;D

So thanks to Higley High School's Improviganza, you get to enjoy our life condensed to 5 minutes of chaos on a stage!