DiscussMormonism.com

Mitt Romney says in a new interview that one of the reasons he’s distressed about disclosing his tax returns is that everyone sees how much money he and his wife, Ann, have donated to his Mormon church, and that’s a number he wants to keep private.

“Our church doesn’t publish how much people have given,” Romney tells Parade magazine in an edition due out Sunday (Aug. 26). “This is done entirely privately. One of the downsides of releasing one’s financial information is that this is now all public, but we had never intended our contributions to be known. It’s a very personal thing between ourselves and our commitment to our God and to our church.”

Hey, this is perfectly understandable. Candidates are constantly shy about revealing positive things they have done. Well, that certainly puts the lie to reports Romney's tax returns were being kept secret because they would show he had paid very little taxes due to Cayman Islands banking shenanigans. We know scoundrels wrap themselves in the flag, but never the Book of Mormon!!!

moksha wrote:

“Our church doesn’t publish how much people have given,” Romney tells Parade magazine in an edition due out Sunday (Aug. 26). “This is done entirely privately. One of the downsides of releasing one’s financial information is that this is now all public, but we had never intended our contributions to be known. It’s a very personal thing between ourselves and our commitment to our God and to our church.”

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel", opined Samuel Johnson. Unfortunately Mr. Johnson did not live to observe 21st century American politics, where religion has replaced patriotism.

Ann Romney said "We've given all you people (italics added) what you need to know about our finances." No doubt she feels that she and Mitt have been been very magnanimous in deigning to grace 'you people' with two years of tax returns.

Now Mitt is very reluctantly giving us one of the reasons he doesn't want to release more of his tax returns: People will see how generous he is.

Are we to assume that Mitt's father, George Romney, was a egomanical blowhard for releasing 12 years of his taxes? Was George Romney EVER criticized for giving too much money to the Mormon Church?

Some people are successful politicians because they have good ideas and believe in them. Others have a genius for convincing themselves that whatever it is they need to say to get elected is a good idea.

You know, our government would avoid a lot of conflict by acting more like the church. Keeping all its financial transactions private would avoid all kinds of criticism about how much was collected in taxes and how the money was spent. And they can just explain that it's not secret, it's sacred.

“... we had never intended our contributions to be known.”

Exactly! That's why they don't ever bring it up.

They would never tell blabber-mouth reporters things like "we also give 10% of our income to charity," and "if you add, in addition, the amount that goes to charity, why the number gets well above 20%."

They just wouldn't do that, because it's private information that they always intended to keep private.

A tithing settlement would go something like this...

"Brother Romney, have you paid a full tithe?"
"Bishop, I've given you people all the financial information you're going to get."
"But Brother Romney, it's tithing settlement, you should declare to me if you have paid a full tithe or not."
"Look Bishop, I had not intention of making those contributions public."
"Brother Romney, I am the Lords representative and you need to tell me."
"Bishop, doesn't the Lord already know....?"

moksha wrote:

Mitt Romney says in a new interview that one of the reasons he’s distressed about disclosing his tax returns is that everyone sees how much money he and his wife, Ann, have donated to his Mormon church, and that’s a number he wants to keep private.

“Our church doesn’t publish how much people have given,” Romney tells Parade magazine in an edition due out Sunday (Aug. 26). “This is done entirely privately. One of the downsides of releasing one’s financial information is that this is now all public, but we had never intended our contributions to be known. It’s a very personal thing between ourselves and our commitment to our God and to our church.”

Hey, this is perfectly understandable. Candidates are constantly shy about revealing positive things they have done. Well, that certainly puts the lie to reports Romney's tax returns were being kept secret because they would show he had paid very little taxes due to Cayman Islands banking shenanigans. We know scoundrels wrap themselves in the flag, but never the Book of Mormon!!!

It seems to me that if keeping that number private was such a huge deal to him, he shouldn't have run for president.

But really, why is this such a huge issue for him? Everybody presumes he made an obscene amount of money, and donated about 10% of it to his church. So what's wrong with letting people know the specifics of it?

There can only be one thing: his tax returns would show he didn’t give the church 10%. This speculation is based on the assumption that as a smart, rational guy, he knows that the damage of releasing the returns would be even bigger than the damage of keeping them secret. What could be so damaging? Think of it: what would happen if it were revealed that Mitt Romney only paid, say, 6% of his gross income in tithing? That would be devastating.

Proof of underpayment is something I considered. However, I think that would be easily forgiven by his Mormon base, and everyone else wouldn't care.

I wonder if it isn't likely to be something like a large donation to the Prop 8 cause. We know the church was soliciting donations from its moneyed members. And that would definitely hurt him among independents.

krose wrote:Proof of underpayment is something I considered. However, I think that would be easily forgiven by his Mormon base, and everyone else wouldn't care.

I wonder if it isn't likely to be something like a large donation to the Prop 8 cause. We know the church was soliciting donations from its moneyed members. And that would definitely hurt him among independents.

This.

krose wrote:Proof of underpayment is something I considered. However, I think that would be easily forgiven by his Mormon base, and everyone else wouldn't care.

I wonder if it isn't likely to be something like a large donation to the Prop 8 cause. We know the church was soliciting donations from its moneyed members. And that would definitely hurt him among independents.

I was under the impression that large donations to Prop 8 had to be disclused somehow? Even if they didn't, would it be tax deductible? Getting a tax break for financing that fear-mongering misinformation campaign would piss me off.

Did Moroni also take up to Heaven all of the relevant documents pertaining to the Fast and Furious gun-walking operation program???

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... documents/

"When Mitt and I give that check," she said, "I actually cry."