Great Men Pray: Is The LDS Church Advocating POTUS Candidates?

Imagine as a Mormon going to church this week and finding the image on the right, poster-sized on the framed, ward display case bulletin board.  George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Barack Obama--all US Presidents--are seen with their heads bowed, eyes closed, hovering angel-esque above a LDS ward congregation also intent on prayer.  To the immediate right of the presidential portraits proclaims the caption:  "Great Men Pray."  In the youth classes, each youth is given a wallet-sized "Pass-along Card" with the same depiction as well.

Would such a poster cause you pause to think about the neutrality of the political position of the church?  Would you wonder why a poster of a sitting President who was actively campaigning for re-election decorated the same hallways as Jesus kneeling in Gethsemane or healing a leaper?  Would you ponder the singularity of such an event when no such other depictions of US Presidents adorned the hallowed passageways?

Although the LDS church created no such poster and the image is a photoshop of my own hand, it is however based on a similar 1956 poster depicted then with President Eisenhower instead of President Obama.  As in the case today with Obama, Eisenhower was running for re-election in 1956.

Elder Ezra T. Benson of the Quorum of the Twelve who was concurrently serving as Secretary of the Agriculture under President Eisenhower had this to say about the actual "Great Men Pray" poster (below) in the Sunday Morning (largest audience) Session of the October 1956 General Conference:

I was pleased, my brethren and sisters, as I read the report of the April conference and the remarks by Elder Mark E. Petersen, speaking as directed by the First Presidency, in announcing the series of new Church posters and cards for the benefit particularly of our young people, to note that one of them was going to be devoted to prayer. I wish there were time this morning to read the account of this particular card and poster on prayer. One will show the picture of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and President Eisenhower in the background, and then in the foreground a family group. At the top we will read: "Great Men Pray," and again at the bottom: "Be Honest with Yourself." (scriptures.byu.edu)

Mormon-themed Blogger Keepapitchinin puts into perspective the distribution and church emphasis on distribution of the original posters and wallet sized cards from the series of BHWY advertising directed at the youth: "Be Honest With Yourself: The Background."  In fairness, at least the wallet cards attempted on the reverse side to explain the Presidential depiction of then current President Eisenhower by alluding to his time as a General in WWII:

Washington at Valley Forge — Lincoln before Gettysburg — Eisenhower on D Day — Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove — Jesus at Gethsemane and at Golgotha — all these have prayed (full text available h/t tinypineapple.com)

By announcing the poster before the body of the church just a month before elections, could the poster have served as an over-zealous attempt by the church to influence its membership while staying technically neutral?  Furthermore, the governorship for the state of Utah was in chaos in a tight three-way race with incumbent Gov. Lee running as a Republican-turned-independent against strong Democrat and Republican contenders.  Both Lee and Republican Clyde both sought Eisenhower's endorsement, with Clyde (who would win) receiving a more current endorsement than Lee.  The issue of Eisenhower appearing in the LDS "Great Men Pray" distributions was addressed in Chapter 17 of Gov. Lee's biography "Let Em Holler" (Digital version avail at Utah State History) where the author was apparently unawares of the October announcement, instead crediting a post-election December date.  This raises the further question of did the "Great Men Pray" poster influence the outcome of a Utah gubernatorial election?

Bringing us to 2011, the issue of the involvement of the LDS into the political arena remains a poignant one for dedicated members such as myself.  We are currently dealing with a church who wants to influence immigration bills and to even formally lobby and praise the state legislature when it passes bills it likes.

Now the question before us is how much will the church want to promote or influence its two Mormon Presidential candidates:  Romney and Huntsman.  Although I don't worry about the church overtly supporting either candidate, as it has recently and repeatedly reiterated its neutrality stance (The Blaze, June 29, 2011), I do worry about the more subtle--yet potentially equally as powerful "Great Men Pray" types of support or advocacy the church may want to exert both pre- and post-election.

Mormons as a group are in the tank for Romney and to a lesser extent Huntsman.  Just today the Daily Herald revealed that Romney had secured support from 57 out of 80 Utah legislators, including 13 from Utah County.  Mormons will support the Mormon POTUS candidates just like blacks supported Obama in 2010, if for no other reason than their perceived political advancement of their minority.  For me I have a hard time supporting Romney who backed now ex-Sen. Bob Bennett in our grassroots push to replace him; and Huntsman is hard to swallow because he lied to his Democrat contender three years ago about his commitment to serve as Governor for his full 4-year term (Nacilbupera, May 2009).  While I'd take either Mormon over Obama in a wink and am glad they are both in the race, I am more appreciative of the multiple better-principled contenders for the Republican nomination I have to choose from.

P.S.:  For the die-hard Obama haters that can't imagine President Obama being a man of prayer, I derived the photoshop of Obama praying from this actual photo (White House Blog, Feb 2011) of Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast.  I don't hate Obama; I just hate his policies, lies, and lack of leadership.

Obama's Ultimate Insult to Government Transparency (Update)

In the past legislative session in Utah, HB477 aka "GRAMA bill" sparked a bipartisan outrage at the proposed modifications to government transparency which led to its repeal.  From day one of passage, I spoke out against HB477 and more recently set personal example by running an extremely transparent GOP leadership campaign (which I did not win.)

Yet President Obama's lack of transparency concerning the death of Osama bin Laden pales in comparison to the issues presented above.  First, despite $625K in annual speechwriting fees and up to $100K in teleprompter assistance (Washington Times, h/t American Thinker) Obama provided scarce details in announcing the death of Osama.  No mention of the four helicopters including a downed one, the number of people killed or captured, the ritual cleansing of the body, the Islamic funeral mocking the death of those who died in 9/11, nor the burial at sea.  These things had to be sorted out by the media over the course of the past few days and was entirely inappropriate for the Commander in Chief not to mention.

Now we are told that we are not going to have any opportunity to review video or pictures of the event.  Indeed we haven't heard from a single eyewitness of the event, nor have we been privy to the DNA test results or the facial recognition results.  In other words, Obama has simply said "trust me."  For a government accountable to "We the People" this is unacceptable. 

We paid for these operations from our tax money and we have a right to witness ALL the evidence of Osama's death.  It's not that we necessarily disbelieve what we are told, we just want to exercise our constitutionally-guaranteed right to information.  Indeed Monday the AP filed a FOIA request to get access to the information owed the American People (CBS).

The reason given by the Obama administration for not releasing the information was that it "could" incite Muslim fanatics to violence.  In this arrogant decision the President is neglecting his duty to We the People and the Constitution.  We owe no allegiance to Muslim terrorists, but the President is to work for us, the American people. 

This insult is just the latest in a series of events marking Obama as perhaps the most un-transparent President ever to take office.  One of the things I will be looking for in a new President in 2012 is someone who will commit release all the Osama death images, video, and evidence to the People.

++++ Update 9:30pm

After watching the first presidential debates tonight on Fox News, four (Paul, Pawlenty, Johnson, Santorum) of the five raised their hand in support of releasing the OBL pictures.  Having been impressed with Cain, I was highly disappointed he alone did not support releasing the pictures. (National Journal)

My Response to Obama's SOTU Address

My response to Obama's State of the Union speech tonight is brief. Maybe it was the garden-hose-to-wildfire approach to debt of Obama's promise to "freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years."

So here's my official response (h/t GEICO):

The Evil of Eric Holder

US Attorney General Eric Holder is a evil man. For me, being evil as it applies to the political world unites two components: first, a person must pursue a pervasively wrong ideology such as socialism, communism, fascism, dismantling our sacred law-of-the-land the Constitution, or other form of tyranny. As horrible as these are, there are some folks who fall into this category that are simply "misguided" in their philosophy due to propaganda or indoctrination rather than meeting my benchmark of being "evil."

The second part of being evil involves a breach of power, a trampling of law, bribe, or other form of corruption. An elected official having the second component but lacking the first is a guilty lawbreaker who should be punished, guilty of the human foibles of greed, lust, or vanity. Thus it takes the "ebony and ivory"^* if you will of both wrong ideology and political corruption to qualify for this label of "evil" I feign from using. Just as foreign evil doers are omnipresent in world history, I too as a citizen must do my duty to "support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic" [emphasis mine] as my honeybunny committed to do during her recent naturalization.

Holder has a proven record of releasing criminals including the Puerto-Rican terrorists to buoy up Hillary Clinton's Senatorial bid in New York and Marc Rich, a fugitive on the FBI's 10-most-wanted list.

More recently, Holder tried to get 9/11 mastermind KSM tried in civilian court--in of all places, NYC of course! After considerable bipartisan outrage, Holder announced four months ago today that the trial for KSM was '"weeks away" and [would] not be made or announced before President Obama leaves for Guam, Indonesia and Australia on March 18.' Two weeks ago Josh Gerstein of the Politico.com had this update:

Now advocates on both sides of the issue say they expect the Obama administration to punt the decision until after the November midterm elections— when the controversial plan could do less damage to the political fortunes of endangered Democrats and might face less resistance on Capitol Hill....

....While “swift and certain justice” once was a regular part of the White House lexicon on Guantanamo and detainee trials, that catchphrase has now vanished along with the prospect of anything swift happening to most of the prisoners slated for continued detention or trial.

The trial of KSM by Holder in civilian court is one more example of Holder's incorrect ideology in wanting to try terrorists as civilians in civilian court, while at the same time potentially denying them the 6th Amendment right to a speedy trial by needlessly postponing it. Because of potential 6th Amendment violations in civilian court, the only legal means of prosecution remains military court as it should be done.

"Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is going to meet justice and he's going to meet his maker" quipped Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs last February in a CBS news article with the Obama Administration pledging to seek swift justice. Sure thing, Obama! Just like you plugged the hole down in the Gulf, got the unemployed back to work, and held those Obamacare discussions on C-SPAN. (Obama's pre-election utter dearth of executive experience is glaring...)

All this brings us to some of the latest evil actions of Holder, this time clearly showing the level of corruption that exists in the DOJ for which he is at best guilty by apathy for looking the other way. This concerns the New Black Panthers (black equivalent of the KKK) voter intimidation case dismissed by the DOJ. You'll remember the famous video now with over 1M hits:

Only a few saw this racist clip: "That's why ya gonna be ruled by the black man."

In an important interview with Megyn Kelly during the last week, J. Christian Adams, a DOJ attorney who had resigned in disgust over the DOJ's dismissal of charges revealed all in two 10-minutes segments: Part 1 Part 2

These videos with Adams makes it clear that AG Eric Holder is running a culture of corruption in the DOJ. The New Black Panther Party should have been punished. I personally will continue to hold Eric Holder responsible for this miscarriage of justice. This corruption backed by a false, socialistic ideology of scrapping the Constitution shows that Eric Holder is Evil. Should Obama have any iota of executive competence in him, he should replace Evil Holder at once.


^* Use of this phrase is devoid of innuendo of racial propensity towards either component. I am simply a big Stevie Wonder fan (Obama-loving McCartney not so much) and the racial overtones of the phrase were applicable to the theme of Black Panthers voter intimidation. I also got this vision of socialism and corruption sitting side-by-side on the piano in perfect harmony.

No vote for quitters?

Tonight on the Sean Hannity show, Democratic Strategist Jacques Degraff on Hannity's Great American Panel made the comment "I don't vote for quitters" in reference to Sarah Palin resignation of the Alaska governorship. Just before the quitting comment he said he had voted for Barack Obama/Joe Biden.

A quick refresh of 2008 is revealing: Obama resigned from the Senate halfway through his first Senate term and Biden resigned TWO MONTHS after being elected Senator.

Progressives want negative labels to apply to their opponents, but fail to recognize the beam in their own eye. If you consider Palin a quitter, you must acknowledge that Obama and Biden are quitters, too. This point was missed by the panel but we saw through the irony: so much for not voting for quitters, Mr. Degraff!

To President Obama: Veto HR3590

Here is the email we sent tonight to President Obama urging him to veto HR3590.

Mr President:

I strongly urge you to veto HR 3590 as passed yesterday by a small-margined, partisan vote on a day reserved by the majority of Americans as a day to worship God with all polls showing broad opposition among We the People.

With your pledge to sign this bill, you break several promises to the American people you made including:
(1) The promise to cut taxes for 95% of Americans
(2) To televise the healthcare debates on C-Span
(3) To not vote for any bill that negatively impacted the debt (the true costs of this bill are $2T+)
And perhaps most importantly you would violate your oath to uphold the Constitution. Never before have Americans been forced to purchase anything as a condition of proper citizenship. The individual mandate is unconstitutional.

Videos of the Week: Obamafeld! (Update)

If this were on Youtube, our guess is it'd go viral. But if you have to register with PJTV (for free!) to view, it is well worth it!

As is, the video featured in Creative Minority Report, Sound Politics (WA), Instapundit, and the list keeps growing...

+++ Update 6pm:

Found this video on BigGovernment.com too which we love:

Nacilbupera has never really enjoyed rap that much--not for the rhythms, but for the explicit lyrics and progressive themes (comes to mind a particular Eminem song which tune we love but we can't bear to listen to because of the shamefully-awful lyrics.) We love the Wolverine's beat, the vid is great, and the lyrics are hilarious! If only rap were more like this...

OTP, Man!

Professor Obama's Lecture at the State of the Union Shows He Still Doesn't Get It

Tonight in his lengthy, professorial lecture Obama reiterated support for the two biggest bills Nacilbupera and Americans opposed this year: Cap N Tax (IE "Climate Change Bill"/Waxman-Markey/"Cap N Trade") and the Democare healthcare scheme. If anyone was in any doubts of whether a Brown victory in MA was enough to pull Obama towards the middle, those doubts have been erased. The State of our Union is bad and Obama doesn't know how to fix it. Worse, he ignores the will of the people in opposing these schemes and taxes.

Obama also reiterated his lie to the American people about creating (or saving) 2 million jobs when the facts are he has lost 4 million in his first year as president.

In a show of bombastic maneuvering, he advocated that federal government workers be given preferential treatment in student loan forgiveness over private sector workers. (Sounds rather unconstitutional let alone anti-business, pro government bureaucracy).

He proposed a super-lite freeze of spending of selected budget items at what are now unsustainable, record levels. The funniest line of all showing how minuscule importance he takes on cutting the deficit was this:

"I know that some in my own party will argue that we cannot address the deficit or freeze government spending when so many are still hurting. I agree, which is why this freeze will not take effect until next year..."

Nacilbupera broke out in hysterical ROFL at the pathetic-ness of an Obama fiscally-responsible budget and complete lack of courage to stand up for the smallest of all budget cutting ideas.

In contrast, Nacilbupera feels the president should proposed a balanced budget. Cut the czars, eliminated the Dept of Education, cut entitlements, cut, cut, cut! Cut before our country goes bankrupt! But no, says Obama. That might hurt. It might cause pain and hardship. Obama will propose a budget $1T again out of whack this year again. Unsustainable. Imagine the pain, Mr. President, you will cause when hyperinflation destroys our country due to unmanageable debt.

You are a fiscal disaster and disgrace to our country, Obama. Shame on you! Perhaps more than any single item we are looking for in a 2012 Presidential Candidate is one who will propose from day one a budget that AT MINIMUM holds the line on the deficit until the economy turns around and we can use annual surpluses to reduce our national debt and pay back the Chinese.

++++More:

Video: Justice Alito lips "Simply Not True" at Obama's SCOTUS shot (Moonbattery)

On Obama's Speech to the Schoolchildren

Nacilbupera collected three points mostly overlooked in mass media about Obamas speech yesterday to the schoolchildren.

(1) Parents of concerned children--afraid of indoctrination from a President who unapologetically appoints a radical Communist to his leadership--are mocked for their worry. This is unfair because what the parents were most afraid of was the content of the followup/discussion questions such as, "What can I do to help the President?" It was only AFTER concerned parents spoke up that the controversial discussion materials were removed. Nacilbupera feels these parents are paying attention to their child's education and praises them.

(2) In a story highlighted by Greta Van Susteren, Greta points out the unfair standards of the previous speech by Bush 41 to children: the Washington Post front page after Bush's speech front page story suggested the speech was staged for the president's political benefit. This turned into a Democratic witch hunt and an investigation was conducted to examine why $26K (read here $26K not $26M not $26B not $26T) was spent by the Bush administration "in an era of scarce resources" (Gephardt).

In contrast, today's front page Washington Post (see image, left) no such accusations of political malfeasance are made. Nacilbupera condemns such outrageous media hypocrisy.

(3) Final point: it is not the role of federal government to intervene in state affairs. The President could have addressed both parents and children using the internet, radio, or television; the point is he had other options. Nacilbupera feels that pending an immediate catastrophic national emergency (IE nukes from North Korea or Iran are on their way) really, an address to the schoolchildren of the state should be done by the state's chief executive, the governor. Obama's speech to the children is a mis-education in the proper separation of powers between our state and federal government.

Read Our Lips, Obama: No Cap And Trade

Obama promised in his quest for re-election a tax break "for 95% of Americans." Now with the Cap-and-Trade bill he urges Congress to pass he is indirectly taxing 100% of Americans. How so?

Obama gets away with his "inconvenient truth" of increasing taxes or the amount we pay to the federal government by effectively redefining taxes to be limited to personal income tax. Obama is not raising our income tax. Instead he is raising a massive tax on energy companies who must pass on the levied tax in the form of higher rates to consumers. This is not right and Nacilbupera is calling it out for what it is: a scheme to raise a massive $1.5 trillion through indirect taxation.

Interestingly, taxes levied through the higher rates are disproportionately levied on Republican-voting states. This chart shows that the 8 of the 10 states to receive the most energy price increases voted for McCain:

(1) Wyoming
(2) North Dakota
(3) West Virginia
(4) Kentucky
(5) Indiana
(6) Montana
(7) Alabama
(8) New Mexico
(9) Oklahoma
(10) Utah

while of the 10 states least affected in this proposal include 9 voting for Obama:
(1) Vermont
(2) Delaware
(3) Idaho
(4) California
(5) Washington
(6) Oregon
(7) New Jersey
(8) Rhode Island
(9) New York
(10) Connecticut

Put another way, the incremental energy-bill costs to consumers in Wyoming are close to 4000 times as more as if you live in Vermont.

But isn't the issue of CO2 emissions an issue for the states? Nacilbupera says yes. Yet in the 2007 Supreme Court 5-4 ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA the court ruled that the EPA must regulate CO2. Nacilbupera believes this ruling was made erroneously and was out of bounds for the authority granted the court. Yet the court has no power to specify what actions must be taken as this is the arena of Congress. Nacilbupera feels that voluntary compliance with CO2 reductions fulfill our erroneous court-ordered obligation and that a massive tax burden on us Americans is unwanted, unwarranted, and un-American.

For anyone who believed Obama's garbage pre-election promise of a tax break, you need to get on the phone with your representative NOW (vote in Congress tomorrow) and urge them to defeat the energy tax of Waxman-Markey--else take that bundle of money you saved by switching to GEICO and kiss it goodbye.

Happy Flag Day

Almost as a surprise after a disappointing National Prayer Day remembrance, President Obama issued this week a delightful celebration of Flag Day, encouraging us as citizens to fly our country's flag proudly this week beginning today in honor of the flag.

Nacilbupera is following the much missed leadership of our President and flying the flag today and this week (although we have unusual amounts of rain so forecasted so we may not be in compliance every day). We are proud of this great symbol of our country as it unites our 50 diverse states under the common constitution we share. America is the worldwide symbol of freedom, democracy, and republicanism (said even with a lower-case "r"). Americans proudly worship God through many divers forms, acknowledging without him we would not have America and a reason for Ol' Glory.

Today reminds Nacilbupera of a wonderful song "High on a Mountain Top", a classic Mormon hymn sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in conjunction with the 2002 Olympics. The hymn speaks of a banner of truth to be unfurled and all nations to look up to her for the truths that God promised he would disseminate to us his children. It puts a tremendous obligation on us as citizens of the United States of America to be the country of liberty, truth, and nobleness we are in our hearts but not always our individual actions; to free ourselves by eliminating corruption and deceit; and to having power given to no man but power consented to our government from her equal citizens endowed with "unalienable rights".

6/1/9 Islamic Terrorist Attack On America

We sadly announce the first successful foreign terrorist attack on the United States since 9/11.

Yesterday, 24 year-old Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad opened fired on an Army recruitment center in Little Rock, Arkansas, killing Pvt. William Long and injuring Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula. Nacilbupera’s prayers go out to both families.

Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, formerly Carlos Bledsoe, converted to Islam in 2004 and trained in Yemen--a top Al-Qaeda training ground for U.S. recruits--studying in the school of jihadist imam Yahya Hajoori. Muhammad was under investigation by the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force after his return to the United States.

Whether Muhammad acted alone or under al Qaeda or other Islamofascist orders is unknown and under investigation. However, joining the facts that he trained in a foreign terrorist camp and committed an act of terrorism makes this a foreign attack on the U.S., and not merely domestic.

Nacilbupera asserts that al Qaeda is extremely dynamic and crafty in its jihad against the United States. It and other Islamofascist terrorist networks seek non-conventional jihad in ways we don’t suspect. It uses individuals rather than squads, companies, and armies to accomplish its evil designs. The world cannot know peace with the existence of such radicals and they must be removed and destroyed from global society through careful diligence and monitoring. We call upon moderate Muslims and followers of Allah to aid America in destroying those terrorists who would murder our families.

OBAMA = NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN

Nacilbupera sadly also predicts further foreign terrorist attacks on our soil as Mr. Obama continues to fail to protect our country, instead choosing apology and appeasement. (Indeed we predicted so a month ago.) Unlike the Presidential posture exhibited by our last president upon being attacked by foreign terrorists, Obama celebrated yesterday in France by hailing America as “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” Obama, you are a disgrace to our national security. Nacilbupera holds you accountable and you have failed, you failed Pvts. Long and Ezeagwula, and you will unfortunately continue to fail for as long as you model your foreign duties in the mold of Neville Chamberlain when we so desperately need as a country a Winston Churchill. Even Mr. Chamberlain was forced to declare war and admit about the fascists of his time: “[Hitler’s] action shows convincingly that there is no chance of expecting that this man will ever give up his practice of using force to gain his will. He can only be stopped by force…” Substitute Bin Laden’s or any other Islamofascist’s name in for Hitler, Mr. Obama, and you have before you the shield to protect our country.

Brigitte Gabriel understands the Islamofascist threat we face with this 2007 video introducing the ACT! for America organization:


This is no “overseas contingency operation,” Obama. This is terrorism, Obama. This is war, Obama.

Hail to the new Commander-in-Chief!

What a marvelous thing we have done, partisanship aside here, that an African-American can be elected President of the United States of America! I was impressed with the dignity in which the leaders of the Republican Party gave respect and homage to Obama's victory and in turn Obama's gracious acceptance speech. These words of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. seem to have been completely fulfilled: '"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."'

Yet it seems to me Rev. King had a bigger vision for our country: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." To me, the vindication of this latter part of the dream comes not on the excitement we share today that an African-American is elected president or tomorrow's dream of an Asian- Indian- or Hispanic-American being elected, but that we see past the color of the skin and it matters not to us what color they are.

Tears of joy are fine for today. It is good to release the pent-up emotion of our forefathers. But today let us begin to further Rev. King's dream by being the first day of beginning to be "color-blind". It is a task that I expect to take many years, perhaps a generation or two, but it ours to take.