Meridian Magazine : : Print

M E R I D I A N M A G A Z I N E

Bias and Mitt Romney

Too Bad You Aren’t Christians

Thanks so very much for clearly, with great evidence, articulating what so many of us have been experiencing these past months. This reality of bias and its deep-seated nature hit us stunningly this past holiday season when, after raking leaves for our elderly neighbors who have been wonderful, congenial friends for many years, the sister missionaries, at their invitation, presented a Christ-centered Christmas message to them, in their home, in word and song. At the end, this dear elderly woman, in sincerity, asked them, "Now, please tell me, do the people in your church believe in Jesus Christ?"

Our family had shared Christmas caroling in their home for many years, talked about our children's missionary service, in many ways shared our beliefs about Christ, He being the head of our Church, in name and deed, yet this good woman had still "framed" her beliefs on things she had heard earlier from others, and no matter what we said or did, apparently this early framework was difficult, if not impossible to break through. So, unfortunately, in the minds of many people, we have been falsely "framed," whether they recognize or admit it or not.

One good woman who taught many of our children in grade school, who the missionaries regularly visited for many years, a woman to whom they had presented our beliefs more than once — in fact each time they visited for more than 20 years — a woman with whom we have had endearing contact all these years, wrote on her last Christmas greeting to us that we were such good people, it's too bad that we don't believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior, sad that we weren't Christians, because we certainly lived His teachings.

Sadly, in basement Sunday Schools across the country, we have been and still are, falsely "framed."

How do we turn this around?

Nina Ownby
Rolla, Missouri

Precinct Caucus

Thank You for an excellent article. My husband and I went to our precinct caucus here in Colorado on Tuesday and experienced much of the same bias and prejudice. We live in a small town with a small, but active branch of the Church.

My husband and I own and operate a successful business here and have served in many capacities, both elected and volunteer. My husband has been president of the Chamber of Commerce, and elected to the Town Board, elected as mayor and elected to a term on the school board. I am currently serving my second term on the school board. As our neighbors began to file into the meeting room, we noticed that the majority of them were from one of the evangelical churches in town.

As the meeting progressed, we read letters from local hopefuls of their intent to seek election to the County Commission and one letter was read in support of Mitt Romney. One of the women said that in fairness, others who supported other candidates should have time to express their views. She immediately launched into a diatribe about how the Church treated women, how Mitt Romney would make us all be Mormons and that in her view, Mitt Romney should not be elected. My husband and I were stunned to say the least. No mention was made on why John McCain or Mike Huckabee should be elected.

After the meeting we both commented that we felt like the early pioneers must have when they were attacked for their beliefs. We both feel that Satan is working "triple overtime" to keep people from finding out the truth about the gospel and that we have been lulled into a false ideal that America is a place for religious tolerance. This incident is really opening up my eyes to the way I treat others and my tolerance level, although pushed to the max on Tuesday night, will certainly be expanded to include those who are less tolerant.

I did find one point in your article interesting.

One woman spoke of her introduction to Mormonism came at her church during Sunday School. Isn't it amazing that we get the bad rap for what we believe when we teach what is in the scriptures and they teach mail-order courses on how bad other religions are? Thanks again for your insight.

Sharon Haynie
Del Norte, Colorado

Flip-Flop

Excellent article, and right on point. If Mitt were not a Mormon, he would be the nominee, hands down. Of course, by pointing out the silent but clearly obvious bigotry, Mormons are now being chastened to stop blaming Mitt’s defeat on Huckabee and the Evangelicals. I say “silent” bigotry, because in the beginning of the campaign, Mitt and his Mormon faith were being openly attacked, but when the attacks started to backfire in the New Media, the bias did not end, it just took on a different form — labeling Mitt a flip-flopper — in order to continue poisoning the water against him.

Barbara M Wanlass

View from France

Thank you for your analysis of the current political situation in the U.S. as it pertains to Mitt Romney's candidacy. I too believed that such a charismatic individual would eventually be able to win the hearts of those prejudiced against our faith. To a certain extent, he did! Unfortunately, the same evil influences that attempted to thwart the progress of our Church in the early days are still at work — this is our privilege as members of the only true Church on the face of the earth!

Actually, our very success, especially in the Southern States, may well be what triggered such an adverse reaction from the part of many of the other Christian denominations. This gets us back to the very first message Joseph Smith received from the Lord concerning them.

Fortunately, all this won't keep our Church from continuing its worldwide expansion, rather the contrary! After all, maybe all we needed with respect to this election is that the world would know that a Mormon could make a suitable President of the United States, without taking the risk that our Church be associated with a Mormon actually running the country!

Charles Defranchi
Paris, France

Insightful Analysis

You've written an insightful analysis into this lingering problem. I'm particularly glad for some of the references you've pulled together that I hadn't seen before, such as Pastors4Huckabee website, the Vanderbilt professor's study, and other articles.

The only thing lacking seems to be help with the question, "Where does this leave us? Where do we go from here?" Some of your LDS readers may be offended or depressed about this situation and may therefore withdraw from the public discourse instead of seeing this as an opportunity to further help bring the church "out of obscurity."

Do we not see the Lord's hand in this? How many people have come to have a clearer understanding of what the LDS church believes, as a result of the back-and-forth in the media? How many people have even joined the Church because their interest was piqued by the Romney coverage? I'm sure it's more than a few.

Prejudiced views among many will continue, but isn't it amazing that there are other evangelicals who have stood up and defended Mitt in the blogs and other articles? Maybe evangelicals are not the "monolithic" group some LDS picture them as. Maybe we can be friends with some of them and they with us, and we can collaborate on common causes.

I see a silver lining to this dark cloud. I think it's no mistake that Elder Ballard has recently encouraged us to "contribute to a national conversation about the Church". (See http://newsroom.lds.org/) I hope your readership sees the opportunity for positive contributions and progress. I'm sure Elder Ballard does.

Sully Richardson
Henderson, Nevada

Just Not This Mormon

While I agree that there is a bias against Mormons, I think we are ignoring the very real other side of this question. I have seen reference to a poll that reported about 57% of Americans said they would vote for a Mornon, but not Mitt Romney.

Who and when is someone going to tell Mr. Romney that he has followed the wrong suggestions and advice in using the negative tactics? Why has Mr. Romney not presented his own credentials and plan for saving this country's economy?

As a soon-to-be-missionary, I welcome the chance to speak to the thousands who will be interested to talk to a "real" Mormon to find out for themselves what we believe, and I thank Mr. Romney for that attention he has drawn to the Church. I am not sure, however, that it will be easy to have the time to get to the heart of the Gospel with those folks, because of the negative campaigning of Mr. Romney.

I think it is no coincidence that all this occurs during the transition of the First Presidency. Both President Hinckley and President Monsoon are shown to be champions of kindness and caring for others. Yet that is not the image Mr. Romney presents, and I think that is a major factor in the bias against him, not the Church.

I think it may be too late for him to rescue his chance for the Presidency, but I think honesty requires us to consider that he has had a large hand in doing this to himself.

Maggie Zug

I think to respond to Mitt as negative is a construct that you got from the media. Having watched all the debates but one, I did not see him become negative, though I did see him try to correct a falsehood that had been perpetrated by another candidate. He ran some ads that compared his positions with his competitors; however, that could work both ways. If you preferred the other guy’s position, that could work in their favor.

Maurine Proctor

“Dear Friends”

I read your article with great interest and the answer to the question is yes there is religious bias. I have lived in the Deep South and have endured the bias myself. I had friends who had been friends of mine for years, dear friends. When we lived in other areas of the country my religious beliefs didn’t seem to bother them, however, once we all lived in the south, my “dear friends” seemed to have a problem with my religious beliefs. I can tell you it was hurtful.

Katherine M. Byron
Texas

Politically Correct

I joined the Church in 1978, and I'm not a bit surprised at the country's responses, particularly in the Evangelical South, to a Mormon running for President. When I joined, admittedly from an anti-LDS background (my family's church helped finance The Godmakers), I was basically thrown out of my family; had a child who was regularly hit, stabbed, and otherwise persecuted at school for being a Mormon; denied employment for being a Mormon (I finally sued a college who, praising my credentials lavishly, openly refused to hire me because of my religion — they eventually settled out of court when they saw they were going to lose); and met open hostility and mockery. This was in Florida, Ohio (my home state) and Missouri.

I've lived in many different states, including supposedly liberal Boston, where I listened to blatant attacks on Mormonism on the radio as I drove to church. (By the way, the Romneys were in my ward at the time.) Everywhere I've lived (and I've lived many years in Utah off and on), I've encountered anti-LDS bias somewhere. In fact, we must recognize, however preposterous it may seem, that it is politically correct in the land of the free to persecute and discriminate against Mormons.

Patricia Joan Leach

Yankee

This was a very good summing up of the bigotry Romney faced. I wonder how a southern Mormon would fare, though? Romney is not just a Mormon; he's a Yankee. I wonder if that made a difference.

Eileen Bell
Edmonton, Alberta

Slickness

You have pretty well hit the nail on the head for about 50% or more of the problem. Being from East Texas and having lived in Arkansas for four years and being a member of the Church for 30 years, I can tell you something else, too. Southerners have a problem with the "slickness" or salesmanship personality of Romney. Hucklebee's personality is just what the southerners like. That is the other 50%, and I guess that would be hard to mention in an article like yours. Keep up the good work.

Dennis Hill
MansfieldTexas 1st Ward

Veneer of Civility

When Mr. Romney announced his candidacy, I told my wife that he would never win the nomination. I said this as an active Latter-day Saint. I already knew what your article is just now pointing out. We, the Latter-day Saints, are regarded as weird, different, strange, and so on. And those are the positive adjectives. For most Americans we are that weird group living in Utah, even though that is not the truth.

I have had police officers, judges, and others here in Kansas excoriate me for being a Latter-day Saint. Those same officials have told me, on more than one occasion, to take my religion and leave town. No, the anti-Mormons aren’t lynching us or burning down our homes or authoring extermination orders, but the bias and hate are still there.

Further, with the Evangelicals, I have heard numerous of their ministers tell their congregations that a vote for a Mormon will send the congregants’ soul to hell. I have been laughed at by my fellow church members for stating this, but it seems I am right. The hatred is there; it is only covered with a veneer of civility.

Now I am going to go out on a limb and advocate something that will make me unpopular with member and non-member alike. If Mr. Romney is denied the nomination because of his LDS religion, God will not be pleased. I feel that this will be the equivalent of the ancient Israelites rejecting God as their king when the pleaded with the Prophet Samuel to give them a king. I feel that such a rejection will also qualify under the Book of Mormon warning about a majority of the people choosing evil. I say this because this will amount to an official vote by the people of the United States, one taken publicly and sanctioned by law. If I am right, then this election could well mark another key event in the events leading up to the coming of the Son of God. It could also well mark a turn that will result in greater persecution of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Brent Garner
Lawrence, Kansas

Disheartened

I tend to agree with the article written concerning Mitt Romney and the attitudes about our faith. It does dishearten me when I see the lack of voice by leaders of other faiths condemning the bigotry. When I see his opponents keep silent when prejudicial questions are asked of him, I am disappointed in them and then lose some of my respect for them.

I have seen also how Huckabee has used his own bias deceptively against Romney, yet pretending not to be biased. It is sad because we also see the pandering in this nation concerning the Islam faith — how it is handled with kid gloves. I am disappointed but not surprised.

We understand as Latter-day Saints just what role our Church plays in the eternal scheme of things. We know the adversary is well aware of it as well. We are blessed to be LDS, and for that I am grateful. Perhaps one day there will not be the prejudice, but that day may be a long time coming.

Bob Morrison
For great puppies visit us at:
www.hallidaysouth.com

Mormon Whiners

I feel for all Mormons; having to confront the reality of their faith is very difficult. I have a good Mormon friend who shared with me how her regard for "Christians" is tainted because of religious bias. She sent me this article along with her heavy heart. And I do feel her hurt and frustration. It is not fun to put yourself on the line and then get slammed.

But what happened is not exactly mean-spirited and I think all thinking Mormons should understand that. Every group that comes up against Christian principles whines we are not nice like the word “Christian” implies. With that, this is what I said to her:

Bias is something we all have. McCain and Huckabee can claim Utah was biased against them when it broke 90% for Romney.

I am biased towards people who don't party, smoke, or swear. My husband is biased towards people who passed their economics classes.

Religious bias is especially hurtful because each faith believes they have it right and others should quietly understand that funny thing about them and let it go. Usually, that is the way things work. I don't even know what faith McCain is, and furthermore, I don't really care. I know it is mainstream and it won't make him extreme. That is a sensible bias, but it is also hurtful when it breaks the other way. Such as when I detect extreme departure from the mainstream and then it does matter to me.

The word “Christian” can mean different things to different people. When one feel hurts and unfairly treated by a so-called “Christian,” one is really wishing for a “nice” Christian.

Wouldn't it be great if real Christianity were all about inclusively and cordial niceties? There would be no more haggling about who marries whom, or whether one should bother with two-parent families committed to long-term relationships. Let's be nice and pretend a life is not taken when a Mom decides the thing in her uterus is not worth protecting and can be exterminated. Good Christians should be silent when trash is all over the media as well; it is not nice to disparage another person's taste in violence and degradation.

A really nice Christian should stand for nothing; everything is relative to the person's particular belief — anyway, it is a private journey each of us is on. Absolutely, the real Christian is a super nice person who believes Jesus came to save us no matter what we do; or how we interpret the gospel; or who we think he is. Michael Moore, that saintly, former seminarian, said it best when talking recently to Larry King; “I would never consider a person's faith in evaluating his trustworthiness as a person.” Now that is just sooo nice!

The gospel of niceness is the sweetest of all gospels. I takes liberty to delete so much of what Jesus said that was just unnecessary to the Pharisees and Sadducees. It has no strong words against getting things wrong; it only assures us that we are loved by God with immeasurable mercy. It says nothing bad will ever happen, because nothing, really, is going on. We are merely called to live good lives, build a great nation, wait to be vindicated, and with that, all is fine in the Kingdom. I especially love the gospel of niceness when it says; “There is a freeway to some type of heaven, with only a narrow road to hell, and few will ever find it.” Wow, nice Christians are the best.

But alas, the bar is set to high for me. Sadly I will never be a good, and nice, little Christian like the rest. It is a shame. My personal bias is to serve the Lord of power and might, truth, and mercy and bias for the poor. I want to see the alien treated humanely, the convict forgiven for the errors of his youth, the child in the womb or as cells designed by God, honored and protected. I want transparency in the rites and oaths taken by my leaders, and I do not want them to adhere to a tight, and insular faith, that calls me hurtful and absurdly groundless names like Apostate, and whore of Babylon. And I especially don't want this stupid assessment of other faiths to be the founding doctrine of truth understood by my President. I agree, I am not a nice Christian who will blindly trust a man, seemingly brilliant, who believes he can become a god. It is just downright mean that I have the power to dismissed him because he does not agree with my faith.

Like I said, “Christianity” means different things to different people. My version is the scrutinizing one, I function well under it; it seems to work for me. My bias is for those with a similar view. But I fully understand that my eternal reward will surely suffer for this lapse of pure, unconditional love and trust. I guess like everyone else, I will just have to take my chances.

Jeanne MacDonald

If a group has been mistreated, it is not whining to note it, but factual. If someone throws a brick and hits you, it is reasonable to say, “I just got hit by a brick.”

Maurine Proctor

Closed Minds

In 1982, I retired as an LDS Chaplain representing the church in the USAF. I can testify that it is not just the Evangelicals, although they are the worst, but also several of the Protestant faith groups that consider us a cult. Some of them are ruthless in their accusations and have no desire to open their minds since their minds are already made up.

The response to Romney from the "Christian" and especially "Evangelical" community was exactly as I predicted when he announced his candidacy. Not that I am a prophet, but that I have experienced the nonsense of the "non-Christian" accusations and that ignorance doesn't easily go away.

I can't thank you Proctors (and all others involved) enough for all the wonderful articles lately — the article at the SLC cemetery, the article about bias toward Romney (and the Church), and so on. You helped us all to grieve and mourn President Hinckley's passing. You may not realize, though I suspect you do, what a great blessing it is to read Meridian in this regard — helping us get through Pres. Hinckley's death — to mourn appropriately. Thank you for everything you do every day.

Bobbi Peterson
Pinetop, Arizona

Distinct Prejudice

I was a little sad but not surprised to read today's article about allegations that religious bias is the reason Mr. Romney's campaign is not doing as well as he had hoped among conservative voters. I grew up in Kansas and Arkansas. I was born Methodist, then followed a religious path through a very conservative independent evangelical church, the Southern Baptist Church (for which I served a mission while in college), and the Catholic Church before becoming a Latter-day Saint about 12 years ago.

I can confirm that there is a distinct (and yes, very uninformed) prejudice against Mormons among the Protestant Christians in the Bible Belt. But since not everyone in the South is an evangelical Christian, much less a Baptist (there are plenty of other Protestants as well as Catholics, and non-religious people as well), that doesn't explain Mitt's poor showing there.

People are expected to do well in their home states/regions, and all the candidates in Super Tuesday did that. In fact, Mitt won handily in Utah. A little pro-Mormon, anti-Baptist bias there? You bet! But there are a lot of other factors that came into play. Mitt is a very rich man, too rich for many in the lower-income South who may resent a rich man throwing his money around.

Frankly, even though I am a very active church member, I did not support Mitt. Not because he is Mormon or because he isn't, but because I found him too conservative, as well as too strident, too condescending, too nasty to the other candidates in the debates — I didn't find him to be likeable. And that is just as important to voters in every region as are his positions on issues or his religion or his race or his gender or the size of his family.

In short, try not to read too much into election results. Mormon children should still be encouraged to want to grow up to be President — or senator or congressman or Supreme Court Justice. But sometimes politics are just politics.

Nancy Phillips

Inspiration

I just read Maurine Proctor's article about Mitt Romney minutes after reading about his decision to end his campaign. She eloquently put into words so many concerns on the subject. I agree with her comments and feel just terrible about this whole situation. Thank you very much for all of your efforts in keeping us informed and inspiring us to keep moving forward with faith.

M. Brown

The Real Reason

Thank you for finally being the first person I have heard or read that speaks up about the real reason Mitt Romney had an uphill battle for the presidency. You hit it right on.

Having moved from Wisconsin to Georgia two years ago, I have learned first hand how the pastors here have told their parishioners not to vote for Romney. There are now and always have been anti-Mormon Sunday School classes. As you said, all this is not new.

The Lord had his reasons for putting Romney "out there." Certainly it has provided us as members with more missionary opportunities. Romney and his family will receive many blessings for doing the Lord's will. There is no doubt that he and his family prayed earnestly before deciding to get in the presidential race.

He has just "suspended" his campaign. What is next? We all need to remind ourselves and have the faith that God is in charge.

Meridian Reader

Real and Sustained

I have had five military assignments in various parts of the South over the past 24 years, and religious bias towards the Latter-day Saints is real and sustained. Racial prejudice is also alive and well here in the South, so you can imagine the challenge that our African American brothers and sisters must face in the practice of our religion.

Steven J "Sky" Walker, Col, USAF

Knowledge is Power

Maureen Proctor is a very good writer and covers this subject well. I wish the mainstream media were as skilled at research and logic as she. I knew the South would be a problem, but I found out that the bigotry was widespread. I live in Massachusetts, and when Evangelists find out that I am a Mormon I am amazed at their dismay. This is supposed to be the most liberal state in the country, but there was not much room for Romney.

But should we be surprised that the masses turned their back on goodness, it has been something that’s been happening for thousands of years. Most couldn’t accept the Greatest when he walked among them in Jerusalem. We are in the time for told in the scriptures that good shall be called bad and bad should be called good.

It is a sad day for Latter-day Saints but even more sad for the rest of the world. We know who we are — the children of God. We understand the purpose of Christ, both as a teacher and a Savior. Romney would have taught many by his actions.

It is interesting that I converted to this Church because I wanted to know more about the Mormon that was running for the Senate against Kennedy. So even though he lost that election also, he did help me find out the truthfulness of the restored Gospel. Unfortunately many Evangelicals are anything but Christlike when it comes to dealing with Latter-day Saints, and unfortunately they do not think that they need to learn more about their Savior. Knowledge is power, especially when learning of the most powerful and humble being that is our Lord Jesus Christ.

Dan Downey

Best So Far

Thank you for the best article I have seen on this subject so far, and one that needed sorely to be written. I have just a few comments:

“Diversity” is proposed by leftists; it is a strategy to de-stabilize American society, and its proponents will never be on the side of Mormons.

The press or the media are overwhelmingly leftist; they are the media wing of the Democrat Party. They, too, will never portray Mormons favorably in a political context.

Southern Baptists and other evangelicals are just plain bigots; 200 years of slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation are very clear on this. Arkansas is where President Eisenhower had to send the 101^st Airborne in an attempt to integrate a high school as required by Brown v. Board of Education.

As a conservative and a Romney supporter since August, 2006, when I first heard him speak on Hugh Hewitt’s show, I have been dismayed by the unsupported charges of “flip-flopping.” I have never heard the consistently thinking Governor “flip-flop” on any issue. Thank you for pointing out that this has really been a code-phrase among Evangelicals for “Mormon.”

As I watched the returns from “Super Tuesday,” I had to wonder if the Governor, once nominated, could have ever won the Presidency, even with a conservative, Southern running-mate such as Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi. I just don’t see the South voting now for a Mormon.

At the risk of boring you, here is my analysis from early Wednesday morning:

“I have two relevant books: Theodore H. White’s inaugural The Making of the President 1960 and the much lesser-known A Catholic Runs for President: The Campaign of 1928 by Edmund A. Moore. I started reading the latter book last night. I think that we are, as a society, much closer to the (anti-Catholic) religious bigotry of 1928 than we are to the “tolerance” of 1960. Most of such anti-Al Smith sentiment came from the evangelicals in the Klan in the Midwest and South. That 1960 “tolerance” meant that northern Catholic Democrats were just able to beat southern and western evangelical protestants. Then the Southern Democrats became Republicans, and Nixon, Reagan, H.W. Bush, and G.W. Bush won with their “Southern Strategy.”

Now, however, the fee for that piper has to be paid. I cannot see a rapprochement between Conservatives and evangelicals. Not because the former love Mormons, but because the former are disgusted by the hatred shown by the evangelicals for the Mormons.

There were 32 years between 1928 and 1960. I think that we are more than a generation away from the healing of this split. It’s really up to the leadership of the evangelicals: they must repudiate their anti-Mormons, like Huckabee, et al, and bring most of their vote to the conservatives. One way to begin the process would be to run “favorite sons,” Like Haley Barbour in Mississippi, to control Southern delegates and to keep the likes of a Mike Huckabee from winning their states. Fred Thompson was a very effective critic of Huckabee. The other thing would be to take back control of their primaries: no more liberals, “independents,” or cross-overs.

So what is to be done in the mean-time?

I think that Mormons and their supporters must become more “confrontational.” When dealing with a potential religious adversary in a political context, including a member of the press, the first words out of our mouths should be: “Do you believe that Mormons are Christians?” These bigots don’t like to lie, so they use “code” words and phrases; asking them outright puts them on the spot, but one has to press the issue. By three questions into the process they will become angry and will reveal their prejudice in startling terms.
If the Governor runs again, he must recruit a “speakers bureau” of distinguished public figures who will speak often to the acceptance of Mormons as Christians and who will call a spade a spade whether they are in the press, a politician, or and evangelical leader. The issue must be addressed early and often, and between campaigns (see “9.” Below).
We must argue that bigotry is bigotry. Hugh Hewitt takes it for granted that that there is a huge gulf between Mormon beliefs and theology and those of “Christians.” As a convert from the Episcopal Church who attended Sunday School in the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, I know that this is not true. I have never had to abandon any belief about Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ that I learned as a child or youth. We must not accept the assertions that we are not Christians, that our theology is radically different (Theosis was an early centuries Church concept), and that we are a cult. These assertions amount to hate crimes, and we must learn to treat them as such

One more point: Governor Romney was deserted in these contests by certain of the conservative Jewish commentators, men such as William Kristol, John Podhoretz, Scott Johnson, Paul Mirengoff, and the duplicitous Michael Medved. Apparently, they calculated that a victory for John McCain would be better for the support of the State of Israel. I have been a conservative since the fall of 1966 and an ardent supporter of Israel since June of 1967 (I only joined the Church in February, 1978). Now, I question such support.

Ironically, the result of all of these aforementioned machinations is now likely to be the election of a candidate who is very pro-Palestinian and who is in favor of abortion on demand including “partial birth,” and a candidate who believes in full marriage provisions for gays, lesbians, transgendereds, and whatever else they can dream-up.

Again, thank you, and thank you and your husband for all of Meridian. You rally us, inspire us, inform us, and very much more. God bless you!

Eric F. Carlson

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