Two weeks in a small room with two Mormons

     Until I found myself confined to a windowless 10 by 10 office with two Navy yeomen aboard the USS Sacramento in the Gulf of Tonkin, I had never known anyone who we call Mormons.
     My first lesson was that they call themselves Latter Day Saints, not Mormons. And they belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and no, they do not practice what we call bigamy.
     By the end of my two weeks with these two intelligent, articulate, engaging young men, my education had only begun. Lesson one would be repeated many times over the years, and continues to be revisited today on occasion: Everything you think you know about something is probably wrong.
     I thought I knew what Mormonism was all about. I did not; still don't. I do know that devout followers of that faith consider themselves at least as Christian as any fundamentalist Bible-preaching charismatic you will ever meet.
     At the end of my time aboard the Sacramento, one of my new friends gave me a copy of the Book of Mormon. I read it. They consider it to be the continuing Word of God, and every bit as valid and inspirational as the Old and New Testaments that I learned about as a kid growing up as a Lutheran.
     Who was I to say they have it wrong?
     Mormons, like Catholics, the crusaders, the reformists and most other Christian subsets, have blood and their own history of miscreants in their backstory. Even the story of American History, with the subplots of slavery, manifest destiny, and imperialism, has dark chapters. But I take my people one at a time when I can, and I leave the social and theological definitions to others.
     Since that two weeks at sea, I have worked with "Mormons" on several occasions. Good people, I found. Be happy to have them as neighbors, which is not something I can say about some others who think they are so Godly.
     This is not the place, and I am certainly not the person, to proselytise on behalf of the Church of Latter Day Saints. I still have issues with the old standards, and where they got their books. The Jews influenced us all, and it could be conceded that they're the ones who were here from the beginning, but as for who has it right -- I don't know.
     This I know: When I see some poor soul on a newscast saying he isn't sure he could vote for a mormon because they aren't real Christians, I find myself wishing he had had the pleasure of the company of two guys I found to be good folks sharing a uniform and a war a long time ago.
     Everyting such people think they know about Mormons, or Mitt Romney's religious beliefs, is probably wrong.
     In any case, it's his politics that should concern any of us.