“I had no idea that people lived like that,”

[hedgehog]

Romney’s first weeks as bishop shook that certitude. After a spate of counseling sessions with members suffering financial problems, he came into one meeting of his senior advisers shaking his head.

“I had no idea that people lived like that,” Romney said, according to Phil Barlow, one of his counselors.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romney-as-a-leader-in-mormon-church-became-a-master-of-many-keys/2012/08/19/7c8fe1bc-cf89-11e1-8e56-dffbfbe1bd20_story.html?wpisrc=nl_politics&wp_login_redirect=0

[GallopingGhost]

1. Jacob Riis is turning in his grave.

[rox63]

2. These experiences should have made him a better person

Too bad that doesn't seem to have happened.

[hedgehog]

3. Members of the Mormon Church are very good at taking care of their own -

enough to shame most other religions! But that gives them a limited view of the role of government.

[FSogol]

6. Romney believes the opposite of "Good" is "Poor."

[Raine1967]

4. This was on the front page of the print edition this morning.

I was floored at that statement. I thought this was strange:

“He was a real iron-rodder,” said Barbara Taylor, a member of the Boston church.

The term is a reference to a passage in the Book of Mormon in which Lehi, a prophet who leads his Israelite tribe out of Jerusalem and to the Americas, dreams of an iron rod along a “straight and narrow” path. In Mormon parlance, iron-rodders are certain that prophetic revelation and scriptural instruction such as the Word of Wisdom, which proscribes the use of wine, tobacco and hot drinks, will lead them toward a righteous life and, eventually, godhood.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. "proscribes ... hot drinks"? Mitt drinks no coffee or tea?

[sadbear]

7. There are various interpretations

It depends on which Mormon you ask.