Watch Mitt Romney Explain How Jesus Will Reign for 1,000 Years When He Returns, in Jerusalem... and Missouri

Video emerges of Romney citing the thinking of a wildly fringe conspiracy theorist and his belief in the strange intricacies of the Mormon faith.

November 2, 2012 |

Watch Mitt Romney get in a heated exchange with a radio host from a radio interview in 2008 about where Jesus will reign and rule over the Earth for 1,000 years -- in Jerusalem and Missouri. Romney displays deep familiarity with the thinking of a Mormon hermit-conspiracy theorist Cleon Skousen, who was also Glenn Beck's great inspiration.

Background from Prisoner Minister: "Mormons believe Jesus will return to earth in Independence, Missouri to begin a 1,000 year reign. They think Mormons will at that time become gods. But before the return of Jesus, they believe the United States will come to a constitutional crisis, on the verge of collapse. They believe America will be saved by a Mormon leader. The founder of the Mormon religion, Joseph Smith, said, "The time will come when the destiny of the nation (USA) will hang upon a single thread. At that critical juncture, this people (Mormons) will save it from destruction." Their prophet Brigham Young said, "When the Kingdom of God bears rule, the flag of the United States will proudly flutter." Mormons, also called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), believe the Kingdom of God will arise from the rule of one man on earth, a political figure who will also be their spiritual leader. They believe there will be a one-world government ruled by this god-king. He will be a prophet and high priest of the Mormon faith, ruling the world from America."

Bruce Wilson for Talk2Action writes about the interview:

"...The former Massachusetts governor endorsed The Making of America, by fringe New World Order conspiracy theorist Cleon Skousen, a former Brigham Young University professor of Romney's, and also cited Skousen's opinions concerning the question of the Second Coming. Here's video of the interchange--which Mitt Romney may have difficulty explaining, especially in context of his carefully coiffed persona as a moderate Republican.

As covered by Media Matters, in The Making of America Skousen claimed that slave owners were the true "victims" of the institution of slavery:

Skousen is the author of several controversial works, including The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution, which presented as "the story of slavery in America" a passage from a book that attacked abolitionists for delaying emancipation; cast slave owners as "the worst victims of the system"; claimed white schoolchildren "were likely to envy the freedom of their colored playmates"; and claimed that "[s]lavery did not make white labor unrespectable, but merely inefficient," because "the slave had a deliberateness of motion which no amount of supervision could quicken."

The Washington Independent's Dave Weigel was one of several media commenters who back in 2009 picked up this remarkable but now largely forgotten story, in a post noting that Texas governor Rick Perry had cited Skousen's book The 5,000 Year Leap while speaking at the 2009 Family Research Council 'Voter Values Summit' in Washington DC. Wondering why Cleon Skousen, recently exhumed from obscurity by Glenn Beck, had suddenly become so popular among leading GOP politicians, Weigel wrote,

"Perry's comments reminded me of a forgotten moment from the 2008 campaign, when Mitt Romney got into a heated exchange with a radio host who had theological objections to Mormonism. A grainy video of that exchange is here.
"Cleon Skousen has a book called `A Thousand Years,'" said Romney, arguing against the rumor that he believed the Second Coming would happen in Missouri. "Christ appears, it's throughout the Bible, Christ appears in Jerusalem, splits the Mount of Olives to stop the war that's coming to kill all the Jews. Our church believes that."

It's strange to hear prominent national Republicans telling people to read Skousen."