I have been watching with great interest the on-going battle for the hearts and minds of the GOP faithful currently dominating the news out of South Carolina. South Carolina for those of you who might not remember was the first state to jump ship and secede from the Union in 1861. It is also the home of John C. Calhoun (1782-1850). Calhoun is widely believed to be the Prophet of Nullification and was a champion of the institution of slavery. Calhoun served in both the House of Representatives and the U S Senate and was Andrew Jackson's vice president. South Carolina is also the home of Mark Sanford, Jr. Sanford is the most recent former governor and is noted mainly for his unique ability to hike the Appalachian Trail with his mistress while they both were secluded in a hotel room in Buenos Aires Argentina. Sanford is a conservative christianist champion of family values, traditional marriage and other “traditional values”.

Now today the big news out of South Carolina is the fight for the GOPer nomination between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. Newt of course is also a champion of traditional marriage having been traditionally married three times over the course of about fifty years. His last two wives were his mistresses during his first and second marriages. Now some would call him a serial monogamist but the term serial adulterer seems more appropriate to me since his last two wives were also his mistresses. Sorry Mr. Gingrich that doesn't qualify as monogamy under anyone's definition. His second wife and former first mistress has recently accused him of having come to her and asked her for an “open marriage” which she declined. At the time of this request he had apparently 'been seeing' Calista, his current wife and former second mistress for a number of years. Gingrich calls the accusation by the former Mrs. Gingrich Number Two “trash” which it actually is but Newt's calling it 'trash” is far short of a denial of the truth of the accusation and seems downright silly to me. And in fact it's rather humorous in a sardonic sort of way. Mr. Gingrich doesn't seem to be the faithful type and should he be elected president it will be interesting to watch him straightfacedly take the oath to “faithfully execute the office of president.” Fidelity apparently isn't a big thing with Newt.

Mitt Romney, former champion of medical care for all, is also a supporter of traditional marriage and traditional values and is now opposed to health care for all. Mr. Romney is a member of the Mormon church and claims to be a Christian but the theology of the Mormonism shows that it is not possible for a Mormon to be a Christian. It is not a monotheistic religion. It is a polytheistic religion and it is the fervent hope of every male to be a god governing his own planet. He is more aptly described as a 'christianist.' A christianist is a religionist who does not know the difference between religion and politics and who habitually ignores the bright line between the two. His grandfather was a supporter of if not actually a participant in polygamy. His father, George, who was born in Mexico in the state of Chihuahua after his polygamy-supporting father had fled the US with his polygamist father (Mitt's great grandfather) moved to northern Mexico to practice polygamy. Today they would have said to 'practice their religion', a battle cry we hear almost daily from christianist preachers defending various absurdities such as opposition to marriage equality in the name of their particular mythology and ancient tradition.

People should remember that polygamy was practiced historically not just by Mormons but by the Jewish people and pretty much all of the hunter-gatherer primitives as a way of growing their populations as they wandered through the desert in search of a king and a kingdom. Traditional Mormons did the same thing and only abandoned the practice when Utah's admission to the Union was conditioned on the banning of polygamy by the Mormon church. Traditional marriage is pretty well illustrated by the picture that accompanies this post. In reality traditional marriage evolved from the 'cave man' nuptials represented by the picture to a business relationship between a man and a woman and the woman's father. I think one point is clear and that is that traditional marriage is not and was not static it is a dynamic institution one that changes over the course of history.