Mittens won’t release his tax returns because he’s a Mormon.

Has nothing to do with his tax evasion and offshore banking. Romney just feels his donations to the church are private and he doesn’t wanna embarrass anyone. He also makes perfect sense whenever he speaks and I completely believe every word he says. This man is so logical and honest and forthright and trustworthy, I can’t imagine how anyone could have doubts about his candidacy.

Mitt Romney says in a new interview that one of the reasons he’s distressed about disclosing his tax returns is that everyone sees how much money he and his wife, Ann, have donated to the LDS Church, and that’s a number he wants to keep private.

“Our church doesn’t publish how much people have given,” Romney tells Parade magazine in an edition due out Sunday. “This is done entirely privately. One of the downsides of releasing one’s financial information is that this is now all public, but we had never intended our contributions to be known. It’s a very personal thing between ourselves and our commitment to our God and to our church.”

(full article)

Just to be clear here, Mr. Romney, you paid your tithes to the church privately and you don’t want anyone to know how much you paid. That could be an honorable position…if you were an honorable person.

One of three things is probably happening here.

One
Mitt is embarrassed by how much money he lavishes on the church every year. The Mormon Church is one of the most financially profitable religious organizations and Mitt is one of their wealthiest members. He and his wife probably give millions and millions of dollars out of the goodness of their hearts, and they don’t want those numbers being made public because they offered the donations from a place of humility. You’re not supposed to brag about your donations.

Two
Mitt doesn’t want politicians and Democratic pundits sifting through his records and taking jabs at him for the amount of money he gives to the Mormon church. America is already a little leery of that whole Mormon situation anyhow because they aren’t “regular Christian.” Romney doesn’t want an even bigger spotlight on his faith.

Three
Mitt doesn’t tithe as much as he’s supposed to and that would just make him look like an awful Mormon and a horrible liar. The Mormons don’t require you to pay 10%…but you’re supposed to. What if he doesn’t? I wouldn’t put it past him. He’s already hiding money all over the planet to avoid taxes, so clearly he has no qualms about hoarding his dollars.

Everything about this man is just so distasteful.

And Ann! Everytime she opens her mouth, Privilege and Classism falls out.

Ann Romney says tithing is an indication of how much faithful followers trust God and a way to show one’s love of the principle of sacrifice.

“And it teaches us not to be too, too tied to the things of the world,” she says. “And it is a very good reminder of how blessed we really are, and most of those blessings do not come from a financial source, but from the power above.”

I know she means well, but that disconnect between “what she says” and “what she should have said” is almost incomprehensible. Giving ten percent of your salary to an invisible person is a lot of money to somebody who only makes $30,000 a year. The Romneys are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. They could tithe 90% and still have more money than most of the people they go to church with, and she wants us to think she understands the value of a dollar?

She probably doesn’t even know what president is on the dollar. She ain’t seen a one dollar bill since ever.