The Mormon Church should excommunicate Mitt Romney rather than support him in his bid to become U.S. President. Why? Because according to LDS doctrine, Mr. Romney has repeatedly committed grave and serious sins.

Romney has made numerous blatant lies in his campaign. Politicians always slant information to favor themselves, of course, but slanting isn’t quite the same thing as outright lying. In his first ad directly against President Obama, Romney quoted Obama as saying, “If we continue to talk about the economy, we’ll lose.” This was in Obama’s own voice and was naturally very damning. Of course, the truth was that Obama was quoting John McCain. John McCain said this, not Obama, so Romney is lying. This isn’t a misinterpretation. This isn’t a difference of opinion. This isn’t a spin. It is a lie.

In May, Romney said that the Inspector General concluded that Obama had funneled money to his campaign supporters when he gave a stimulus to the company Solyndra. Romney claimed that the Inspector General concluded there was wrongdoing on Obama’s part. The truth is that the Inspector General said no such thing. This isn’t a misinterpretation. This isn’t a difference of opinion. This isn’t a spin. It is a lie.

Any brief search of the news will show that Romney has lied over and over and over again during his campaign to become the nation’s leader.

Okay. So politicians lie. All right. The question then has to be asked, do LDS politicians get to commit serious sins without consequence? One of the Ten Commandments says not to bear false witness against one’s neighbor. Romney is bearing false witness against Obama. Deliberately. Knowingly. That’s serious.

And doesn’t the magnitude of the lie count as well? It’s bad enough to lie to your friends and family. But isn’t it more serious to lie to three hundred million people? If Romney’s campaign is taking in close to a billion dollars, based on the things he says, isn’t defrauding followers of that much money a serious offense? If Romney becomes President based on the lies he tells voters, and then he takes charge of a national budget of trillions of dollars, isn’t that serious?

Mormons teach that “Satan is the father of lies.” In order to get a temple recommend, you must pass an interview with a Church leader during which you are asked if you are “honest in your dealings with your fellow man.” One can always lie, of course, when answering this question, but if your lies are public record, shouldn’t there be some form of Church discipline?

Part of LDS doctrine is that there are three degrees of heaven. Who goes to the lowest degree, the Telestial Kingdom? Liars and fornicators and adulterers. Some leaders have even suggested that people as terrible as Hitler will go there and not to “hell,” or as Mormons term it, Outer Darkness. Are these people in the Telestial Kingdom serious sinners? Well, fornicators and adulterers are routinely excommunicated by the Mormon Church. Is lying not as serious even though liars get sent to the same place?

Doctrine and Covenants (one of several volumes which Mormons consider scripture) 10:28 says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, wo be unto him that lieth to deceive because he supposeth that another lieth to deceive, for such are not exempt from the justice of God.”

From the Book of Mormon, another volume of Mormon scripture, we read in 2 Nephi 9:34, “Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell.”

In their Gospel Principles manual, Mormons teach that “People use many excuses for being dishonest. People lie to protect themselves and to have others think well of them….These excuses and many more are given as reasons for dishonesty. To the Lord, there are no acceptable reasons.”

Silently standing by while their most prominent Mormon commits serious sins daily shows that the Mormon Church condones Romney’s lies. This suggests that to LDS leaders, the end justifies the means. Mormons want a Mormon President, so no one is going to call Romney on his actions. This, of course, is called selling one’s soul. If the Church as a whole is willing to sell its soul, Romney’s lies are the least of their problems.

Some people feel awkward getting involved in a candidate’s religion. But this isn’t like criticizing Obama for something his pastor said. Romney himself is the one breaking his own religion’s standards of morality, and since he is the most prestigious representative of the Mormon religion, the Mormon Church needs to publicly demonstrate their disapproval of his public actions.

LDS Church leaders need to call Mitt Romney to repentance and demand that he run a fair campaign. Anything less is blanket approval of serious, grievous sin. It’s one thing for individual Mormons to commit such sins, but the Church leadership must be better than that if they expect to be moral leaders of the world. The Mormon Church needs to either excommunicate Mitt Romney or publicly call him on his lies.