My maternal grandmother passed away many years ago, but I felt her presence while Ann Romney was speaking to the Republican National Convention last week. Although my grandmother was born in the late 19th century, she had much the same sort of life as Mrs. Romney. Mrs. Romney raised five children and my grandmother raised eight (four boys and four girls). Both women were often on their own while their husbands were away building successful business careers. Eventually both husbands became wealthy, though admittedly my grandfather was not on the same scale as Mitt Romney—there were no offshore accounts in our family. When my grandparents finally achieved the big house with the multi-car garage, they moved among the socially prominent persons in their town, and when the Great Depression of the 1930’s hit, they were able to maintain a comfortable lifestyle while sending their children to college. It was a truly privileged lifestyle for their times. Mitt and Ann Romney are doing just as well, or better, in these times.
I’m certain that my grandmother would have agreed with everything Ann Romney said in her heartfelt speech before her nationwide audience. Both women were proud of their work as mothers and thought raising children is one of the most important jobs in the world. (I often heard my grandmother say that “Men influence the present, but women determine the future.”) Both women were active in church and made a point of tithing. Both supported the Republican Party.
However, my grandmother would have seriously disagreed with Ann Romney on one point, one old-fashioned idea.
It was an idea which will probably never be discussed during this campaign. It was a point which both my grandparents thought was very important. A simple idea: tithing and doing good works in your church alone does not constitute doing major charitable work. That is only the smallest and narrowest part of what a person with great wealth should be doing. My grandparents came from old-line New England families, and they both felt very strongly that if they had earned wealth, it came from God. If God gave them wealth, they had to use it for good works for the whole community, especially for those not yet believers: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)
According to the Business Insider, 78% to 80% of Mitt Romney’s reported personal charitable donations have been to his church. His foundation has made 95% of its donations to the church. I would also assume, from the character witnesses who came forward to share stories of Mitt’s kindness and warm heart to those in need, that the majority of the personal charitable work he does is for his church.
My grandparents and their friends did similar things for their church in the last century. They also worked very hard for “civic improvements” to their small southern California town of Redlands, things that would benefit everyone: Libraries, parks, a swimming pool, an outdoor theater. . . As one of my grandfather’s friends believed, “No town can live by taxes alone.” He didn’t mean “no new taxes.” He meant that those who had much should share with those who had little. He meant that a good community benefits everyone, rich and poor alike, and that we all should feel “impelled to do” more than we are “compelled to do.”
I’d feel a lot better about Mitt Romney and the current Republican Party if they supported this old-fashioned idea and took it nationwide. But I guess they aren’t real old-fashioned conservatives—the kind my grandparents were.