Although Mitt Romney gave an historic speed for a Mormon running for President, I don't think it was necessary. It's all been said before. by Bob Nightingale
(libertarian)
Friday, December 7, 2007
I'll not quote his speech here. Google News gives 1,651 references to it. And that was the whole point. Mitt Romney used this opportunity to get votes, pure and simple. I didn't learn anything about the Mormon religion. He only said what I already knew. He believes that government today was founded by people with Christian beliefs, and he is one. Wow, pass the remote.
My impression of Mormons has been pretty positive. Of those I've met, they have some of the best behaved kids. My sister got along with them just fine while she attended college at Weber State. Last winter, a couple of Mormon missionaries offered to shovel snow from my driveway, if I'd take one of their business cards. Knock yourselves out. I still have the card on my desk somewhere.
In the movie Gandhi, an Episcopal minister sat on the train with a Hindu man. The man told the minister that a Christian woman in his village eats bodies and drinks blood. The minister was shocked, until the man said it was the body of Jesus.
Christians are pretty weird to begin with. Being a life-long Catholic, I should know. Our priests and nuns choose to serve the church rather than get married and have children. We believe that God has three parts: the Father (the creator), the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. Jesus died, came back to life three days later, and then went to heaven bodily forty days later. You don't see that every day.
So why should I get bent out of shape by people who make their own underwear or claim that Missouri is the original Garden of Eden? Owning gold, even in the form of holy writings, makes a lot of sense in uncertain economic times. The Mormon work ethic and preparing for lean times are things we should all do. However, I'm pretty content with one Holy Book.
Many of the commentators made the connection that Romney was trying to emulate JFK's speech that being a Catholic doesn't disqualify him from being president. At the time, Kennedy was running against a Quaker, who are known for their anti-war positions. Nixon joined the Navy during WWII against the wishes of his parents. Kennedy also joined the Navy, despite chronic pain. A military veteran should never have to justify his religious beliefs as a test for president. Nor should someone who has served as a governor, or a senator, or a postal clerk. America should be beyond that.
Kennedy said in his speech that he believed in a strict separation between church and state. I agree. Government should only regulate injurious behavior between people, not tell you how to think or what to believe.
A few years after Kennedy's assassination, Martin Luther King gave his "I Have A Dream" speech. It says what matters.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
The last paragraph says all we need to know about treating people of different faiths in this country:
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Although he didn't say Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Scientologists, Moslems or even atheists by name, I'm sure he meant them too.
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Posted By: Scott from Oregon
Date: 2007-12-07 11:32:37
I'm an anti-religionist at heart, so Romney's speech just made me want to grill him about whay he truly believes.
Blacks were considered "less than human" in the Mormon faith while Romney was an adult. This alone, would cause me to ask why he did not leave his faith when he learned that it was a racists organization?
To be honest, the whole notion that EVERY candidate on the podium is pulling the religion card to get the vast religious vote, makes me cringe. The leader of the free world believes in arks and 6,000 year old planets and virgin births and burning bushes?
Just more disinformation. Romney's true religion is not Mormon but Global Facism, like most of the other candidates.
The "father" or at least the "godfather" of this religion George H W Bush was right on stage with him. Bet this religion will determine ALL your polices. By the way who is now the pope for this religion.
Does anyone remember when GHWB as President first used the term "New World Order?"
Hey guys this is supposed to be "conspiracy theory" and therefore in your imagination, just like the NAFTA highways being built that don't exist.
I can't remember which one but it was either CNN or MSNBC that had a huge tag just below the TV images just yesterday which read
