Dec

A Religious Test for the Presidency

Posted by: Wordsmith @ 11:26 am in Politics, Religion | 0 views

From the Washington Post, covering Mitt Romney’s speech:

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Dec. 6 — Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, seeking to allay public misgivings about his Mormon faith, pledged here Thursday to serve the common good and no single religion if he is elected president, while also making an impassioned plea for the importance of faith and religion in the public arena.

I was just listening to a guy, John Harrington- identified as a Catholic, on a Washington Post video, “The Mormon Question” make the following interview statement:

Formerly I was a Bush supporter; and- but when I’ve seen what President Bush has done with regard to, say, stem cell research, um, because he has such strong beliefs, uh, from a religious standpoint, I think he’s using that to sway, uh, his thought processes when it comes to being the President of the United States and I really disagree with him in that regard. I believe that if…uh…Mr. Romney did start to sway too much toward his religion and his religious beliefs and if I had an indication that he would use those beliefs in running the country, it may sway me away from him a little bit, yes.

My question back to Mr. Harrington is, “Why should it matter whether beliefs are religious in nature and origin, or secular?”

Beliefs are beliefs, and we all have them. It doesn’t matter whether it’s liberalism or Catholicism. What we should want in a candidate, are shared values. Mr. Harrington should not support President Bush because he perceives President Bush as not supportive of embryonic stem cell research; not because it is his religious convictions that is non-supportive of embryonic stem cell research. One could just as well be arguing that a President’s secularism is preventing him from objectively quantifying the issue.

And since it’s been brought up, my own feeling in regards to President Bush’s positioning on the stem cell issue is that he hasn’t “pushed” his evangelical beliefs upon the country. There isn’t a “ban” on stem cell research. What he has done is seen that the nation is deeply divided on the issue, and taken the middle road, refusing to support further federal government funding of embryonic stem cell research.

Mitt Romney’s Faith in America

Others covering the speech:
Hugh Hewitt (of course!) here and here
Kevin McCullough here, here, and here

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16 comments so far

mish

At issue is the oath of allegiance Mormons, and Mitt Romney in particular, have sworn to their church and church leaders. Mitt Romney will naturally say he won’t take orders from Salt Lake. But you’ve seen him say it – he’s proud of his faith. His religion DEMANDS he obeys his leaders. And he really, REALLY believes that Gordon B. Hinckley is God’s oracle on earth. J.F.K. took no such formal oath to his organization nor did he apparently hold the Catholic Pope in as high esteem

For documentation, check out

romneyforpresident.townhall.com

(Funny photos too!)

December 6th, 2007 at 1:48 pm

John Ryan

Until a “divine revelation” mandated a change one of the core beliefs of the Mormon religion was that blacks were not fit to fully participate in that church. In 1978 Romney was a 30 year old adult, I think that Americans should have a problem with voting for someone who held that to be the word of God.
Do you have a problem with a religion that would say that ? I do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacks_and_the_Latter_Day_Saint_movement

December 6th, 2007 at 2:30 pm

bbartlog

And he really, REALLY believes that Gordon B. Hinckley is God’s oracle on earth

I haven’t seen evidence that Romney ‘really, REALLY’ believes much of anything (in terms of religion or ideology). In the case of some of the more controversial Mormon tenets, that ends up being a good thing.

December 6th, 2007 at 3:23 pm

suek

“John Harrington- identified as a Catholic…” …”Formerly I was a Bush supporter; and- but when I’ve seen what President Bush has done with regard to, say, stem cell research,…I really disagree with him in that regard.”

Bogus. He’s Catholic, but he thinks embryonic stem cell research is good? Possible…but also possibly another plant. I don’t know when this was, but if someone was good at ferreting out some of these “plants”, I’d bet he was one of them.

December 6th, 2007 at 3:24 pm

wordsmith

John Ryan,

That second cartoon is for you.

Your line of reasoning reminds of those who will tell a moderate Muslim who is a self-described devout practitioner of Islam, what is and isn’t “true” Islam. And will proceed to attack his religion and disallow him from defining who he is and what he believes in.

Why don’t you ask Romney if in 2007 he believes blacks should or should not participate in his church. While you’re at it, ask him about polygamy. Ask him about the Mountain Meadows Massacre; and hold him to account for this 9/11 of 150 years ago.

December 7th, 2007 at 12:57 am

Tom the Redhunter

Well well, this post really brought out the anti-Mormon types, didn’t it?

Mish makes a big deal out of Mormonism supposedly DEMANDING obedience from it’s leaders. Well, all religions DEMAND obedience from God. So…I guess we couldn’t let anyone who takes their religion seriously become president? After all, you could argue that they would ignore the Constitution if they found something in their holy book that contradicted it. Guess that means Hillary, Obama, and Edwards could never be president either, since all of them say they’re Christians. But the left never gets held to that standard.

December 7th, 2007 at 5:17 am

suek

>>Why don’t you ask Romney if in 2007 he believes blacks should or should not participate in his church.>>

Irrelevant. Racial discrimination in personal affairs may be socially undesireable, but it’s not illegal. Discrimination before the law _is_ illegal.

>>While you’re at it, ask him about polygamy.>>

LDS originally practiced polygamy, but made it illegal in the state and also in their religion. There are some LDS offshoot groups that still practice it, but they are not accepted by the main body.

>> Ask him about the Mountain Meadows Massacre; and hold him to account for this 9/11 of 150 years ago.>>

Riiight…and your ancestors probably shipped/owned slaves 200 years ago. Nobody’s responsible for the decisions made by their ancestors – or their offspring – just their own. If you can show me where Romney is responsible for atrocities directly himself, let’s hear it.

December 7th, 2007 at 2:07 pm

wordsmith

suek,

You totally missed the context of my message as a response to John Ryan, didn’t you?

December 7th, 2007 at 2:20 pm

suek

If you judge my response misinterpreted yours, then…
‘Fraid so…

December 7th, 2007 at 4:53 pm

ChrisG

Suek,

I think you and Wordsmith were saying the same thing from different sides. He asked the question to our troll and you spelled it out for said troll in clear language.

Now if said troll was able to comprehend…….

I wonder why leftists never get asked questions on faith? Maybe because the left’s ‘religion’ is the State, its ‘god’ is Marx and its ‘profits’ are Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Kim. Or maybe they are now ‘protestants’ and follow the other form of the Marxist State “religion”: national socialism?

December 7th, 2007 at 8:44 pm

wordsmith

Thanks, Chris.

Curt,

I’m out of commission for a while. My computer heaved its final breath, I think, yesterday. I’m on a library computer at the moment.

It’ll take a while to figure out if repairs are worth the cost, or if I have to invest in a new computer.

Can’t even seem to check into my gmail account from here.

December 8th, 2007 at 5:43 pm

Curt

Hate when that happens. The good thing is that you can get new computers for cheap nowadays. Amazing how much the price has gone down….

December 9th, 2007 at 12:34 am

Arnie