I agree with most Americans that the presidential campaign shouldn't be about Mitt Romney's religion. But since it is, I think it would be more helpful if he would answer the questions that people put to him. They aren't that hard, even if they might be asked with ulterior motives.Update 12/29/2007: Does God speak to man? Romney says no. Woops!
I still like Mike Huckabee, and I think he would make the second best choice for president behind Ron Paul, but I'm a bit miffed at the sideswipes he's been taking at my religion lately. Mike, stop playing the religion card--it's getting a bit annoying.
Huckabee asks this question in a story appearing this Sunday in The New York Times magazine: "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?"
That's a bit rich. For someone reading the NY Times Magazine who doesn't know anything about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, that is beyond provocative. And I think Mike Huckabee knows more about the LDS Church than he's letting on.
But what's worse is that Mitt Romney didn't give a simple answer when the question was posed to him. He side-stepped it. Now he looks like he's trying to hide something. Here's my answer:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints teaches that everyone born on earth is a spirit child of our Heavenly Father. Jesus was one of God's spirit children. So was Satan. Satan chose to thwart God's plan, which granted to everyone freedom to choose. Because we are all spirit children of God, Jesus is not only Satan's brother, but our brother as well.There. How hard was that?
A week or two ago, candidate Romney was equally disingenuous. He didn't necessarily sidestep the answer, he just gave one that was slightly false.
One moment that drew particular attention at Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate was a video questioner’s asking whether the candidates believed every word of the Bible.In reality, anyone doing the slightest bit of research could find that
Mitt Romney, a Mormon, hesitated a bit in answering, then [said] “I believe the Bible is the word of God, absolutely.”
We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly.That's a bit different than "absolutely". It's clear that there are a plethora of Bible translations in just the English language. So people are probably less impressed with Romney because of that answer.
Even though it's a bit below the belt to continue to ask Mormon questions and not ask questions of other candidates about their religions (I don't know any candidate's religion, except Romney, although I've been treated to several tidbits furnished by Huckabee himself that he's an ordained minister), Romney shouldn't have exhibited such difficulty in answering the questions that have been posed to him.
If Romney is simply honest about it, I think people will respect him more.
Update 12/29/2007: Hat tip to a Liberal Mormon for finding that Mitt Romney allegedly doesn't believe that God talks to man. He supposedly said
“I don't recall God speaking to me. I don't know that he has spoken to anyone since Moses and the bush or perhaps some others."
Is that true--did he say that? If so, is he an apostate, or is he simply embarrassed by his religion. Maybe those CFR people have gotten to him more than I thought.
If you get immersed in the primary race there are plenty of places that talk about the religion of the various candidates - although most of it is focused on Mitt with Huckabee a not so distant second.
ReplyDeleteBy way of trivia:
Huckabee is an ordained Baptist minister.
Giuliani is a catholic (who likely can't recall what the inside of a cathedral is like).
Fred Thompson affiliates with the Church of Christ but says he's not very dedicated to religion.
Ron Paul is a (generic) protestant.
Hillary is a Methodist as is John Edwards.
Obama is with the United Church of Christ.
I think I need to spend more time on other stuff ;-)
Some on the right are getting nervous because Huckabee isn't just pandering to the evangelicals-- he really believes that stuff.
ReplyDeleteHuckabee is personable, great sense of humor, ane he's got integrity-- even says torture is torture.
But you have to wonder what he knows. I thought the guy has a master's degree in divinity, which would make it hard for him to claim he doesn't know anything about the LDS religion.
But it turns out, he never finished the advanced degree.
I think it's frightening that the candidates' personal religious beliefs are getting so much attention.
ReplyDeleteI don't belief in the supernatural, but I kind of like the idea of Satan as a fallen angel...it worked well as a dramatic device for John Milton.
By the way I wrote a poem about Iraq on my blog.
The thing that bugs me about this non-issue, is that I think Romney has set a lot of this up himself. When I was a missionary I once did a whole training meeting with the theme of:
ReplyDeleteThe best way to avoid concerns is not to bring them up.
I'm not saying you should be dishonest about your beliefs, but your life should reflect your beliefs so that people have no need to question what you believe.
I think Romneys using this as a publicity stunt more than anything else, and getting all the mormons riled up in the process...
Richard,
ReplyDeleteThe more I know of Huckabee, the less impressed I am. The second weirdest thing behind having Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton would be Bush-Hope Arkansas-Bush-Hope Arkansas. But I still like Huckabee as my second choice--so far.
Elizabeth,
I liked your poem. I like religion in the public square, except when it is used for sniping or self-aggrandizement.
Koda,
I thought Romney's faith in America speech was quite good, but he really does draw attention to himself with his strange answers to religious questions.
I hope you don't mind me posting. I am not very political but this presidnetialrace is very important and so I am delving more and more into politics.
ReplyDeleteMy friend and I were just having this conversation yesterday. We have another friend who is gung-ho on Ton Paul. He seems like a nice guy, but do you honestly think congress will pass much of his ideas??
To get to my point, there have been times when President Hinkley has beat around the bush about things such as 10 years ago when asked about Homosexuality. He didn't lie when he said we love everyone, etc. He just didn't go into detail on our believs on the subject mainly because I think it can be taken out of context. The spirit guided him in that I am sure.
How many things that Mitt has said or other have said about the LDS church has been taken out of context? So I think that when Mitt said some of these things it may have been beating around the bush (come on this is politics and he has to play the game),he mainly did it so that no more things can be taken out of context. What if he came out and said we do not believe the whole bible to be true, that would have caused so much more turmoil. He didn't lie, he just beat around the bush.
I believe that Romney is a good Mormon, not aprefect Mormon. I know I am not and I have beat around the bush on thing for fear that someone will bash someething very personal to me or get the wrong idea on what it is about.
I hope that my ramblings form my mind made sense.
I agree with you that Mitt Romney is a good Mormon. I just don't agree with his policies. I could support him as president, but Ron Paul is by far my first choice.
ReplyDeleteRon Paul and Congress would butt heads all the time--at first. It would take America about two years to see the prescience that Ron Paul has and that America will be bankrupt if we continue the same foreign and domestic policies. After those two years, the voters will throw out a lot of the bums who are up for election, and then about 1/3 of congress will agree with him. A couple more election cycles and a great number of Amerians--and thus their representatives--will come to understand that if America is to survive, we must follow sensible policy.
Ron Paul is the ONLY ONE in the ENTIRE slate of candidates in EITHER PARTY who has correctly identified our impending problems, and he is the only one with solutions to them.