I didn’t like Romney before. I’m close to despising him now.
In a bid to take the spotlight off of Huckabee, he has extended the full length of his shallow platitudes to fellow western monotheists–most especially to patriotic American monotheists who believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and the savior of mankind. Atheists, agnostics, skeptics, pagans, Hindus and Buddhists have no place (except perhaps a place of suspicion) in Mitt’s America. More about this later. Here’s my point by point reaction to Mitt’s posturing:
I do not define my candidacy by my religion.
No, members of the Christian Right, he defines his candidacy by your religion.
[The LDS Church's] authority is theirs, within the province of church affairs, and it ends where the affairs of the nation begin.*
* Invalid in the case of the Equal Rights Amendment, gay marriage, and local Utah politics.
I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office and the sovereign authority of the law.
Contrast this ambiguous commitment with JFK’s ballsy “up yours” to the Catholic Church: “I ask you tonight…to judge me on the basis of my record of 14 years in Congress — on my declared stands against an ambassador to the Vatican, against unconstitutional aid to parochial schools, and against any boycott of the public schools.” Mitt doesn’t have the spine to make the same bold claims (unless the polls suggest that spines increase ratings).
Some believe that such a confession of my faith will sink my candidacy. If they are right, so be it.
What’s really odd is that he follows this up with a generic Christian confession: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and the savior of mankind.” This is just the beginning of a Mormon’s confession of faith, which would go on to declare that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, Joseph Smith was his chosen prophet, and that Gordon B. Hinckley is the prophet to the world today (there are some minor variations on this theme). Pretty sneaky, if you think about it–Mitt Romney followed the “confession will sink my candidacy” group while looking like he was standing up to them.
Skipping forward:
It’s important to recognize that while differences in theology exist between the churches in America, we share a common creed of moral convictions…Whether it was the cause of abolition, or civil rights, or the right to life itself, no movement of conscience can succeed in America that cannot speak to the convictions of religious people.
This is just hypocritical bullshit. In abolition and civil rights, it was the radical progressives who got the heavy ball of social change rolling. Religious institutions were as guilty of preserving and protecting slavery and racism as they were in defeating them. Did Mitt speak out against the institutionalized racism of his own Church, which belatedly admitted black men to the priesthood (and to salvation) in 1978?
Perhaps the most important question to ask a person of faith who seeks a political office, is this: Does he share these American values — the equality of human kind, the obligation to serve one another and a steadfast commitment to liberty?
They are not unique to any one denomination. They belong to the great moral inheritance we hold in common. They’re the firm ground on which Americans of different faiths meet and stand as a nation, united.
This part has me steaming mad. “To ask a person of faith who seeks political office?” What’s up with that “of faith?” Since when does belief in deity equal morality? Listen up, you bigoted, self-righteous bastard: I AM AN ATHEIST. And I believe in “the equality of human kind, the obligation to serve one another and a steadfast commitment to liberty.” I might even argue that I demonstrably believe in this equality more than you do.
Any believer in religious freedom, any person who has knelt in prayer to the Almighty, has a friend and ally in me. And so it is for hundreds of millions of our countrymen: We do not insist on a single strain of religion — rather, we welcome our nation’s symphony of faith.
There it is, folks. No outreach to the doubters and skeptics from Mitt’s camp. We’re shut out of the choir. What’s sadder is that this is Romney bending over and puckering up to kiss the prudish asses of a torture-loving, immigrant-hating “core constituency.” I half hope he wins their hearts. They’d be good for each other.
OK. Enough air-time for Romney. On to things of substance.
