Jon Carroll { Obsessed With Mike & Mitt }

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 12/13/7 | Jon Carroll

[SmithL]

I have become obsessed with Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. Not that I would ever vote for either of them. Mitt Romney looks like the typical high school suck-up, the kid whom everyone hated, although everyone also conceded that he'd go far. He also had Daddy's money, and he looked as if he had Daddy's money.

There is also the Mormon thing. One part of the American experiment that I really agree with is that everyone should be free to believe any damn thing they want, and to worship any damn thing they want, as long as it doesn't scare the horses. People say, "Oh, that Joseph Smith, what a hoaxster; can you believe people actually bought into that 'golden plates in the backyard' thing?"

Well, yeah. Can you believe that people actually bought into that "it's really the blood of Jesus" thing? Can you believe people bought into that "the Prophet went into a cave and the angel Gabriel dictated an entire book to him" thing? Can you believe that people bought into that "here's a holy imaginary elephant - build a shrine!" thing?

I mean, it's a religion. It's not supposed to make sense. It's a matter of faith, and I just ain't going to get into the business of weighing faiths. Let a thousand Mormons bloom, not that they need my permission. Or want it.

The trouble is that Romney does want to weigh faiths. Or, at least, lack of faith. Here he is in the famous speech about his Mormon religion that mentioned the word "Mormon" only once: "Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone."...

[RC2]

Typical San Franfreeco babble. In one place he states “One part of the American experiment that I really agree with is that everyone should be free to believe any damn thing they want”.....then he goes off and tears another mans religion apart. I guess it’s because God has been run out of San Francisco.

[Sherman Logan]

The author apparently objects to, “Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.”

It is yet to be determined whether freedom can long endure without religion. The EUropeans are making the experiment. Initial results don’t look promising.

[WOSG]

A Liberal bashing Romney for not being nice enough to athiests. yawn.

[FastCoyote]

“Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.”...

What people don’t like to admit about Romey’s “Great Speech” is he straddled the fence and thus said nothing. In the above, we are told Freedom and religion endure together. But the rest of the speech is an effort to tell us we aren’t allowed to know or consider what the religion of the candidate for the most powerful politician in the world is about, severing the link between Freedom and religion.

Sounds great, less filling!