Posted on 05/08/2007 7:01:27 PM PDT by Reaganesque
Their trashing of mormonism is not going to work.
Every time I begin to think "my Jesus" is better than "their Jesus", I'll imagine standing in front of a mirror and seeing my face morph into the hideous countenance of Sharpton. That will surely snap me back to reality and humility immediately!
So I am going to defend Al Sharpton.
Here is the part of the story with his quote:
But Mr. Sharpton, in a jab at Mitt Romney (and the Mormon religion, which Mr. Hitchens had criticized because it once endorsed racial segregation), added, “As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyway, so don’t worry, that’s a temporary situation.”
Why did Mitt come up? Well Mr. Hitchens, who is an ATHEIST, attacked Mitt Romney because Mitt is a Mormon and Mormons once endorsed recial segregation.
Al Sharpton's the one who supposed to make arguments about racial segregation, not some white atheist.
So Al says, for the mormon, leave that to the people who believe in God. We don't need some white atheist taking care of the mormons.
OK, so it's still an attack on the Mormon part of Romney, and not Romney, but it's not saying that mormons don't believe in God, he was saying HITCHENS didn't believe in God.
Al “jew them down” Sharpton is being outed as a bigot? The whole DNC is to blame for not calling him on his bigotry when they accepted him with open arms as a candidate in 2004. They DID shut down the visibility of Lyndon LaRouche as a Democrat candidate and did not engage him in debates.
Mr. Sharpton’s racist tirades were never questioned publicly by Democrats.
Then again the DNC is the big tent party that accepts racists of all backgrounds. Just look at Robert Byrd, former KKK recruiter.
Sometimes I wonder if we humans only exist for God’s entertainment.
Doesn’t Al S. remember that He has many mansions?
I’ve been trying to figure ways to blunt the things I am guessing the Rdoham-rodent’s goons will try to raise ... Mitt may well get the nominationa nd then I, for one, will be trying to get conservatives to the polls. But the problem is the attacks will come from stealth directions, without the luxury to reason with the sources to counter the smear.
The important point is that Mitt Romney is making an outreach to evangelical Christians. This post, A seat at Romney's table, describes how Mitt Romney is making an outreach to religious conservatives. In the primaries, I don't believe these efforts will be all that effective while Mr. Brownback, Mr. Hunter, and Mr. Huckabee are in the race, but as they drop, this outreach may be very effective. In the general election, this kind of outreach should be very effective. Some religious conservatives will still refuse to vote for a Mormon, but I think most of those in swing states will realize that a good man of the Mormon faith is better than a not-so-good liberal.
Bill
What I’m thinking will get me banned from FR if I post it...
Heck some people here will...
“You think the DNC wouldn’t sacrifice Harry to get rid of Hatch and win the White House by trashing the image of Mormonism?”
If DNC=Hillary, of course. They’d throw their own Grandma in front of a bus to get to the white house.
But it helps to ask and point it out, to expose the hypocrisy/bigotry.
There isn’t any negative thing about our nation that the dnc would not exploit for their empowerment. The dnc has been looking for some way to marginalize faithful Christians and Romney’s candidacy may be just the vehicle they’ve been ‘praying’ for. Pointing out that it is bigoted to not vote for a man because he’s a Mormon isn’t really going to stop the effort the dnc goons will make.
That nappy headed Morman.
CharlesWayneCT, your read on this is the way Sharpton is explaining it in subsequent remarks, Sharpton Denies Questioning Romney Faith.
However, Sharpton's original comment was widely interpreted by many as an insult against Mitt Romney's faith. It prompted the Romney campaign to issue this statement:
"It is terribly disheartening and disappointing to hear Reverend Sharpton offer such appalling comments about a fellow American's faith," said Romney spokesman Kevin Madden. "America is a nation of many faiths and common values, and bigotry toward anyone because of their beliefs is unacceptable."Sharpton should at least apologize for his remarks being misunderstood, but instead he is suggesting the Romney camp was trying to stir up a controversy because of their political differences. Sharpton is shameless and the Democrat Media will never blame him for his careless remarks.
Al does this stuff intentionally. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted the Romney campaign to respond. If it is stupid and harmless, I say just ignore him.
I considered that possibility. But, in listening to the audio of the comment, it certainly seemed fairly clear that he was referring to Mormonism and not Hitchens. And, given Sharpton’s tendency to say such things about people he doesn’t like or understand, it’s hard not to come to that conclusion. What makes this of particular interest is the recent Imus controversy. Sharpton did not give him the benefit of the doubt so, he’s not particularly in a strong position to demand understanding of others, as to whether he was referring to Mormonism or his debate opponent.
There fixed it for Al.
I think that has changed in more recent years. Most Evangelicals I have met do consider some of my Doctrines odd but they understand I am Christian.
Food for thought - If I were to agree with Al Sharpton on any issue I would have to do some serious soul searching about the matter.
Al Sharpton is shameless, and will use this to his advantage. He should be attacked for being a race-baiter who has no regard for the truth in pursuit of his cause.
But the fact that he is using this argument to defend himself isn’t surprising to me. Unfortunately, if it IS what he meant, he’s going to defend it that way, just as if it WASN’T. That’s the problem with being a person who is known to lie and to have no shame in doing so, because even if you tell the truth nobody has reason to believe you.
I just examined the statements in context, and without regard to political posturing, his statement makes more sense as an attack on Hitchens than an attack on Romney (as regards the “belief in God”).
I simply don’t believe Al Sharpton would say Romney didn’t believe in God, because first Al is a pretty shrewd politician and would know he couldn’t defend it, and second I don’t think Al believes that mormons do not “believe in God”.
I think, and I’m sure I’m in the minority, that Romney SHOULD have responded, but not directly to Al Sharpton, but based on the “buzz” caused by others interpreting Al Sharpton.
He should have positively expressed his belief in God, and discussed why saying he didn’t wasn’t appropriate political rhetoric — he could have done so without making any specific claim about Al Sharpton, who may well have not meant it.
By Attacking Al Sharpton directly, you might stir up the base, but you also might make it about Al being a victim.
Well, that's the real rub, isn't it. Al Sharpton should be judged as he judged others, that's one way to look at it.
Or, if we objected to the way Imus was judged, we should also object to the way Al is judged, that's another way to look at it.
That's always the dilemna. Having attacked someone for behaving badly, if you get a chance to invoke the same bad behavior against them, do you do so to "teach them a lesson", or do you refrain to show adherance to your principles.
It's not an easy thing. In this case, I believe we should be consistant, but I'm not losing a minute of sleep over how Al's being treated, it couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.
Sharpton is a buffoon. But he is dangerous. His hate speech and racism has resulted in violence and death. Is there a word for a dangerous buffoon?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.