Posted on 10/14/2011 2:08:58 PM PDT by rhema
Oh good heavens, this is medieval. We’re still dividing from one another over religion? It’s the 21st century folks, not 16th century England! There are probably dozens of reasons to oppose Romney, but the religion aspect is the lamest and most unAmerican. Romney is running for president, not national preacher. Vote for him or don’t based on his stand on the issues, not something as backwards as this. Come on. We’re a better people than this nonsense.
I disagree and maintain that Mitt's Mormon beliefs are a critical election issue. I raise following arguments in support of this position:
It is not right to say doctrine doesn't matter at all. Take Islam, for instance. It would be dangerously naive to assume, as American civil religion does, that all religions are pretty much the same. It's true that most religions share core ethical teachings, but orthodox Islam also teaches unambiguously that there is to be no separation of religion and state, that non-Muslims are to live subservient under law to Muslims, and in some sects that Allah commands a jihad or "holy war" be waged against non-Muslim "infidels". To the extent that a Muslim wishes to preside over our pluralist liberal democracy, he will have had to break radically from his faith's fundamentals.
Liberals who insist that religion has no place at all in American politics have to account for the Christian roots of many social reforms. Consider for example the abolitionism and the civil rights movement. When faced with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and other black clergymen explicitly appealing to Christian scripture against Jim Crow, Southern segregationists groused that religion had no business in politics. You can't praise religion's role in political discourse only when it advances causes of which you approve or is practiced by constituencies blacks, say, that vote Democratic.
If God doesn't exist, then by what standard do we decide right from wrong? If a society recognizes no independent, transcendent guardian of the moral order, will it not, over time, lose its self-discipline and decline into barbarism? The eminent sociologist Philip Rieff, who was not a believer, said that man would either live in fear of God or would be condemned to live in fear of the evil in himself.
Mitt, himself, has placed his Mormon faith under scrutiny. In his famous speech on Mormonism, Mitt said that a person should not be rejected . . . because of his faith. His supporters say it is akin to rejecting a Barack Obama because he is black. But Obama was born black; Romney is a Mormon because he accepts the beliefs of the Mormon faith. This permits us, therefore, to make inferences about his judgment and character, good or bad.
Mitt has promised to fully obey Mormon teachings without hesitation and without question.
In his February 26, 1980 speech at BYU titled Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet, LDS President Ezra Taft Benson maintained the Mormon Church President spoke with inerrant authority on "any matter, temporal or spiritual " and was "not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time."Mitt either intended to honor his promises to follow another man's instructions, or he lied. In the case of the former, we are entitled to know where these directives lead, and in the alternative, we should be concerned about Mitt's honesty.As a Temple Mormon, Mormon Bishop and Stake President, Mitt has sworn among other things, he recognizes the President of the LDS Church as a "prophet, seer and revelator," and will "obey the rules, laws, and commandments of the gospel" as proclaimed by Mormon Prophets.
Mitt made these solemn vows with the understanding they effect "time and all eternity."
For these reasons, among others, I assert Mitt’s beliefs are indeed a legitimate issue for determining his qualifications for elected public office.
When someone who is supposedly intelligent like Romney adheres to a religion of sorts like Mormonism without researching the details of it then wants to run the US with the same intelligence is scary.
All of that is REALLY reaching frankly and a huge leap of logic. The same claims were made about JFK that he’d just be a puppet of the pope. That proved to be absurd too. We’re a better nation than this to prey on peoples’ fears and ignorance of one another’s religious beliefs.
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.
Its key commitments are:
The need for personal conversion (or being "born again");
A high regard for biblical authority;
An emphasis on teachings that proclaim the saving death and resurrection of the Son of God, Jesus Christ
Actively expressing and sharing the gospel.
And now they would assume the mantle of deciding who is and who is not a Christian?
His flip flopping is BECAUSE of his Mormon faith, not in spite of it.
And on what basis do you claim to know he's not researched his religion? He served a mission in France--you kind of have to know what you believe in order to teach it to others for 2 years. Just because what YOU THINK Mormons believe doesn't match the reality of what Mormons believe doesn't mean he doesn't know what his fatith entails. The ignorance is yours, not Romney's.
Ungh....Mohler. Just who does he represent?
Oh yes, those who want to play nice with the Mormons. How many Mormons has he converted? Not one single one that I know of, and I know many if not most of the ex-mormons who are now Christian in the Salt Lake area.
He is a cheek-kisser with a hidden agenda of Mormonism promotion.
I hope I haven’t been to forceful in my opinion.
I’m voting for the most conservative. Right now, that appears to be Cain. I don’t even know what religion he is and I don’t care.
There are probably dozens of reasons to oppose Romney, but the religion aspect is the lamest and most unAmerican. R
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It is not unAmerican or lame to stand up for your beliefs. As a Christian, I cannot vote for Romney. As a Conservative, I cannot vote for Romney.
There is nothing in the Constitution that says *I* can’t have a religious test for office.
And as I have said before, Mitt’s policies are a result of his worldview, his Religion.
Mitt aside, the article is accurate and well written and something more Christians need to consider. Mormons are not Christians, no matter how much they claim. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.
It is not what I >THINK< Mormons believe, it’s what >I’VE< read what Mormons believe. If Romney believes that anti-Christian crap then he has no business running the US. I don’t care how many years he was a so-called missionary spreading that stuff, he still is an un-educated dolt in my opinion. I bet he spent more time investigating his latest car or stereo or HDTV that he had in investigating Mormonism.
Excellent post, and well worth reposting over and over again every time the subject comes up.
MissesBush meet colorcountry who believes that Mohler's essay is a "cheek-kisser"'s attempt to promote Mormonism.
All: See how clear thinking we conservatives are? See how we can each read the same text and come to completely different conclusions? We are so much more intelligent, rational and logical than our liberal foes.
Coincidentally(?) exempting him from the war in Viet Nam.
He was married in the Temple. He knows what his religion believes and he lives by it - and lies about it. That’s the problem.
The same claims were made about JFK that he’d just be a puppet of the pope. That proved to be absurd too.
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Typical response and also incorrect. It assumes that LDS Prophet = Pope and that is not correct.
Catholics don’t ‘sustain’ the pope publicly (vote on him) every year, they aren’t commanded by encyclical to follow the Pope even if he tells you to sin or commit a crime, they don’t take blood oaths in Cathedrals promising to use everything they have (which would include money and power) to the building up of the the Pope’s coffers. Also, there is no evidence that JFK met with the Pope before he decided to run for office the same cannot be said about Romney.
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