Posted on 10/16/2007 10:36:59 AM PDT by esryle
PROVO - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told Brigham Young University students Tuesday that it is possible to be a good Mormon and a Democrat. "My faith and political beliefs are deeply intertwined. I am a Democrat because I am a Mormon, not in spite of it," he told a gathering of more than 4,000 at the Marriott Center. But Nevada's senior senator says he also hopes votes for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney are "determined by his political stands, and not his religion." Reid said people often question how he can be a Democrat and a Mormon, but called the social responsibility Democrats espouse a good fit with the beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He questioned the guidance of some LDS Church leaders, though. In remarks to the media following his address, Reid said that, "In the past years we've had some very prominent members of the church, like Ezra Taft Benson, who are really right-wing people. "Members of the church are obedient and followers in the true sense of the word, but these people have taken members of the church down the path that is the wrong path," he said. However, Reid says he doesn't have to answer to those who question his faith in the LDS Church. "I have to go get my [temple] recommend, and they're not present," he quipped. Reid didn't convert to the LDS Church until he became an adult, after he married his wife, Landra, both of whom were 19 at the time. Before joining the church, he said the figure he came closest to worshipping was President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A pillowcase with the quote "We can, we will, we must" stitched on it hung in his living room growing up in Searchlight, Nev., in a house with no indoor plumbing. "He fought for the workers of America," Reid said. "President Roosevelt is the basis of my political direction." Reid praised workers' unions, condemned the thought that free enterprise alone can solve global warming and spoke out strongly against the war in Iraq. "I say the invasion of Iraq was the worst foreign policy blunder in our country's history," he said, to loud applause from many in attendance. "I say our diplomatic army should be larger than our military army." Reid said afterward that the reaction did not surprise him because many Americans oppose the war, including BYU students. Although Reid is a Democrat, he says he is adamantly anti-abortion, and instead of voting for abortion bills, he votes for family-planning measures such as federal health insurance programs covering contraceptives, he said. Katherine Winters, a graduate student in civil engineering, said she was happy to get beyond the typical sound bites and begin to know Reid "as a person." She said she originally registered as a Republican when she turned 18 because her parents were Republicans. But lately she's been rethinking her political stand. "Recently there's so much that the Democratic Party has embraced; there is so much good that those social causes have done," she said. "I don't think you can call yourself a true Christian without caring for the poor."
Not sure if I should laugh or sigh. A Christian would say it was between him and Christ, or between him and God, not between him and his temple recommend.
Hard to disagree with any of you!
I want to see him in Heaven, waving that Temple Recommend before the Throne.
Dyslexia strikes again! :^)
LDS = Latter Day Saints = Mormons.
So this dingbat thinks it's "Christian" to extort money from people for Marxist income redistribution schemes (a.k.a. "entitlement programs")? She needs to read her Bible some more.
It took a few minutes for my brain to put the letter in the correct order.
That ought to do it!
That ought to do it!
Although I agree with the sentiment, I would also add that perhaps 10% of current beneficients of government-enforced 'social responsibility' are worthy of charity. Health care, other than that of immediate life saving variety, is not a 'right'. Neither is housing beyond minimal shelter.
Dirty Harry is a fraud who worships at the alter of greed. The American people should take Harry and his comrades out to an empty field where the Marines could practice on moving targets.
When Pelosi is denied communion.
Is this really a bad idea?
As individual Christians, and in with the help of our church and other Christian organizations, we do care for the poor. But the Lord never instructed us to use the government to steal money from the pockets of everyone, including those who are not Christians to help the poor. We give to people we find in need. We work with organizations we trust to help those in need.
I don't trust the impersonal govt to determine who needs help, nor do I trust them to be the best stewards of money given their wonderful track record. Anyone who thinks the govt., or the democrat party in particular, helps anyone but itself is delusional.
If I were a Mormon I would be pretty frustrated with the current leadership's go-along-get-along attitude. It seems the only way you can get kicked out is to marry two women.
They need their version of the Panzer Pope.
I think someone said at one point that when you find the perfect religion, join it, and realize that from that moment on it is no longer perfect.
If old Harrry was in my GGrandfathers Stake, when he was President, old Harry would have been down the road along time ago.
They love to look down on the poor as if they’re pets. The democrats want people to be poor, otherwise they’ve lost their captive audience.
What’s the best thing that we can do for the poor? It’s not to give them just enough money and incentive to stay poor, but to foster an economic environment that allows them to grow out of poverty.
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