Posted on 12/15/2007 4:44:26 AM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
For many sophisticated conservatives, Mitt Romney is an appealing presidential candidate. Before he served a respectable term as governor of Massachusetts, he rescued the scandal-plagued Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. He has also been very successful in business, making millions as the co-founder of a private equity investment firm. Though his hyperpandering to the narrow-minded in this campaign has cost him some honor, he's still smart, accomplished and photogenic.
He's also a Mormon, a biographical note that has caused considerable consternation among the ultraconservative Christians who make up a sizable portion of the GOP's core constituency. Many of them reject Mormonism as a "cult" and would be hard-pressed to vote for Romney because of it. That's the reason he is now under white-hot pressure from Mike Huckabee in Iowa, where hard-core believers have pumped up the Baptist preacher's poll numbers.
It's quite a quandary for those among the Republican establishment who see Romney as not only the most electable among the GOP nominees — he has more intellectual heft than Huckabee and none of Rudy Giuliani's considerable baggage — but also as a genuinely well-qualified candidate.
And they're beginning to fret over those right-wing Christians who have painted Mormons as the children of Satan, a faction that wasn't placated by Romney's recent speech in which he declared his belief that "Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the savior of mankind."
This curious fracture among the GOP faithful conjures up another bit of biblical wisdom: "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind." (Hosea 8:7) For more than two decades, the Republican Party has employed a deliberate strategy of injecting "moral values" and religious beliefs into political and civic life — a strategy that found its apex in the election of George W. Bush, who, during a presidential debate, named "Jesus Christ" as his favorite philosopher.
Though the GOP was historically known for fiscal conservatism and government restraint, party strategists decided back in the 1980s to link arms with Christian zealots to secure the votes of their flocks.
Thus began a long association with such figures as Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell, dogmatic, dictatorial and intolerant. Their Christianity brooks no dissent from a rigid and warped reading of the Bible that denounces homosexuality and decries abortion but has little compassion for the poor.
To win Republican primaries, GOP candidates are expected to kowtow to those Christianists, and they have, all the while dismissing as immoral "secular humanists" those Americans who want to protect the wall separating church and state. In recent years, there have been few establishment conservatives willing to stand up to the zealots — and those who did have paid a price. (John McCain, who rightly labeled Falwell and Robertson "agents of intolerance" in his 2000 presidential campaign, comes to mind.)
But with ultraconservative Christians balking at the prospect of a Mormon president, many top conservatives are suddenly annoyed. Earlier this month, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, accusing Huckabee of "exploiting" religion, wrote, "Mormonism should be a total irrelevancy in any political campaign." Trained as a psychiatrist, Krauthammer has never aligned himself with the right-wing religionists, but he has been much more circumspect about Bush's exploitation of religion.
A far stranger spectacle has been the sight of Ralph Reed, former Christian Coalition executive, on the airwaves denouncing voters who would use religious beliefs as a test for political office. "We've really gone over the line in this election," Reed said recently, complaining that presidential candidates are being subjected to "a doctrinal frisk." Wow. You may recall Reed and his former mentor, Robertson, as among those who established the procedure, requiring candidates to assume the doctrinal position they laid out.
Time for these folks to stop invoking Christ's name and start listening to Christ's message. Mitt Romney's candidacy should depend on how he leads, not on how he prays.
It may come down to the LEAST fraudulent to get my vote!
Oh heck! They are SO used to that; it's like water off of a ducks back!
They might fuss over losing the PRIMARY, but, come election time for the Big House, they will vote their conservative conscience; just like always.
Hint: Utah is 59% Mormon, and we hear from them ALL the time in these threads that RELIGION should not matter at all in a vote for the Presidency. Therefore, they will vote FOR Huckabee because he is LESS Liberal than the Witch!
Very good question. Hopefully one of the Mormon haters will answer.
Chuck Norris gives his campaign manager tips!
LOL! No, I live on the planet Earth. Sorry about your planet. Wherever it is.
Do you think if Romney is elected President he will subvert NASA into sending a space probe to Kolob? If not, then what business is it of yours?
Don't worry, for when the Anti-Christ DOES show his face, it will NOT have a 'religious' countenance!
He will be billed as a POLITICAL Savior; one who can bring PEACE to the World.
Excellent definition of “Right Wing”.....and as a christian who considers himself “Right Wing” there are many issues about Huck and Romney that bother me.....
The article reflects the ignorance of the author....its a non-issue.
Who made you the arbiter of who is and isn't an American? You, whose screen name is the German national anthem?
GOD FIRST, then Country, otherwise, FRiend, the country won't be worth defending. Any country.
As far as religious dogma goes, I'm pretty flexible within the Judeo-Christian ethic (although I have my own particular beliefs, as does anyone who believes), but a pro-"choice", anti-self defense, or pro-homosexuality platform just won't cut it for me with any party or candidate. YMMV.
Show... me... HATE!!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xb7SYspzH4U&feature=related
Please!
No more Hillary pictures so close to supper time!
I know of the MORMON doctrine of two kingdoms!
Dang!!
You've TRICKED me!!
By answering, I've outted myself as being a HATER!
Oh well; perhaps a good Mormon will get Baptized for me after I achieve room temperature.
Telling other people to "buzz off" after you have insulted every Catholic on this board shows a bit of, shall I say, chutzpa.
Yeah!!
What you said!
How DARE they question what we believe!?
--MormonDude(Tired of answering their silly questions... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMJvqBq_Qa8 )
“If it’s Huckabee and Obama, Obama will win in a walk if for no other reason than he doesn’t give off powerful vibes of religious intolerance like Huckabee does.”
It’s good to know that the LDS folks have such high regards for Black people and that there isn’t any racial intolerance going on in the Mormon Church like there used to be. By the way, is that one of those things God changed His mind about?
National Review Online has gotten so lukewarm, their editors could just as easily written this drivel.
Who hijacked? Conservatives supported Bush over McCain, who was running as the moderate in 2000.
What I said originally was that being born into something like that wouldn’t disqualify somebody for the office of POTUS in my estimation; but deciding it was a brilliant idea and signing up for it unnecessarily would.
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