Romney's On Religion Speech: I Don't Have To Justify My Mormon Beliefs

AP:

Republican Mitt Romney, confronting voters' skepticism about his Mormon faith, declared Thursday that as president he would "serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause," and said calls for him to explain and justify his religious beliefs go against the profound wishes of the nation's founders.

At the same time, he decried those who would remove from public life "any acknowledgment of God," and he said that "during the holiday season, nativity scenes and menorahs should be welcome in our public places."

Read the whole story: AP

Comments

[booker52]

09:39 AM on 12/10/2007

I believe with this speech Mitt gave, he didn't defend his faith, but tried to straddle the fence and say a bunch of nothing. I was not impressed. He also says if you don't have faith you are unamerican. Hello??? Who left him to judge????

[NuAgeDok]

08:12 PM on 12/08/2007

Mittens and Bill O' - culture warriors extraordinaire will rid the country of those secular scum and make it a much better place to live/

[Frederic]

07:17 PM on 12/07/2007

Religious faith - all faith - is the avowed pride in ignorance and superstition, and in the declared desire to stay as ignorant as possible (and, of course, dominate the ignorant flock).

How public figures, after having had such admirable leaders like Jefferson and Paine have degenerated into superstitious caricature micky mouse figures like Romney and his ilk, is such a sad token of where "the American Way Of Life" is directed: It moves parallel to the Islamist fanaticism and mirrors it exactly. Bush, Romney, Huckabee - the same species as Ahmadinedshad and his bigots on the other side of the fence. Their mindset is identical.

One is almost inclined to think this human race faces the same fate as so many other unsuccessful species paleontologists speak about (hundreds of times as many species than live today have not survived): A proof for the strict laws of evolution!

[saami]

01:46 PM on 12/07/2007

Romney is a religious bigot and clearly said so in his speech. He didn't give a JFK speech; he gave an insulting bigoted speech. Jefferson and Madison gave us freedom from religion as well as freedom of religion. You don’t need religion to be free in fact it is easier to be free without religion demanding that you do it’s bidding. Religion and a belief in god is a personal thing. I am happy for people who love their god and religion as long as they leave me alone and don’t try to impose in any way their beliefs on me or the rest of Americans.

[connorin]

10:55 AM on 12/07/2007

JFK could never be elected president as a democrat in today's world if you guys truly believe what you say here...he would never get out of the primaries

[CammyV]

10:02 AM on 12/07/2007

I don't want to hear about any candidates religion. I don't want to hear candidates talking about Jesus. I'd rather have an athiest or agnostic President who does his job based on facts and logic rather than myth and 'faith' in some supreme being who guides their actions.

[ProfessorDuh]

09:42 AM on 12/07/2007

The plastic, blow-up, unprincipled Mormon argued vaguely for a theocracy, but avoided explaining his belief that God is some guy who dwells on the planet Kolob. I'd like to hear him elaborate on that to the legion of fundamentalist whack jobs in his party.

[itsnotmyfault]

07:57 AM on 12/07/2007

Mitt...how about the LDS church's quest for religious supremacy" and its "desire for economic and political dominance in order to pave the way for the Kingdom of God on Earth" (p. xiv).or "Joseph Smith's occult practices, the creation of the Book of Mormon, the mysterious Danite assassins, Joseph Smith's murder, the Mormon move to Utah, blood atonement killings, polygamy, Mormon cover-ups and conspiracies— Huh...well...It seems like you do have to justify your Mormon beliefs. At least explain why you hate immigrants but keep hiring them to polish the mansion. Oh and by the way waterboarding is torture and is illegal everywhere in the world except the Republican platform.

[sculptor]

02:04 AM on 12/07/2007

To Romney's claim that "freedom requires religion " I say bunk! I know that religion is antithetical to freedom and will always be so. Religion is about the assertion of strongly held beliefs to the determent of those who don't share them.

[Qbear]

12:25 AM on 12/07/2007

If the idea of a Mormon president makes you queasy, just IMAGINE a Mormon selecting a Supreme Court Justice...think Justice Orrin Hatch.....yeech I just made bile rise in my own throat.

[olivia]

09:36 PM on 12/06/2007

Mormonism has a doctrine of blood atonement.

That's what the ceremonial motion imitating cutting one's own throat is all about.

Look up Mountain Meadows massacre. Google up Jeralee Underwood and blood atonement in the same search.

And this:

It is true that the blood of the Son of God was shed for sins through the fall and those committed by men, yet men can commit sins which it can never remit…. There are sins that can be atoned for by an offering upon an altar, as in ancient days; and there are sins that the blood of a lamb, or a calf, or of turtle dove, cannot remit, but they must be atoned for by the blood of the man.
~ Sermon by Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 4, pages 53-54 (1856)

[HumeSkeptic]

08:56 PM on 12/06/2007

Why shouldn't one have to justify his/her beliefs?

[LeaderofMen]

08:40 PM on 12/06/2007

You are not running for PREACHER, Mr. Romney. You are running for an elected SECULAR position in the US.

I don't give a f*ck about your religion. I am not voting for a preacher. I'm voting for a President.

[HumeSkeptic]

08:25 PM on 12/06/2007

But do Mormons eat babies or not?

[Gary47]

08:21 PM on 12/06/2007

Well thanks. But I didn't really need another reason NOT to vote for you.