Surely Republicans wouldn't stoop to religious bigotry in their campaigns against each other? Apparently a Brownback aide forwarded an e-mail from an interest group seeking fact checking on a series of questions regarding Mormonism. AP reports that Emma Nemecek, an Iowa field director for Brownback, sent Iowa Republican leaders the email containing these kinds of statements:
"Theologically, the only thing Christianity and the LDS church has in common is the name of Jesus Christ, and the LDS Jesus is not the same Jesus of the Christian faith" and "The LDS church has never been accepted by the Christian Council of Churches."
Brownback apologized and Romney's campaign accepted. Everybody concerned talked about how sad it was...
Oh yeah, right. It's so sad and unfortunate as their surrogates at Fox and right wing talk radio talk about how "liberal" Christians don't believe in anything. They scoff at groups like the Church of Christ and Unitarianism as being religions in name only and then they act horrified when their crap comes out in their campaigns? What do they think as they amp up the rhetoric about being godly and their talking heads rant is going to happen with their "faithful?" Gee, maybe they'll act on their superiority
They don't get it, they rant about Islamofascism and godless atheists and how god driven they are and don't see that they're going to eat their own? I'm sick of their god crap, I don't care who you pray to or don't, what I care about is, do you have good proposals for our fellow citizens?
What frosts me is that they always seem to politic on the prohibitions of their religion, not the affirmations.
2 comments:
I've never found religious doctrine to be a very good basis for figuring out what individuals believe because, as with any large organization, the members are going to bring their own interpretations to any orthodoxy. For instance, you may have seen a recent poll showing that a surprisingly high number of self-described evangelicals believe in reincarnation. A lot of people probably believe in ghosts, too, depending on the time of day and whether or not they are alone in an old house, irrespective of what their religious doctrine on the subject is come Sunday morning.
I think a better--and fair--measure of a church's and its membership's place in society is whether or not they practice and promote the general welfare and social cohesion of the society in which they exist. I think suspicion of new religious movements is more founded in a fear that such movements seek to fray the social fabric then that they practice any particular (supposed) heresy. Looking at the origins of any religion or sect--including Christianity in its infancy--they often start out as radical upheavals that do threaten the established social order and even peace but then eventually come to an equilibrium that either replaces the former order or seeks to support it. In particular regards to Mormonism and Mormons, it would be hard to convince me that the rank and file membership are anything other than hard-working, neighborly, tax-paying, and thinking individuals who have a plurality of political--and probably religious--opinions. Some percentage of Mormons may vote for Romney (and why not--he agrees with everyone on everything depending on the year) merely out of religion, but part of their motivation in doing so is surely out of pride that one of their own has risen to national prominence and has a life story that proves their faith is seen by outsiders as well as themselves as just another pillar SUPPORTING the American nation.
A friend of mine is a Mormon and also the Circuit Court Judge, he is a fine man and I'm proud he likes me. He lives and acts on the positives of his religion.
I don't like Romney no matter what his religion. He's a liar, dissembler, and opportunist.
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