Romney's Beliefs About Role of Religion in Politics is Disturbing, Says American Jewish Committee
According to the AJC, the unique responsibility that the Founding Fathers successfully took upon their shoulders was the creation of a government that respects the rights of all Americans to worship or not and in any way they see fit. What's more, the respect for the
rights of people of deep faith, or of no faith, is the best defense of every American's liberties.
The AJC concludes that the American experiment in separating government from religion has proven to be the best defense against the religious strife witnessed around the globe.
"When Governor Romney stated that 'freedom requires religion', he unfortunately was giving voice to a divide along religious lines that has no place in our body politic," said Jeffrey Sinensky, the AJC's director of Domestic Policy.
Romney's statements were made because he has been attempting to assuage concerns that many Americans have about his Mormon faith which, like Jack Kennedy's Catholic faith in 1960, has been seen as a stumbling block for the Presidential hopeful.
Romney, in a carefully prepared and well-articulated speech to the press, assured Americans that Mormons are Christians and they simply have some unique theological beliefs just like all other different Christian denominations. Most Americans admit that they know precious little about Mormonism, and the powerful Evangelical voting bloc that mainly votes Republican in particular tends to see Mormonism as a "cult".
The Mormon church was founded in the early 1800s by Joseph Smith, who insisted that he had been given a special revelation in a prayer-induced vision by an angel wherein he was shown five ancient golden plates which contained words of an additional testament of Jesus Christ and proved that Christ and the Lost Tribes of Israel had come to the North American continent.
After Smith was given the power by the angel to translate the plates' writing into English, the plates mysteriously disappeared. Brigham Young University was originally established to scientifically validate Smiths' claims.
Other critics have also expressed some dismay over Romney's speech, saying that he was very much in error to assert that the Constitution of the United States was inspired by religious faith and that judges should thus make rulings in the spirit of the judges of the Old Testament. Romney quoted John Adams in his talk, but his critics say that he should have quoted Jefferson or Madison, as they were the main framers of the Constitution and they developed the church-state separation concept that makes the nation strong.
Original Newswire Source:
http://prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-07-2007/0004718849&EDATE=
Published by Brant McLaughlin
I am a Writer driven by endless curiosity and a deep desire to waste time creatively. View profile
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6 Comments
Post a CommentActually the Mormon religion has had to change some of its beliefs over thier time as a group. No offense to Mormons, but I suppose that any time that you point out something that could be construed as a negative, you will get some flack about it. Great article, the issue at hand is Romney's Mormonism and he simply did not really address it in his speech.
"The Mormons believe that some of the lost tribes migrated to the Americas and became the Native Americans." http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1120110
For once, Jack, I agree with you.
HAHAHAHA...Elbeau, you're an asslick. I don't know biblical history? Not only do I know it to such an extent that I could write rings around you, but furthermore there is nothing erroneous in what I said about the beliefs of Mormons (and incidentally, I attended a Mormon church by invitation many years ago and I totally "wowed" the congregation and the head bishop with my theology--and what's more I don't need any beliefs). Now, asslick, start reading: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS/Mormons/smith.html ______ http://www.claudemariottini.com/blog/2006/02/mormon-church-and-lost-tribes-of.html
Disturbing indeed. I think that ridiculous speech did Romney more harm than good.
I don't get it...I REALLY don't get it. Is it REALLY so hard to write a one or two paragraph of my religion? I've been following this very closely and virtually every article, whether they like Mormonism or not, can't even get their mind around very simple things. The description of Mormonism is only a few sentences, yet they contain the following factual errors:
"he was shown five ancient golden plates" -No...it was a full book, not five plates.
"the Lost Tribes of Israel had come to the North American continent" -No, this one is simply an error because the author doesn't know biblical history. Although the Book of Mormon claims that an offshoot of Israel came to America, the "Lost Tribes" of Israel refers to many more people than just that group.
The "North American Continent" is also not necessarily correct, the Church still has no official position relative to what part of the Americas the Book of Mormon takes place in. It is a much more common interpretation that the