Romney: Defender of Abrahamic Faith
John F. Kennedy was the first Catholic to have been elected to the oval office in the USA. When he ran for the presidency in the 60s, he asked that voters judge him as an America and not a Catholic, and that is exactly what the voters did, before Lee Harvey Oswald decided otherwise in Dallas in 1963, when he assassinated JFK. Now, in the 21st century, we have another candidate pushing the same envelope, except now it’s for Mormonism, and not Catholicism. Mitt Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints (LDS; Mormons) is borrowing a page from JFK’s campaign book and asking the same thing of American voters.
Too bad for Romney this isn’t the idealistic 60s and he isn’t Kennedy because he managed to blow a perfectly good line by adding in a plethora of ignorance that is designed to make the secularists, humanists, deists, atheists and agnostics feel left out in the cold because we are ‘heathens’, those who are not Christian nor Jew; lacking faith.
I do not define my candidacy by my religion. A person should not be elected because of his faith, nor should he be rejected because of his faith.
This seems innocent at first glance, and it’s easy to take this at face value, until one takes a closer look at the next parts of his speech, in which he proceeds to alienate part of the voting population.
We should acknowledge the creator as did the founders in ceremony and word. He should remain in our currency, in our pledge, in the teachings of history and in the holiday season, nativity scenes and menorahs should be welcome in our public places.
The majority Founding Fathers of the United States of America only acknowledged a creator as far as Deism is concerned, with some clocking in as agnostics, atheists and only one or two as practising Christians. In Deism, a god-like figure or entity is rather superior entity is absent in all aspects of life after sparking the initial bust of energy that started life. Deism doesn’t concern itself with ritualistic prayer nor reliance on God for guidance in life.
Too bad Romney flunked American history or he would have known this little fact. The Founding Fathers wouldn’t have wanted ‘God’ to be in the public the way modern evangelical Christians do. They would have opted for a true separation of church and state, and not merely the symbolic one that some Republicans and Christians are opting for in the modern sphere of public life in America.
The pledge; the oath, it never had any mention of God in it before the emergence of the Soviet Union following the end of WWII in an attempt to set Americans apart from the seemingly godless commies who controlled the USSR. Religion wasn’t outlawed as a result of state atheism in the USSR, but rather as a result of the authoritarian nature of Stalinism, the ruling ideology of the nation at the time.
As for the display of religious symbols, sure Judaic ones aren’t forbidden in any of the Judaic scripture, but in Matthew 6:5-6, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus ordered his followers to be humble and to not pray in public, for God could hear prayer even in private; that public expressions of faith lessened the significance.
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
If your God is really omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, why does he need to be on the currency, in the pledge and forced down the throats of everyone? If God is everywhere at once, why does he need some little sheep to remind everyone…?
But I digress, moving onward.
Romney has taken a low blow at those who would remove any acknowledgement of God from the public light. What’s the matter, don’t have the guts to represent the people who opt to have no faith? It becomes apparent here that he will not defend all faiths. This is painfully obvious to those of us who opt to be free from any faith.
We are a nation under God, and in God we do indeed trust.
America is not one nation under God just because a gaggle of self-righteous Christians have decided that this is the way things ought to be. America is a nation of many people who hold many faiths that do not embrace a singular god, nor any gods. The polytheistic faiths embrace gods that the monotheistic faiths reject. Christians, Jews and Muslims are one God away from full blown Atheism.
‘I will serve no one religion’ U.S. presidential candidate vows
Romney vows to defend all faiths
Stumble It!
