Mitt Romney's speech

[fabrisse]

This is my first reaction to reports about Mr. Romney's Mormonism for the Christian Right speech. I have not read a full transcript, nor have I heard the speech.

Having disclaimed that, this quote is disturbing. Perhaps context will make it less so, but it's three words. How much parsing can there be?

Freedom requires religion?!?

The hell?

When I was a believer, I never thought atheists or agnostics had fewer freedoms or rights to freedom.

As a non-believer (or uncertain of belief-er), I fear my freedom being linked to any idea of God.

Religion is personal. That was the point of my ancestors coming here.

Freedom is social. There's no point in guaranteeing it, if the guarantee doesn't apply to all.

Comments

[thorbol.livejournal.com]

One thing I respected about Mitt Romney was that he left the governor's office before running for president. He is in that matter a role model whom most politicians would gain at least a modicum of credibility by following.

Second, as with you, my vote was never his to lose, and for at least some of the same reasons.

Third, maybe I'm missing something, but it seems disgraceful to me that he was pressured to make a speech on his religion at all. Yes, I know that if your religion means much to you, it is likely to have some sort of influence on what you do in office, even if you set boundaries beyond which you won't let that influence go, as John F. Kennedy claimed to do. Still, it's the policies and public actions that I care about, not whether they arose from Mormonism, Islam, atheism, or the worship of dog hair.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Do you know someone who worships dog hair? Because Bessie may be a saint in that religion.

I think the man is honorable, and leaving the governor's mansion before starting his campaign is a mark of that.

I too am appalled that the Republican Party seems to require a religious litmus test. I'm sorry he felt he had to speak on the subject, but I understand why, within his party, it was necessary.

[thorbol.livejournal.com]

Well, if science somehow proves that we need religion in our lives to be whole, as some folks assert, then maybe I'll start the dog hair worship cult. It is kind of hard to worship something you have to sweep or vacuum up, but quite easy to worship something that's soft to the touch and grows on a most lovable animal.

I bet that I, too, would be called on--nearly coerced--to make a speech about religion if I were running for a major office. Like Romney's, my "faith," which is mostly the absence of faith, is a target for demagoguery, a morsel for the pseudoreligious mouthpieces. I'd hope that my speech would help promote our better values, but I'm sure that the demagogues would choke loudly on the morsel.