Explain your faith?

[frasier]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071206/NATION/71206002/1001

Ironic that in the USA a presidential candidate has to give a speech like that....

 

[train]

That is the truly scarey part about US politics. Candidates catering to the looney right and the fact that there are enough voters in that demographic that they feel it is necessary to do so.

 

[Aardvark154]

Governor Romney, wants to frame the question as "he should not have to explain his religion" which is fine and well, but ignores the issue that each U.S. Citizen eligible to vote is allowed to make up their mind according to their own conscious as repugnant as that belief may be to some other voter. If some voters choose to make their decision based on the fact that Mormons are not Christians in the standard use of that term so be it. Frankly the more troubling issue is the media's fixation on Romney's Mormonism, and their very poor explanation of the differences such as among other matters Mormons use of Christian terminology to express un Christian ideas.

This is a different situation to the one President Kennedy addressed. The question was never "is JFK a Christian," the question rather was whether he would be a zealous Roman Catholic and heed the Pope's advise or whether he was a "normal American Roman Catholic" and listen to his own conscious first. He did in fact reassure the American people that it was the later, although the election still probably hinged on the vote of the beloved departed of Cook County, Illinois.

 

[Asterix]

Governor Romney, wants to frame the question as "he should not have to explain his religion" which is fine and well, but ignores the issue that each U.S. Citizen eligible to vote is allowed to make up their mind according to their own conscious as repugnant as that belief may be to some other voter. If some voters choose to make their decision based on the fact that Mormons are not Christians in the standard use of that term so be it. Frankly the more troubling issue is the media's fixation on Romney's Mormonism, and their very poor explanation of the differences such as among other matters Mormons use of Christian terminology to express un Christian ideas.

This is a different situation to the one President Kennedy addressed. The question was never "is JFK a Christian," the question rather was whether he would be a zealous Roman Catholic and heed the Pope's advise or whether he was a "normal American Roman Catholic" and listen to his own conscious first. He did in fact reassure the American people that it was the later, although the election still probably hinged on the vote of the beloved departed of Cook County, Illinois.

Kennedy downplayed the role of religion when running for President, Romney and others are taking a far different tack. Romney made the rather amazing statement today that "freedom requires religion". One can only imagine what the hell he was talking about.

 

[WoodPeckr]

JFK had to explain his faith because of GOP smear campaigns against him back then. I remember the stories being spread that if JFK won the Pope would dictate US policy to JFK from the Vatican and as a good Roman Catholic JFK would do as the Pope ordered!
Some GOPers, rightwing John Bircher types back then, were even saying the Vatican had a sub based off the US shores sending radio messages instructing JFK on what to say!
With the GOP the more things change, the more they remain the same!......

 

[Asterix]

JFK had to explain his faith because of GOP smear campaigns against him back then. I remember the stories being spread that if JFK won the Pope would dictate US policy to JFK from the Vatican and as a good Roman Catholic JFK would do as the Pope ordered!
Some GOPers, rightwing John Bircher types back then, were even saying the Vatican had a sub based off the US shores sending radio messages instructing JFK on what to say!
With the GOP the more things change, the more they remain the same!......

Swell. Now explain to me what Romney meant when he said, freedom requires religion.

 

[WoodPeckr]

Swell. Now explain to me what Romney meant when he said, freedom requires religion.

LOL!
Haven't got a clue what he meant!!!!
It's been my experience religion impedes freedom if you take it too seriously. In fact the more fundie you become the less freedom you have as your religion totally dictates how you MUST live your life if you are to go to your heaven!....

 

[train]

LOL!

It's been my experience religion impedes freedom if you take it too seriously. In fact the more fundie you become the less freedom you have as your religion totally dictates how you MUST live your life if you are to go to your heaven!....

Yikes ....I must be ill ! I agree with you.

 

[Kailani]

If MITT wins this election, is this mean he is allowed to pass the law for all Americans to donate 10percent to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for FREEDOM? lol jk

 

[Aardvark154]

I remember the stories being spread that if JFK won the Pope would dictate US policy to JFK from the Vatican and as a good Roman Catholic JFK would do as the Pope ordered!

Two points perhaps this wasn't a "serious issue" because most Americans assumed that JFK was a normal American Roman Catholic and would tell the Pope where to push his papers, and that John XXIII, unlike some of his predecessors (Pius IX and even more so Gregory XVI spring to mind) wasn't the type man to try much a "boneheaded maneuver."

However, one only need recall Québec before the Quiet Revolution to know that the question of whether JFK would be a "zealous Roman Catholic" and heed the Pope's advise or whether he was a "normal American Roman Catholic" and listen to his own conscious first, isn't quite so preposterous as you want to make it sound. Second as Harry Truman famously said "it isn't the Pope, it's the Pop (JPK)."

 

[frasier]

DQ and Asterix....yes I listened to NPR as well...so i am aware of the history of it.
If we are the land of the free and we are all equal, why should it matter what religion you subscribe to? Or what sexual preference you have.....or who you sleep with?..isn't that all the same?

It is telling that the faith of a Republican is an issue...what church does Hillary, Obama and Edwards belong to...I don't care..why should i care about Rommney's faith?

 

[Pope Benedict XVI]

JFK had to explain his faith because of GOP smear campaigns against him back then. I remember the stories being spread that if JFK won the Pope would dictate US policy to JFK from the Vatican and as a good Roman Catholic JFK would do as the Pope ordered!
Some GOPers, rightwing John Bircher types back then, were even saying the Vatican had a sub based off the US shores sending radio messages instructing JFK on what to say!
With the GOP the more things change, the more they remain the same!......

Back in the 1960s we used the subs, but we're more sophisticated now. We use Opus Dei today. Opus Dei is in the GOP, the Democratic Party, and even here on Terb. You can run but you can't hide. I'm everywhere.

 

[WoodPeckr]

Back in the 1960s we used the subs, but we're more sophisticated now. We use Opus Dei today. Opus Dei is in the GOP, the Democratic Party, and even here on Terb. You can run but you can't hide. I'm everywhere.

With all due respect, Dubya will take issue with that, your holiness.
Dubya thinks you are a fraud since he uses the internets, nowadays, and gits a DIRECT FAX from Jesus when required.



See the Dubya 'action demo' below!......

 

[Pope Benedict XVI]

Dubya ... gits a DIRECT FAX from Jesus when required.

Ha! Who do you think is sending thost faxes from "Jesus"??

 

[shakenbake]

I came away from 16 yrs of parochial education with an
entirely different point of view. I imagine the majority
of Catholics out there think I'm a heratic. But here goes:

Religious teachings [vs dogma] found in the parables
of Jesus in the New Testament and the books of the
Talmud leads me to the conclusion that the teachings
are ambiguous and metaphorical. There is this inherant
battle between doctrinarian dictates that emphasize
rigid discipline and the spirit of the truths.

The best examples are the parables of Jesus and the
Book of Job. Jesus' teachings contradict the traditional
Jewish views at the time. He argued the law had replaced
the spiritual relationship between God and man.

The Book of Job is probably the best existential expression
of the angst a believing man deals with when facing
the absurdities of reality.

If the believer looks for laws and rules then he misses
the spiritual content of scripture.

An understanding of religious literature is only the
beginning point of the journey. Eventually we must
take the long journey on our own.

Hey DonQuixote;

It may surprise you to learn that a priest who was instructing us student teachers to prepare us for teaching in RC schools said something to the same effect about dogma, faith, etc. There is still hope that we might still be able as a society to avoid the influences of so-called religious leaders who have their own agendas.

That is just my own humble opinion, FWIW

 

[WoodPeckr]

Ha! Who do you think is sending thost faxes from "Jesus"??

Well based on the results of his actions, it surely doesn't look like Jesus was faxing Dubya!
Everyone assumed the Faxes came from his DICK......

I'm surprised you haven't done the US & the World a BIG favor and 'called home' DICK as yet!......

 

[skypilot]

Listen, Romney is one of those wacko mormons which was, is, and forever will be nothing more than a cult that wears magic underwear and tries to get dead people as new members of their faith.
As all true Christians know, Mormons are not Christians because they have a different view of who Jesus really was.
The presidency should be limited to true christians, defined as:
Those who believe that a cosmic jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and drink his blood, and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove evil forces from your soul that is present throughout humanity because a woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

 

[WoodPeckr]

It is telling that the faith of a Republican is an issue...what church does Hillary, Obama and Edwards belong to...I don't care..why should i care about Rommney's faith?

It is telling that the GOP is again engaging in a religious smear against Mitt just like the one they engaged against JFK.
Face it lange the GOP and their apologists are masters of the divide and conquer gambit, as you so often demonstrate here.....

 

[Aardvark154]

One of the more telling examples of their rejection of
the Christian religion as the foundation of our Republic
is the fact that not one building or monument in DC
has a symbol of the Christian Godhead on its facade.[/U

Or perhaps not so telling - with the single exception of St. Paul's Chapel in New York (having a statute of Saint Paul and a Cross), is there another colonial period church or meeting house that has such? Frankly, I can't think of one in Boston, Newport or Philadelphia.

 

[Aardvark154]

It is telling that the GOP is again engaging in a religious smear against Mitt just like the one they engaged against JFK.
Face it lange the GOP and their apologists are masters of the divide and conquer gambit, as you so often demonstrate here.....

So who is "the GOP," I was under the impression that Governor Romney is a member of the GOP. It sounds that one of the things you're actually saying sub-rosa is that no one can make up their mind how to vote in an manner other than one with which you agree.

As to 1960 election if you researched the issue you'd know that RMN gave strict orders that he did not want campaign workers bringing up the denominational issue.