WASHINGTON – Some experts predict Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s speech on Thursday addressing his Mormon faith will not likely allay suspicions, but rather open the floodgate for more questions.
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(Photo: AP / David J. Phillip)Republican presidential hopeful, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney gestures during his address entitled, 'Faith in America,' Thursday, Dec. 6, 2007, at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas.
In his brief 20-minute speech, Romney only mentioned the word “Mormon” once, choosing instead to replace the term with “my church,” “my faith,” and “my religion,” according to The Associated Press.
Instead, Romney focused on affirming the separation of church and state by declaring that if elected president, he would “serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause and no one interest.”
“Let me assure you that no authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions,” Romney said at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas. “Their authority is theirs, within the province of church affairs, and it ends where the affairs of the nation begin.”
Yet at the same time, he indicated he would not distance himself from his religion.
“I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers – I will be true to them and to my beliefs,” he said, adding that if his faith hurts his candidacy, “so be it,” according to CNN.
Romney’s speech takes place as a growing number of evangelical Christians begin to coalesce behind presidential rival Mike Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist preacher who runs on a conservative Christian platform. Romney’s speech is widely thought to be in response to Huckabee’s rise in polls last week that found him in dead heat or even ahead of the former Massachusetts governor in Iowa, which holds presidential caucuses Jan. 3.
Additionally, Thursday’s speech is also thought to be an attempt to counter criticisms against his record of flip-flopping on such issues as abortion and gay rights.
“The Romney strategy with the speech appeared to be to try to kill two birds with one stone – to placate voters who are apprehensive about him as a Mormon or as a flip-flopper,” said Costas Panagopoulos, a political scientist at Fordham University, to AP.
“But I am not convinced he was successful in doing either,” Panagopoulos said. “At the end of the day, it is very difficult to change voters’ pre-existing beliefs, and it would probably take a much more powerful speech than the one Romney delivered today.”
Meanwhile, Bill Bennett, a CNN contributor, commented, “I can see this speech he just gave being given by any of the Republican candidates and most of the Democratic candidates, frankly,” according to CNN. “I’m not sure he was responding to the concern ‘what about this Mormon thing?’”
“I think he will probably get more questions on it, not fewer,” Bennett said.
An AP-Yahoo poll last month found half of all respondents said they have problems with supporting a Mormon presidential candidate, including one-fifth who said it would make them very uncomfortable.
Moreover, 36 percent of white Republican evangelical Christians said they were less likely to vote for a believer in Mormonism, which many view as heretical, according to an August poll by the Pew Research Center.
“I don’t think his Mormonism is a deal breaker for most Americans, but only Mitt Romney can close the deal,” Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
When asked if he thought Mormons were Christians, the prominent Southern Baptist conservative responded, “No, I do not.”
Along with many Christian evangelicals, the Southern Baptist Convention does not consider Mormonism to be part of historic orthodox Christianity.
Romney did not go into specifics about Mormonism during his speech, saying to do so would amount to a "religious test," but acknowledged differences exist between the beliefs of Christian evangelicals and that of his church.
"I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the savior of mankind. My church's beliefs about Christ may not all be the same as those of other faiths," he said, adding that these differences are "not bases for criticism but rather a test of our tolerance," as reported by AP.
"Religious tolerance would be a shallow principle indeed if it were reserved only for faiths with which we agree."
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Evidentally you just do not appreciate the Bible. You must be reading too much of that ant-Christian rheteric:
"Take up the Bible, compare the religion of the Latter-day Saints with it, and see if it will stand the test."
-Brigham Young, 1873
lol.. Man, you are on a roll!
I wish it was comedy. Unfortuantely not only is Mormonism inconsisntant with the Bible, but it is actually inconsistant with the BOM.
lol... I don't know where you come up with these things, but they're pretty funny. Have you ever considered going into comedy?
So now you are suggesting that Joseph Smith was anti-Mormon?
You really need to open those history books and stop reading the anti-Mormon websites.
It takes more than just quoting from the Bible. Jehovah's Witnesses quote the Bible more than just about any religion. If that were the test of continuity, they would win over Mormons. Satan was the first to quote the Word of God. He was also the master of twisting it to his own advantage. I do not necessarily say that you are intentionally twisting it to your advantage, but Joseph Smith certainly did.
One case in point was the doctrine of Polygamy. One minute Smith condemned it. Then he got caught in polygamy and said he received a revelation. Even then he would not allow others to partake. When he did finally establish it as a law, it actually became a command. Those who refused to partake would be damned. I've watched the way Mormons dance around this, it is enough to make even Mohammed blush, saying that it was for the sake of widows losing their husbands to the war. Good grief, it is obvious that Smith was a scoundrel.
You claim that there is no continuity between the Bible and the LDS Church, yet we use the Bible every day in our worship and study, and I have quoted thoroughly from the Bible to back up my assertions. If there was no continuity, we wouldn't use the Bible. Thus, you are mistaken.
Sunesis is the connotation for intelligence.
I want to express my appreciation to the Pastor who shared the interesting link.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3803/is_199810/ai_n8808757
For some time I have given up the idea of mocking Mormon teachings (i.e. Quakers living on the moon, etc.), although others still use it. I think it has its place, but I prefer to build bridges and help people work out a system of epistemology that leads to a more sure foundation. Mormonism is not only incoherent in a real world of fallen people, but it is inconsistent with the Biblical record.
The bottom line that I am drawing right here, right now is that there is no continuity between the Bible and the LDS Church. The only tools available to the Mormon is conjecture and revelation knowledge. This is closerly aligned to gnosticism than apostolic doctrine.
PS I have started reading your citation. I am reading it slowly and thoughtfully, I do not want to miss anything. I hope that you are doing the same with my citation.
Hesadanza says: "Sometimes wisdom just means "accumulated knowledge or erudition or enlightenment." It depends on its usage. In the case of James 1:5, lacking wisdom, asking God for it, and God giving it to you is pretty plain. If we want to know something, we can ask God, and He will tell it to us."
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I hate to be so sarcastic, but I must ask if Joseph Smith received this definition via revelation?
Wisdom (sophia in the Greek) “is the insight into the nature of things,” Vine’s Expository Dictionary. According to Easton's Bible Dictionary wisdom is "a moral rather than an intellectual quality. To be "foolish" is to be godless" (Psalm 14:1; Comp. Judges 19:23; 2 Samuel 13:13).
You are just flat out wrong in your definition of wisdom as some sort of revelation knowledge or mystical enlightenment. To go one step further, why else would God give the gift of knowledge? The gift of knowledge was specifically a revelation knowledge that comes not by accumulating information. It does not take a literary genius to understand that James is referring to endurance and perseverance under trial when read in its context.
Knowledge is power
Wisdom is the ability to PROPERLY use that knowledge!
what good is a gun if you dont know how to use it?
No, seedplanter. Sometimes wisdom just means "accumulated knowledge or erudition or enlightenment." It depends on its usage. In the case of James 1:5, lacking wisdom, asking God for it, and God giving it to you is pretty plain. If we want to know something, we can ask God, and He will tell it to us.
Hesadanza says: ""Wisdom" is any kind of knowledge. If we lack wisdom, we can ask of God, and He will give to us. That is the promise of James. That includes knowing if a prophet is true."
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A couple of problems:
1) wisdom is different than knowledge and knowing.
2) As you stated earlier about creeds, James was not written early enough for this to be used as a principle to know true and false prophets.
Although, when we get an answer from God, we better have the wisdom to do something with it!