Personally, I have very divided feeling about my subject matter today. As a conservative, I really like a lot of what Mitt Romney brings to the table. He's just center-right enough to appeal to a broad base of the voting public, and frankly, his platform is pretty solid when compared to the other Republican candidates in my opinion.
Let me pause right here for a moment for a disclaimer. If you're new to this blog, please note I'm not a R-party or D-party kind of guy. I have numerous issues with BOTH parties, there just happen to be fewer of them with the R's at the moment. I'm not a "dang you!" Barrack Obama flag waver either (or finger waver for that matter). My issues are with his policies...not his persona. Now back to the show...
As a constitutionalist, I understand the grave importance of keeping religion and politics separate issues. That's not saying that religion doesn't have part in matters of politics. Democratic governments are obligated to protect any one's right to practice their faith without risk or threat of persecution. Religion just shouldn't run the state as you see in some Muslim countries. Faith is a matter of choice by God's design...not mandated by legislation.
As a Christian...my position gets a bit more muddled. Having declared the first two positions as a conservative and a constitutionist, it almost seems hypocritical to say I have a problem voting for a candidate who is a known Mormon....but honestly...I do. Above every other adjective, attribute or modifier that can be used to categorized me, I'm a follower of Jesus first and foremost. Period.
That's just how I roll...
Should it matter what faith the leader of our country professes and follows? Absolutely. As a man of faith and an advocate for Christ, I don't see how it could be any other way if I truly believe what I claim to believe. I can't wholeheartedly trust in and share the Holy Bible while voluntarily supporting someone who believes that same Bible is flawed and incomplete. If you're curious exactly what Mormonism teaching, here is an excellent overview.Before you start throwing the 'judge not lest you be judged' spears at me, this isn't a matter of rendering eternal damnation judgement on anyone. Not my call, and believe me, I'm cool with that. This is about choice. This is about principles. For me, it boils down to this...does my confidence in the man's ability to effectively lead this nation become overshadowed by my complete sadness at his choice to put his faith in a deluded religion?
Would I vote for a Muslim? An atheist? How about a Scientologist?
Yes...that is a very personal matter. But it's also a fundamental question Christians better reflect upon before casting what could be a decisive vote in any election.
7 comments:
Great post Tony!
I am voting for Mitt if he runs against a so called Christian, Obama. My vote goes to the person that best exemplifies biblical principals!
You and I, brother are to be salt and light. Anything that we can do to promote biblical principals, we should do it.
There are lots of folks that fly the Christian flag: John Kerry, John Edwards, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, and Rick Perry. Our job is not to vote for the person that makes the most Christian noise, but to vote for the one that God wants. He wants the one that he chooses (Romans 13) and not the one that we like the best, or identify with the most.. not even the one that flies the Christian flag.
It has nothing to do with being Christian, or Conservative, but for us to hear God and do it. There are pretty much only 2 camps, and both claim to have faithful doing what God wants. There are two other camps, those that call themselves Christians, and those that act like it.
Mitt Romney acts a lot more Christian than most of the others running. I think he has the character, and the experience in both the business world, and government. Unless Chris Christie runs (might be his VP anyway), that's how I am voting.
I think Newt could be great, but they will pound him over character and he is a statesman, but not too exciting. I like Herman Cain, but he can't win. He doesn't have the experience and the press will eat him alive like they did with Sarah Palin. Rick Perry has as much sleaze as John Kerry, and Santorum has some issues too (I like hin a lot too). Bachman is a fighter, but she can't win.
I am going with the front runner because when it comes right down to it, I can'take another minute of Barack Obama!
Great points Tony. I am working on my post on the Mormon question at this moment. We all have freedom of religion, but that does not ake all religions equally valid or true. Because Mormonism claims to be Christian, this does not make it a Christian religion. God's Truth defines Christianity, not men's opinions. Would I not vote for someone because he is a Mormon? No, I am more interested in what he believes that the family he was born into.
If he is a religious Mormon and claims to be a Christian, then he is either confused or lying, and that concerns me either way. I would obviously him rather just say: I am a Mormon.
Obama's 20 years of radical false Christian training hardly qualifies him as a Christian either. Look at the ignorance he actually stands for.
If someone pretends that they would not rather vote for a candidate who relates with them philosophically, spiritually, or racially ... they are just not being honest.
True Christians are monotheistic, Mormons are polytheistic ... there is no room for compromise here.
Mormonism has a reigning prophet who adds and takes away from their ever changing revelation and is its books are contrary to the Holy Bible. God's Word claims to be and IS Truth eternally. No room for compromise here either.
Here is a question: would the MSM be offended if some challenged a person who called himself a Jewish Mormon, or and atheist Christian?
Bod bless, Bob West
Ron Paul 2012! Audit the fed!
Is Willard “Mitt” Romney a Conservative? Are Mormons Christians? And can a non-Christian be a good choice for President of the United States of America?
There is a shocking lack of scholarship in modern American Christian thought. I note that Mister C, who’s work I follow, chose to cite a website proffering only hearsay as evidence that Governor Romney ‘s religion is not Christianity (see the execrable http://carm.org/teachings-of-mormonismm, which right up front avows that it only panders in alley way rumors). We’re gentlemen and scholars: surely we can agree on the basics of: what defines a Christian?
In 325 Anno Domini, the Roman Emperor called together the significant Christians to Nicaea and insisted that they agree on the exact relationship between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. There was a majority, led by the Priest Arian, which avowed that the Father and Son were distinct individuals, although both Holy. The Roman Emperor Constantine proposed the correct answer: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all of the same substance.
There is only One Holy Being, and that Holy Being has a Trinity of Aspects: the Father (the Creator); the Son, Christ Jesus (the Harbinger of the End of Times); and the Holy Spirit (the Preserver).
This comprehensive statement of the nature of Our Lord is known as the Nicaean Creed. Sometimes it is called the Apostle’s Creed, but that is mere semantics. None of the Apostles were around in 325 AD to understand the proper nature of how to worship the Lord.
Skipping a millennium and a half later, we find ourselves in the Thirteen colonies under British Tyranny. There were many wonderful ideas floating about on No Taxation without Representation. There were also terrible ideas about Christ Our Lord. Deism and Unitarianism were prevalent amongst the spiritually lazy – the idea that there was One God, and Christ Jesus simply a “nice guy”. Well. Sadly, our first President, George Washington, and the lazy Francophile Jefferson and his apprentice James Madison were all Deist/Unitarians.
So the question is answered: can a non-Christian be a good choice for the President of the United States? Considering that James Earl Carter, Junior and George Walker Bush, Junior were both exellent Christians, but terrible Presidents answer the question.
So are Mormons Christians? We don’t need to look up dubious internet sites to prove this.
1) Does the Mormon Faith affirm or deny the Nicaean Creed of the single physical and spiritual essence of the Holy Beings? They deny.
2) Does the Mormon Faith propose a non-scriptural work as being equal to the Holy Bible? They avow the so-called “Book of Mormon” as a direct scripture from our Lord.
3) Do Mormons consider the Smith family the direct equivalents of Our Lord Christ Jesus’s Apostles? Yes, they do.
Just as Muslims revere the New Testament as a “Holy Book” inferior to their own “Koran”, and their image of “Jesus Christ” as a Prophet inferior to Mohammed, so are the other desert dwelling infidels. Mormonism wears the trappings of Christianity, but are every bit as much Christianity as Islam.
Now for the final question: is Willard “Mitt” Romney a fit candidate for President?
We have had scoundrels who were good Presidents: remember, the first and third American Presidents, Washington and Jefferson, were Deists. President Reagan was a Union leader, but an outstanding Leader of the free world. “Slick” Willie Clinton was an adulterer, but he did balance the budget and bring great prosperity to this God Blessed Nation.
Governor Romney’s grandparents denounced the United States of America, and fled to Mexico to carry out the Sin of Polygamy. Romney’s father returned, and Willard was born in Motown, making him more of an American than the African currently in the White House. As a young man, Willard chose to avoid service in the Vietnam war by fleeing to France and preaching the cult of Mormonism. Today, Governor Romney still speaks fluent French.
This is all fun, but what is most striking is Romney’s approach to killing babies. When Romney was running for Senator, and later, Governor, of the “People’s Republic of Massachusetts”, he was perfectly fine with killing babies. For all the evil of Obamacare, it does not fund abortion: Romneycare does fund killing babies.
Today, Governor Romney says, I couldn’t get elected in Taxechusetts unless I agreed to kill babies! But now, I’m going for the Presidency! I’m against killing babies!! Unless, of course, I need to be for killing babies to get elected!!!
There’s Governor Willard “Mitt” Romney for you. A non-Christian sock blowing in the wind. Please – even the African has more spine than the sock.
So who do we vote for if it comes down to a Republican who's a Mormon or re-electing a President who's a moron?
Is a lower case m truly the only difference?
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