Mitt Romney wants to be president of the USA, but he's a Mormon. He did not endorse separation of church and state in his speech, but he did imply that his belief would have no bearing on his being in office. As if that didn't saturate you in bullshit, he backed off from and the talking heads fled from talking about the real issue here, preferring instead to nibble around the periphery.
First, the idea of church and state being separated is unworkable, and was never intended in the way Americans interpret it. What they meant was "our government can't have a state religion," as they do in England. Too late: anything can become a religion when dogma oversteps the lines of demonstrable reason. If we believe that terrorists hate our freedom, that's a religion. Even more, all of our leaders are Christians or Jews, with a smattering of Muslims for PC affirmative action credit. We have a state religion, we're just smart monkeys who don't officially state it as a state religion. How clever.
Next is the idea that doctrines don't matter. Compare Romney's statement to these: "I believe in al-Qaeda, but it shouldn't make a difference running for office" and "I believe in abortion as a legal right, but it shouldn't matter." Doctrines are doctrines, whether we officially label them as such or not. There are differences between the sects of any major religion, and insisting that we pretend there are not is to put our heads in the sand. Note that I'm not commenting on Mormonism specifically, but a general principle. Rastafarians are Christians too.
Finally, they're denying the fact that we do have a state religion, which is that the state cannot have an official religion but that we'll all talk about religion to maintain the power balance. We want someone who appears to be a whole family man, and is officially considered safe by some religion, so we pick lawyers with lots of money and big doofus families. Our religion is that our freedom is open for anyone, but we're going to use that freedom to make sure we apply standards which aren't official but might as well be.
Mitt Romney dissembles at
Anti-Globalism BlogI believe this to be basically an accurate critique. How can you be a member of a faith, and not have that guide your actions? It's part of your value system.
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