A Fox News anchor declared today that Mitt Romney isn't a Christian, proving once again that the only qualification for office considered important by the conservative right in this country is that a candidate is an evangelical fundamentalist Christian.
While discussing polling differences between Texas governor Rick Perry and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt said of Romney: "I think Rick Perry can get a lot of money from that base [the Christian Coalition] because of Romney obviously not being a Christian. Rick Perry, he's always on talk shows, on Christian talk shows, he has days of prayer in Texas."
There has always been a feeling amongst evangelical Christians that Romney's Mormon faith excluded him from the Christian club, but the sentiment being expressed by Fox (and many pundits who discount Mitt Romney's religion as not being 'real') isn't that they're concerned about some doctrinal differences, but rather that they don't believe Romney will support their extreme fundamentalist viewpoints on issues like abortion and gay rights.
Romney's Mormonism differentiates him from the Taliban-like Christian right. Romney, unlike most of his co-candidates, concerns himself with policy matters that are important to the country. The rest of the Republican field is concerned with how best to shove their extremist faith down the throats of the rest of America through fascist social legislation.
Earhardt's off-handed comment (which wasn't disputed at all by her co-hosts) is right-wing code for "he won't hate homosexuals and liberals as much as we'd like him to."
No candidate's faith should matter whatsoever when it comes to running for office. An inter-party squabble amongst Republican candidates over who the best Christian is shows the Republican party for what it really is: a bunch of over-churched brats.
And the joke's on them--Mitt Romney's the best of the lot, and throwing him under the bus now will all but hand the 2012 election to Obama.
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Comments: 32
In other news, Rick Perry is being sued for having his evangelical day of prayer: http://politics.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979629315
What's funny here is two groups of equally deranged people arguing over which of them is *more* deranged. :P
need we say more
Keep spreading the fear.
Perhaps you should look up the definition of 'fundamentalist' and then reexamine the predominant strain of christianity in this country and compare the two, eh?
If Perry ends up throwing his hat in the ring, that kind of stuff could provide a lot of entertainment.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Back in September, 2010 according to ABC News: "At a backyard town hall in Albuquerque, NM, Tuesday, President Obama was asked “Why are you a Christian?” The question, from teacher’s assistant Elizabeth A. Murphy, 42, was one of three “hot topics” she raised with the president.
“I’m a Christian by choice,” the president said. “My family didn’t -- frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn’t raise me in the church.”
The president said he “came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead -- being my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me. And I think also understanding that Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility we all have to have as human beings, that we’re sinful and we’re flawed and we make mistakes, and that we achieve salvation through the grace of God. But what we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people and do our best to help them find their own grace.”
The president said “that’s what I strive to do. That’s what I pray to do every day. I think my public service is part of that effort to express my Christian faith.”
So what does that mean in regard to "...Christians are so abhorrently stupid......" as mentioned above by Chelsea Hoffman and apparently agreed to by Renee, Catt, Reno and Company???
A religious candidate of any persuasion will never get my vote.
"What's your point?"
My point is that it seems that your reference to "Christians" implies that they are ALL stupid Republicans. I'm just pointing out that our current President calls himself a "Christian" and I would guess that most of the folks here on Gather who want to join the "Hate Christians" bandwagon DO NOT stop to think the stauts of our current POTUS!!!
That's somewhat frightening to me.
If America was full of British-style protestants I probably wouldn't mind--they're completely apolitical. But American fundies can't mind their own business and they want to see their version of their religion instituted as law--and that's damn unacceptable to me. And I'll trash them every chance I get.