re: "Freedom requires religion" (Mitt Romney)
Mitt overdid the speech. I was expecting more of a JFK style speech from him. Robert is right about the context below. He was addressing concerns of the conservative christian community, but did so almost to the exclusion of everybody else. I say almost, because he did at least include some Kennedyesque promises like this line which somehow hasn't been quoted yet on this thread:
As a young man, Lincoln described what he called America 's 'political religion' - the commitment to defend the rule of law and the Constitution. When I place my hand on the Bible and take the oath of office, that oath becomes my highest promise to God. If I am fortunate to become your president, I will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause, and no one interest. A President must serve only the common cause of the people of the United States .
His main aim in this speech was to get over the huge bias against him that comes from being mormon. In doing so, he failed to reach very far beyond that. The fact is the christian community is not very tolerant of mormonism. Mitt has basically avoided addressing it until now. The speech was written to convince 'them' that there is common ground. The only way to do that was to profess his belief and faith in Jesus Christ, since so many people think mormons don't worship him. While I'm sure it rankled nonchristians like it did Fox in his response below, I think it was probably necessary in order to obtain the goal for which the speech was written. He should have reinforced the Kennedyesque promises after that though, instead he bashed on secularism which wasn't very helpful in reaching beyond the christian community.
Mitt's not necessarily my candidate yet. I'm still undecided. When I've taken a few of the online polls, Rudy, McCain and Huckabee come closer to my answers. I have yet to see a poll that showed what the poll creator was entering for the candidate's answers. Its one reason I detest those polls. there isn't enough transparancy to use them for anything more that entertainment value.
One thing I think is wonderful for this country is we have finally reached a point where we can have a mormon, a black man, and a woman in serious contention for the presidency. It says we are at least headed in the right direction even if the only way to get there is by having two parties pulling in different directions, but where the sum of the vectors is toward more tolerance.
-Steve G.