Hallelujah!
Published December 7th, 2007Some actual sense out of the Washington Post editorial page.
Point the first:
“If, as Mr. Romney correctly says, the country’s founders took care not to impose a religious test for any public office, a candidate’s belief, or not, in the divinity of Christ ought to be irrelevant.”
Spot on. I’m posting practically the last half of the editorial here:
“Where Mr. Romney most fell short, though, was in his failure to recognize that America is composed of citizens not only of different faiths but of no faith at all and that the genius of America is to treat them all with equal dignity. “Freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freedom,” Mr. Romney said. But societies can be both secular and free. The magnificent cathedrals of Europe may be empty, as Mr. Romney said, but the democracies of Europe are thriving.
“Americans acknowledge that liberty is a gift of God, not an indulgence of government,” Mr. Romney said. But not all Americans acknowledge that, and those who do not may be no less committed to the liberty that is the American ideal.”
Exactly. I’m sick and tired of being called unpatriotic because I opposed a BS war, it just took 5 years for 30% of the country to figure it out. I’m tired of being called “not a real American” because I don’t trust in God. I’m tired of my only choice for political representation being people who are seemingly compelled to talk about how pious they are. I don’t care what your religion is - as long as you don’t try and tell me I’m wrong for having none. But as soon as you even imply that you’re a better American than I am, simply because you believe in some Guy in the Sky, you’re pissing me off. If you dare say that morals can only come from religion, I’m bound to get pretty upset.
PZ Myers has little patience for this ridiculous speech as well, as is to be expected.
“That speech was an appalling piece of dreck. He claimed the mantle of John F. Kennedy, but no, he’s no idealistic Democrat, and he sure mangled the Kennedy sentiment that we should elect our presidents as secular leaders, with no allegiance to any church, into an obscene insistence that our presidents must be fervent religious kooks.”
“The nations of Europe are free; religion is perishing, yet somehow, democratic institutions thrive. His thesis that freedom requires religion is shown to be wrong right there in his own speech. Not that it will matter to the religious fanatics who will praise his speech — to them, America is the only free nation in the world, so they won’t see the contradiction.”
And the conclusion, the take-home point:
Greg Laden has a more thorough dissection of the revolting speech. He must have a stronger stomach than I do, because trying to read Romney’s mindless blitherings made me want to retch. How has this country reached the state where such inanity is considered presidential material?”
Absolutely. I’m really offended by Mitt’s assumptions and what they say. If he had gone up there and said that only white people are Real Americans, or that you’re only a Real American if you own your own home, he’d have been shamed. Instead, he says that the non-religious are disgusting fools hellbent on bringing down civilization - and he’s applauded for it. It’s the continued and increasing importance placed on religion in the American political system that is driving me to become a “militant” atheist. The more I am marginalized, the angrier I get.
A few years ago, around the time the idea of a Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage was gaining steam, I was in a discussion with a friend about the subject. It was my contention that change doesn’t happen quickly, gay marriage will be allowed eventually, there just needed to be some patience and some willingness to accept that it has to happen in baby steps. Well, he (a gay man) pretty much didn’t like that at all. At all. It was his contention that if something is right, there shouldn’t need to be a slow process to get there. It’s either right or it’s not. It’s either fair or it’s not. He was tired of waiting for equality. You know what? He was totally right, and completely changed my mind. As was once said, “A dream deferred is a dream denied.” It made him angry to wait for what is right.
I’m starting to get real angry too - this country needs to get back to what it was founded on - and that means the exact opposite of what Romney talked about.
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