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The Faith of the Candidate
When Arizona Rep. Morris Udall sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1976, the fact that he was a Mormon, albeit an inactive one, was barely mentioned.
When former Michigan Gov. George Romney in 1968 went after the Republican nomination for president, his active membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the formal name of the Mormon church, didn’t cause a ripple in the press, or, apparently, play a role in his campaign.
But Romney’s son, Mitt, the former governor of Massachusetts who is seeking the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, felt pressured enough by persistent questions about his being a Mormon that he gave a highly publicized speech about faith.
The address at the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, is reminiscent of the speech given in 1960 to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association by then-Sen. John F. Kennedy, who was battling stereotypes about Catholics.
Romney referenced that address directly. “Almost 50 years ago another candidate from Massachusetts explained that he was an American running for president, not a Catholic running for president,” he said.
“Like him, I am an American running for president. I do not define my candidacy by my religion. A person should not be elected because of his faith nor should he be rejected because of his faith,” he said.
Romney is the first member of his church to have a viable shot at his party’s presidential nomination.
Romney’s chances naturally bring questions, especially since Mormons – who make up just 2% of the U.S. population – are still little known to most Americans.
Several public opinion polls in key primary election states including Iowa show fairly strong negative feelings among respondents about electing a Mormon, said Stephen Wayne, professor of American government at Jesuit-run Georgetown University in Washington.
Evangelicals in particular balk at some Mormon tenets, including their acceptance of the Book of Mormon as being on par with the Bible and beliefs such as the existence of a “Heavenly Mother” who is God’s female partner, posthumous baptism and man being able to achieve a godlike state in heaven.
With former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister, gaining significantly in the polls in Iowa recently, Romney’s talk about his religion, can hopefully prompt enough voters to swing the Iowa caucuses toward him.
Doubts about whether someone’s Mormon faith is a factor for enough voters to affect the election won’t be settled until at least after the Iowa caucuses Jan. 3.
Whether or not a candidate is a person of faith, of course, tells you a great deal about the type of person he or she is. But we should not be voting on the personal religious beliefs of a candidate. Our vote goes to the person who best upholds the dignity of the human person and who, we think, can best run the enormous bureaucracy of the federal government.
We hope the voters in Iowa make religion a non-factor, so that the nation does not have to endure a drawn out campaign about whether or not a person of a particular denomination is qualified to run for chief executive.
Sad Holidays in Ireland
It is alarming how secularized Christmas is becoming in modern society, not only here in the United States but abroad as well. You might think that Christmas in Ireland would be different. But last week Ireland’s national RTE Radio 1 declared that it would only carry advertising from Veritas, the publishing arm of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, if Veritas deleted the word “crib,” meaning nativity scene, from its advertising. The reason given by RTE was that the advertisement of religious goods in its original form would promote Christianity.
In other developments, a number of day care centers in Dublin will not be having their annual Nativity plays this year because non-Christian parents have objected.
The Irish Bishops responded with an admonition, “Whether it is in the editing of a Veritas advertisement or a crèche (day care center) policy to no longer hold the Christmas Nativity play, or by discontinuing the placement of a crib in a hospital foyer, we are asking Christians to reflect on our life journey and to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.”
Busy shoppers jammed Patrick St. in Cork City last week with money to spend. In the rich economy of the Celtic Tiger, people’s hands are weighed down with shopping bags. A Christmas tree towers over the main street, but there is no manger scene in sight.
Meanwhile, the news of the day on RTE was the death of a well-known 24-year-old model, Katy French, from cocaine, which followed that week the deaths of two young men, also from cocaine, at a house party. In the Irish language news on RTE, the incongruous word cocaine slips in with the ancient language.
When Christ is taken out of Christmas, what does that say about the place we have come to? And then what have we replaced Him with?
Maybe we should all heed the Irish Bishops and take some time to reflect on the meaning of Christmas.
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