Romney's Speech

Former MA Governor Mitt Romney made a speech about religion in America. All in all it was not a bad speech, in fact, he made a good number of good points. Of course, I have seen comments that some people have made on some political web sites to the effect that if you disagree with anything in the speech, you are a bigot. This is a ridiculous statement, and I intend to address why.

First, Governor Romney was correct in saying that religious freedom in this country is important, in fact, it is critically important. As much as I would like for all people to come to Christ, and embrace Biblical Christianity, it would be a huge mistake to make it an official state religion, for a few reasons. One is, as Romney pointed out, Countries that do have official state religions have very few people who truly embrace that religion, more often than not, it is a showpiece, and not taken very seriously. Secondly, if you have a state sponsored religion, then the State, and not God, determines what stances the church will take, and instead of truly free Worship, you end up with Churches that follow whatever the political winds of the day happen to be. Also, true Faith cannot be forced on an individual, it is, ultimately, something that they must come to on their own, or, more accurately, through the guidance of God, and those Christians that God places in their path.

Another reason why religious freedom is important is morality. And yes, morality is also critically important. It is what many of our laws are based on. Why is murder wrong? Why is stealing wrong? Why is abusing others wrong? Why is cheating people out of their money wrong? Why is anything wrong, if not for morality? And where does morality come from? From God, in the form of Holy Scripture. And other areas of morality, many of which have gone by the wayside, such as sexual purity, faithfulness in marriage, and doing what's right, even when nobody knows, are the backbone of a strong society. With many of these things going by the wayside now, you can already see the breakdown of our culture, and our once Great society (not to be confused with The Great Society) becoming less great every day.

One other aspect, and probably the main point, of Romney's speech was the idea that you can vote for someone who does not share your own faith. In fact he said something to the effect that a persons specific faith is neither reason to vote for them, or reason not to vote for them. I can agree with this to an extent, since you are not embracing the religion or faith of the person that you are voting for, you just think that they would do a good job. That being said, if you firmly believe that you should not vote for a Mormon, that is your belief, and it does not, in any way, as some would say, make you a bigot.

Where I took issue with Romney's speech was something that he said, which is nothing new. He implied that all religions are equally valid. This is something that you hear a lot today, but I have to say, no they are not, and no, that doesn't make me a bigot either. I am well aware that everyone has the right to believe and adhere to any religion that they so choose, and as I said earlier, that is a good thing, but that doesn't mean that I have to see their religion as equal to mine, or, even valid at all as far as that goes. After all, how can I claim to hold fast to my own faith, and then say that some else's religion is equal to it? Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." [John 14:6] So, if Jesus is the one and only way to Salvation, how can I then say that a religion that teaches something different from that is equal? I can't. It's not bigotry, it's faith. So, the fact that Romney is a Mormon may have no bearing on my vote, as he has the right to be a Mormon, and I wouldn't be voting for his religion, but that doesn't mean I have to endorse Mormonism as equal to Christianity, and I won't.

On a personal note, today would have been my parents 33 Wedding Anniversary, so, Happy Anniversary Mom, and Dad, we miss you, but thank God we'll see you someday in Glory!

On a Historical note, today marks the 66th Anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, may we never forget.