Monday, January 08, 2007
Mitt Romney - The Dilemma of a Mormon President
I have made no secret of the fact that I am a conservative and a registered Republican. I am not a religous conservative per se, because I
do tend to think that religous conservatives can be a bit out of wack at times, though I have lots of friends who are. For many Christians
the possible election of Mitt Romney presents a new quandry - do I go with my electoral self or my religious self.
Now let me be straight, yes I know that 1960 and the election of J.F. Kennedy answered whether or not there is a religious test in America. So, there
is no problem with a Mormon president is there? Well, at least for some of us, there is.
(Please note, these thoughts are not final, but are a present reflection and are my opinion and not those of my church, organization, or my beagle).
First off, the Catholic question and the Mormon question are very different. First, there were two issues with Catholics in 1960. First, would JFK’s loyalty
lie with Rome or with Washington. People gave scary scenarios of the Pope running American foreign policy as well as setting the moral tone for the country.
JFK made it clear that he was not going to take his marching orders from Rome and that he was going to be an American President first and a Roman Catholic
second. Personally, I think this is a glaring example of the modernist approach of seperating faith from the rest of self, but I do appreciate what President Kennedy
meant by it, and no doubt Governor Romney will say and mean the same thing - American policy will not be dictated from Salt Lake City.
