Religion


Romney is not a typical Mormon

 

Ronald Reagan spoke many times on intolerance and bigotry. What would Reagan say today about Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy and Mormon religion? What would Reagan do, many often ask. The following video shares Reagan’s thoughts on religious intolerance and all forms of bigotry, and it includes a clip of Mitt Romney’s speech, “Faith in America.”

 

Except for Mitt Romney’s speech, all quotes are of Ronald Reagan:

 

 

 

Article VI (6)

 

 

Governor Mitt Romney's religion Policy

 

Press Releases, Quotes, Speeches, and Videos from Mitt Romney about Religion. Organized by year

 

 

 

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

 

In The News

 

Governor Mitt Romney and Religion Press Releases

2007

2006

2005

2004

 

Questions for Governor Mitt Romney

 

Religion

  1. 1st Debate
    1. What do you say to bishops who deny Communion to elected officials who support abortion rights?
    2. Do you accept Huckabee's statement that he wasn't talking about you?
  2. Mike Allen
    1. Why are key tenets of your faith still misunderstood?
  3. How is your church so successful in getting its young people to follow its teachings?
  4. Brian Lamb
    1. Who was Brigham Young?
    2. Well, if you go back -- and I found the name Pratt in your background who was some circuitous route related to Joseph Smith who was one of the founders of Mormonism.
    3. Are you prepared to deal with attacks on your religion?
    4. Do you have an evangelical problem?
    5. Has there been a mood change in the country about the importance of talking about religion?
    6. One place that I found that you almost died (His Mission)
  5. Wolf Blitzer
    1. How do you deal with the fact that you are a Mormon?
  6. Robert B Bluey
    1. Are you prepared to deal with what is bound to be attacks from the media and opponents about your religious faith?
  7. Wolf Blitzer
    1. Will evangelicals support a Mormon?
  8. Hugh Hewitt
    1. Does the country know enough about radical islam?
    2. Do you stand by your use of the word Islamic-facism?
    3. How many times are you going to have to ask and answer these questions?
  9. Jay Leno
    1. Is their enough diversity within the Mormon Church?
  10. Katherine Jean Lopez
    1. Will an exposé on Mormon Christmas celebrations hurt you in the primaries?
  11. George Stephanopoulos
    1. How does your faith inform your politics?
  12. Chris Wallace
    1. Are you a cultist?

 

George Stephanopoulos and the Romney's discuss their Faith

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quotes from Governor Mitt Romney on Religion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Governor Mitt Romney and Religion Debate

Mitt Romney's religious views should be acceptable for a president of the United States.

Reasons to agree:

  1. He doesn't try to impose his will on those who disagree with him.

People won't support Mitt because he is Mormon.

Mitt Romney works well with leaders of many religions

Reasons to agree:

Thoughts about Governor Mitt Romney and Religion

 

Sept 03, 2006 Myclob

 

Bill Clinton said the following in his book, My Life:

 

 

I badly wanted Kennedy to win… after he spoke to the southern Baptist in Houston defending his faith and the right of Catholics Americans to run for president. Most of my classmates and their parents disagreed. I was getting used to it.

 

 

Nixon carried our county but squeaked by in our Arkansas with 52.2 percent of the vote, despite the best efforts of protestant fundamentalist to convince Baptist democrats that he would be taking orders from the pope.

 

 

Of course, the fact that he was a catholic was one of the reasons I wanted Kennedy to be president. From my own experiences at St. John's school, and my encounters with the nuns who worked with Mother St. Joseph's hospital, I liked and admired Catholics. Their values, devotion and social conscience.

 

I wonder if Clinton would say the same about Romney? Romney has said that Clinton was an embarrassment to our country, and so I doubt Clinton will ever say that Romney should get a fair chance on his substance. Just another instance of Hypocrisy on the left. Unless I'm proved wrong.

 

 

I wish those who are trying to tear down Mitt Because of his faith would listen to this quote, by one of our church leaders:

 

"When you go into a neighborhood to preach the Gospel, never attempt to tear down a man's house, so to speak, before you build him a better one; never, in fact, attack any one's religion, wherever you go. Be willing to let every man enjoy his own religion. It is his right to do that. If he does not accept your testimony with regard to the Gospel of Christ, that is his affair, and not yours. Do not spend your time in pulling down other sects and parties. We haven't time to do that. It is never right to do that." Contributor, August 1895, pp.636–37.

 

What Other Mormom Cultist have to Say about Religion

 

 

Myclob's religous beliefs

 

Links:

  1. http://www.article6blog.com/
  2. http://sanity.blog-city.com/read/religion.htm

 

 

In remarks in N.C., says US under attack

By Seth Effron and Raphael Lewis, Globe Staff | October 11, 2005

 

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Venturing into foreign policy, Governor Mitt Romney yesterday told a largely Republican audience that Islamic terrorists want to bring down our government" and want to put in place a huge theocracy."

 

We're under attack, as you know, militarily," Romney told about 150 people gathered at an exclusive Raleigh country club. They're not just intent on blowing up a little bomb here and there at a shopping mall, awful as that would be. They want to bring down our government, bring down our entire economy. They want to put in place a huge theocracy."

 

Thank heavens we have a president of the United States who recognizes this for what it is and has declared war on it, and thank heavens we have a military that consists of the strongest and bravest and most able men and women in the world," Romney said.

The Raleigh luncheon was the first of two fund-raisers yesterday for the Foundation for NC Future -- a nonprofit advocacy group set up by a well-to-do Charlotte-area Republican state senator, Robert Pittenger. The second event was held in Charlotte later yesterday afternoon.

 

Asked later by a Globe reporter about his remarks, Romney said he was referring to Islamic terrorists.

 

Obviously, this is an extreme fundamentalist perspective," he responded. It's certainly not shared by the people of Islam generally, but is shared by some radical few."

Then he was asked if he felt Islamic terrorists want to take over the United States. Romney said: No. No. No."

 

I don't have any foreign intelligence that's any different than what you read in the various journals and so forth," the governor said. Among the various reports I've read -- and I think President Bush has described -- that there are some who wish to bring down the Western-leaning governments and put in a more fundamentalist, religious leadership. But that's not something I'm something I'm expert in."

 

Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's communications director, said last night that the governor had made an assertion in earlier speeches that terrorists were seeking a broad based ''theocracy." Those remarks have not been widely reported, however.

 

Fehrnstrom also pointed to an account earlier this month from the New York Times describing a letter obtained by the US forces in Iraq that was written by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-ranking leader of Al Qaeda.

 

According to the Times, the letter outlined a four-stage battle plan, beginning with the American military's expulsion, followed by the creation of a militant Islamic caliphate in Iraq and then in Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. The final step, the Times reported, quoted unnamed US officials, would be a battle against Israel.

 

Romney, who has yet to announce whether he will seek the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, drew criticism from some Muslims and civil liberties advocates last month when he raised the prospect of wiretapping mosques and conducting surveillance of foreign students

 

 

Also See

 

Exterior Links

 

  1. http://reason4romney.blogspot.com/search/label/Religion

 

 

 

Links

  1. Article 6 Blog
  2. http://www.scriptoriumdaily.com/2007/03/28/hewitt-on-romney-why-erick-erickson-is-wrong/

 

Solving His Mormon Problem: Do It The Founders' Way, Mr Romney

By Michael J. Gaynor

Mar 25, 2007

 

 

 

Kenneth Woodward

 

Exterior Links

  1. Pew Forum

 

 

Mitt Romney Meets With Media in Ames

 

 

Ingraham: Any thoughts on Romney? Any other thoughts on Romney? He is now winning in Iowa and looks like he is winning in some polls in New Hampshire.

 

 

Dr. Dobson: Since I talked to you I have spent an hour and a half with him and I liked him. I mean he is very presidential and he has got the right answers to many, many things. I haven’t made a decision yet, but lets just say he is still on the list.

 

Links

1. Article 6

2. Evangelicals for Mitt

3. Religion on Blog Elect Romney in 2008

4. JFK address to Southern Baptist Leaders

5. CBN's The Brody File

 

 

 

Romney: Proud Of His Faith & Values

 

Links

  1. http://www.romneyexperience.com/

 

 

 

Click To Play

 

 

Gov. Romney Media Avail In Nevada

 

 

 

http://www.sltrib.com/lds/ci_7943560

 

BELMONT, Mass. - As a wildly successful American executive, wealthy capitalist and Harvard man, Mitt Romney might have lived out his life among the country-club set and never really encountered an ordinary citizen. Mormonism made that impossible.

 

During more than a dozen of his key years at Bain Capital in the 1980s and early 1990s, Romney was also an LDS bishop (equivalent to a pastor) and stake president (presiding over several congregations in the same area) in Belmont. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has no paid clergy; Mormon men take turns overseeing wards (congregations) and stakes while continuing their professional work.

 

Today, Romney spends his days seeking the Republican nomination for president. As a religious leader, Romney met weekly with students, teachers, immigrant converts and Utah transplants. He had to learn how to give sermons, counsel squabbling couples, organize worship services, manage budgets and address the unique and diverse spiritual needs of more than 1,000 church members in the region.

 

Questions piled up: How should the church help the new Vietnamese or Cambodian members learn English, get jobs and manage church rituals? Should it build a new chapel to relieve overcrowding in the Cambridge meetinghouse, and what should be done about feminists chafing at LDS policies? Desperately poor

Haitians flocked to Romney because he spoke French, having learned it on his two-year mission to Paris.

By all accounts, Romney the religious leader was a good listener and an innovative manager who considered various positions before making any decision. He was occasionally willing to work around bureaucratic edicts from Salt Lake City to better serve his people. He allowed divorced men to continue in their leadership positions, rather than remove them as church policy dictated at the time. He did not discipline outspoken writers and activists within his ranks.

 

When LDS Family Services refused to place a baby with Brett and Janna Sorensen because Janna Sorensen planned to return to work, Romney supported them. Eventually, the policy against working moms adopting changed.

The young venture capitalist clearly saw the benefit of working with other faiths in the area.

 

After a suspicious fire in 1984 destroyed the beginnings of the Belmont chapel, eight churches offered to share their space. Instead of settling on one, Romney chose three - the Catholic Church, Plymouth Congregational Church and Armenian Protestant Church. After each weekly meeting, Romney insisted the Mormons stay behind to vacuum the floors, wash the blackboards and pick up the chairs.

 

It taught the members, even affluent ones, to value other people's sacred spaces and to do some seemingly menial labor, recalls Phillip Barlow, chairman of Mormon Studies at Utah State University who was a counselor, or assistant, to Romney when he was a bishop.

 

Romney was "comfortable in his skin," Barlow says. He even showed off his "moonwalking" skills one day, gliding backward in a smooth imitation of Michael Jackson.

 

"Mitt was a wonderful leader because he really cared," says Helen Claire Sievers, director of the World Teach program housed at Harvard. "He gave every ounce he had, and he had many ounces to give. He cared about people, organizations and the experience people had in the church."

 

The problem of women

 

Not everyone shared that positive view of Romney. Though somewhat progressive in his approach, Romney was still a product of LDS male culture of the time. He didn't initially believe, for example, that there were any cases of physical or sexual abuse of women in the stake, though plenty of evidence pointed to it.

 

"He's not a people person," says Nancy Dredge, "he's so much an organization man."

 

Yet, Dredge says, she's seen him learn from his mistakes. "He's in a much better place than he was 20 years ago."

While a young bishop, for example, Romney got word that a woman in his ward was considering an abortion. This was the sixth pregnancy for the woman in her 40s, who had four teenage children, and she developed some medical complications.

Romney arrived at the hospital and forcefully counseled her against the procedure. She felt Romney misunderstood and mistreated her. The woman later wrote about the experience in Exponent II, a national newspaper for Mormon women that was published in Romney's Boston stake. Though she didn't use her name, many church members knew who she was.

The episode came back to haunt Romney when he ran for Massachusetts governor in 1994 as a "pro-choice" candidate. It also reflected some of the ongoing tensions he had with some Exponent II writers during his tenure.

 

Regardless, Mormon women in Boston still talk about an extraordinary 1993 meeting Romney called to address the women of the stake.

 

More than 250 members poured into the Belmont chapel. One by one they called out their issues while he stood at the front with three pads labeled: policies we can't change, practices we can change, and things we can consider.

Nearly 100 proposals were made that day, including having female leaders give talks in various wards as the men on the high council do; letting women speak last in church; turning the chapels into day-care centers during the week; letting women stand in the circle while blessing newborn babies; recognizing the accomplishment of young women as the church does of Boy Scout advancements; and putting changing tables in the men's rooms.

 

Many women left with a new appreciation of Romney's openness.

 

He was "so brave," says Robin Baker, who has worked on Exponent II.

Sievers, who worked with Romney to set up the meeting, was ecstatic.

 

"I was really surprised," she says. "He implemented every single suggestion that I would have."

 

Acts of kindness

 

Not long after Grant Bennett fell off a ladder while trying to dislodge a hornet's nest outside his second-story bedroom, Romney came to offer sympathy and show Bennett a smarter way to deal with the festering insects - from inside.

Before Doug Anderson had even finished getting family out of his burning house, Romney showed up with a brigade of neighbors to salvage beloved belongings from the remains.

 

Several Mormons affectionately describe him as a man who can't remember names and can't tell a joke, but did preach inspiring sermons.

 

"We loved hearing him speak," recalls Bennett's wife, Colleen. "He was so smooth yet so connecting."

Barlow is troubled by media critiques of Romney as "too perfect" or "plastic."

 

"For the record, let me say that the Romneys their neighbors and associates know are neither phony nor scary," Barlow writes in a forthcoming issue of Religion in the News, published by the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. "Like it or not, Romney is naturally smooth, as much in private as in public."

 

The candidate has always "smiled faintly when listening and talking, even about serious or controversial matters," Barlow writes. "Romney smiled in conducting religious services or planning meetings. He smiled while hosting friends at his Cape Cod vacation home. He smiled when comforting a wounded congregant."

 

This was not a false persona, Barlow writes, but a "mixture of good will, confidence, optimism, enjoyment of intellectual challenge, and idiosyncrasy."