Letters to the Editor
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Oh my!
What a beautiful separation of church and state we're having!
What's next, snake handling and tongue-speaking live on CNN?
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who cares?
Debating the candidates' opinions on arcane religious dogma makes as much sense as cornering them for a statement on how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
Why continue to promote the ever-advancing tide of irrelevancy by repeating this blather?
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Say, don't Christians believe . . .
...that an omnipotent man who lives in the sky and watches over single living creature at all times decided that he loved his creations so much that in his infinite power to make or create worlds and shape reality with nothing more than the force of his will he decided to impregnate a virgin with a child that was both his son and himself at the same time so that that child may grow to be a man who would get nailed to a piece of wood and die for the sins of mankind, so long as mankind follows a series of narcissistic rules and avoid sinning whenever possible?
At least don't believe that Jesus and the Devil were brothers. That would just be weird.
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Fear and Loathing
Historical review will show that America(and the World in general)has always used religion as a means to control people and fight against change. The writers of the constitution were well aware of it and valiantly attempted to separate belief from government, but they never stood a chance.
Irrationality invariably trumphs over reasoning. The Founders also attempted to prevent Democracy from forming- believing that mob rule was just as bad as any other tyranny.
Today statistics show that the vast majority of Americans believe in God, heaven, hell, angels and astrology. In a democracy-these people will rule over the minority and implement policies born from their irrational beliefs.
This is not to say you must go along with it, as Noam Chomsky says; It's not about winning or losing, you do something because it is the intellectually honest thing to do."
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The Mormon Satan
I addressed this at my blog at http://frombehindthezioncurtain.blogspot.com/ in a post called "The Mormon Satan". As a former Mormon who has taught his share of Gospel Doctrine classes, for the LDS Church to call such an accusation a "smear" is very disingenuous. I wonder how many other current or former doctrines the LDS Church will deny in order to make Mitt look more mainstream?
Heck, it's no big deal to me. These theological debates seem like debating whether Santa resides on the North or South pole. Both Nicene Christianity and Mormonism make as much sense as a screen door in submarine, but for the Mormon Church, which has taught this doctrine for well over a century to call it a "smear" is quite telling.
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Like any good push poll...
...Huckabee is "unwilling to answer questions" about Mormonism, but is more than happy to ask suggestive questions.
Isn't that something Satan, the father of lies, would do?
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Well, here's all the proof you need
The Mormon spokesman said:
But both the scriptures and the prophets affirm that Jesus Christ and Lucifer are indeed offspring of our Heavenly Father and, therefore, spirit brothers. ...
This is contrary to basic Christian doctrine, not in the "shocking" way some presume, i.g., Jesus and Lucifer are "spirit brothers." It's because Christian doctrine clearly teaches that Jesus is not God's offspring. Jesus is uncreated, eternally existent as part of the godhead, and indeed is the creator and sustainer of all things (in other words, "all" means "all," and by simple logic could not have created himself).
Now you are free not to believe this, but this simple statement, straight from the mouths of the Mormon official church, means that Mormons are not Christians because they deny a core tenet of Christianity.
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My double standards
I do think it's fair to ask Huckabee to open up about his personal theology, because he openly uses it for political gain. To do otherwise would be like a candadite saying, "vote for me because I was a governor, but I don't want you to know anything about what I did as a governor." To a slightly lesser extent, I think that is fair to ask of Romney, too, because of his "you can't have freedom without religion" comment (and he was quite a powerful leader of the Mormon church in New England). I don't think it would be right to demand the same openess of the leading democratic candidates because none of them wear their beliefs on their sleeves. They are all church-attending, devout Christians, so far as I can tell (like Kerry and Gore before them), but none of them ask you to vote for them because of it.
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Pass the popcorn!
What a great show! If we didn't currently have enormous sheets of arctic ice sliding off into the ocean, I'd be enjoying this GOP implosion even more. As it is, watching this is kind of like that Monty Python skit (I think it's in "And Now for Something Completely Different" though it may be "The Meaning of Life")--remember the one that takes place in WWI, where a small band of troops is trying to give farewell presents to their captain (a hand-baked cake, a grandfather clock, etc.), and they keep getting picked off by mortar rounds, one by one? The captain keeps urging them to seek cover, and all they do is get insulted that he doesn't want all their gifts?
Yes, please, Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Romney, let's hash out all this Jesus-Lucifer business on prime time TV. I'm just dying to know how we resolve this most pressing issue; plus, as long as the writer's strike keeps going I have no Jon Stewart.
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@The Professor
I don't think it would be right to demand the same openess of the leading democratic candidates because none of them wear their beliefs on their sleeves. They are all church-attending, devout Christians, so far as I can tell (like Kerry and Gore before them), but none of them ask you to vote for them because of it.
Hmm, starting to smell like a double standard here, Prof. They do wear it on their sleeve, Obama especially. Why there wasn't more outrage on the Left when Obama said in a church setting, "We're going to build a kingdom" (clear code language for the setting and audience) just shows the blindspot on the Left. Imagine if Huckabee had done the identical thing.
Even in '04, the Democratic candidates fell all over themselves to prove their religiosity, with Howard Dean famously embarrassing himself by saying his favorite book of the New Testament was "Job."
By the way, Professor, you can build nuclear-powered coconut radios and bamboo-powered contraptions to draw water, so why can't you fix a simple 3-foot hole in the boat!?