{"id":962,"date":"2007-12-06T19:38:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-06T19:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=962"},"modified":"2007-12-06T19:38:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-06T19:38:00","slug":"is-this-a-nation-of-only-monotheistic-believers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=962","title":{"rendered":"Is This a Nation of Only Monotheistic Believers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under the United Blogging Act of 2005, I should have said something about Mitt Romney’s speech<\/a> about how being a Mormon does not make him unfit to be president.<\/p>\n

Hrafnkell picked up on a news release <\/a>from Americans United, a group that did a lot for us during the pentacle grave-marker quest<\/a>. The nugget<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was particularly outraged that Romney thinks that the Constitution is somehow based on faith and that judges should rule accordingly, \u201c Lynn said. \u201cThat\u2019s a gross misunderstanding of the framework of our constitutional system.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is telling that Romney quoted John Adams instead of Thomas Jefferson or James Madison,\u201d [the Rev. Barry W.] Lynn continued. \u201cJefferson and Madison are the towering figures who gave us religious liberty and church-state separation.<\/em><\/p>\n

In Romney’s world, contrary to what comes out of his mouth<\/a>, there is<\/b><\/em> a religious test for president:<\/p>\n

“I believe that every faith I have encountered draws its adherents closer to God. And in every faith I have come to know, there are features I wish were in my own: I love the profound ceremony of the Catholic Mass, the approachability of God in the prayers of the Evangelicals, the tenderness of spirit among the Pentecostals, the confident independence of the Lutherans, the ancient traditions of the Jews, unchanged through the ages,<\/em>[sic] and the commitment to frequent prayer of the Muslims.<\/eM><\/p>\n

And who did he leave out? I can think of a few religious traditions…<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/b> And the non-religious, of course, as Ann Althouse points out in her discussion of the speech<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UPDATE 2: <\/b>Timothy Burke has the best summary of the Romney speech<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Under the United Blogging Act of 2005, I should have said something about Mitt Romney’s speech about how being a Mormon does not make him unfit to be president. Hrafnkell picked up on a news release from Americans United, a group that did a lot for us during the pentacle grave-marker quest. The nugget: \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-american-religion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-fw","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":860,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=860","url_meta":{"origin":962,"position":0},"title":"VA Approves the Wiccan Pentagram","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The first message (from a Pagan staffer at the American Academy of Religion) hit my inbox at 12:28 today, and then the Colorado Pagan email lists lit up: The Veterans Adminstration approved the pentagram for veterans' grave markers. (Pentagram, pentacle, same thing as far as the news media are concerned.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":405,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=405","url_meta":{"origin":962,"position":1},"title":"Pagan Studies updateThree new journal\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 13, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Pagan Studies updateThree new journal articles related to Pagan Studies and\/or nature-based religion:Lynn Ross-Bryant, \"Sacred Sites: Nature and Nation in the U.S. National Parks,\" Religion and American Culture 15.1 (Winter 2005): 31-62.Adrian Ivakhiv, \"In Search of Deeper Identities: Neopaganism and 'Native Faith\" in Contemporary Ukraine,\" Nova Religio 8.3 (March 2005):\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1189,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1189","url_meta":{"origin":962,"position":2},"title":"Pagan Content on Patheos: John Muir was Pagan??","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"USA Today's religion blogger, Cathy Lynn Gross, visits the Patheos religion web site and discovers (shock!) that it has a Pagan portal with actual Pagan content.The article that catches her attention is \"John Muir was a Pagan.\"I admire John Muir, but I do not see him as a capital-P Pagan,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":934,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=934","url_meta":{"origin":962,"position":3},"title":"The Wind that Shakes the Pine Trees","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a sunny day with a brisk wind blowing. Pine needles are in the air. M. and I both slept in a little last night after returning at midnight from one of the Spanish Peaks International Celtic Music Festival concerts.We went to one last year too, to hear Kim Robertson's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Celts\"","block_context":{"text":"Celts","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=celts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5555,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5555","url_meta":{"origin":962,"position":4},"title":"Francis of Assisi: From Radical Monk to Garden Ornament","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The real-estate supplement of the Taos News this week carried an article titled \"Five Must-Haves for a Beautiful Backyard.\" Oddly enough, four of the five items* were available at the store owned by a person interviewed for the story. \"Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, is one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"St. Francis as a bird bath with the wolf of Gubbio.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholichomeandgarden.com\/images\/Saint%20Garden%20Statues\/Saint%20Francis%20Garden%20Statue%20Birdbath.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1110,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1110","url_meta":{"origin":962,"position":5},"title":"Mercury is Retrograde–Use It","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"For the astrologically minded among you, Mercury went retrograde today, meaning that its apparent motion as view from earth is the opposite of normal.Every time this happens, the Colorado Pagan email group gets a few \"Horrors! Mercury is retrograde!\" messages. Astrologers like Lynn Hayes have a standard message: Meanwhile, Mercury\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"astrology\"","block_context":{"text":"astrology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=astrology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}