Quote:
Originally Posted by Cali Coug
He is in an awkward position, no question. But I fail to see why that is any excuse at all to actually give false information about the church. If the choice is to be a missionary v. not be a missionary as you claim, then what is it called when you spread false information about your religion? Is there a single active church member other than Romney who would say that there has been no revelation since Moses?
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In the truest politician rhetoric, Romney left himself plenty of wiggle room regarding his comments. You may not like that, and think that he should just blurt it out "...In the Name of Jesus Christ Amen", but honestly some fights are worth having another day.
Even Christ himself used political speech to skate the thin ice of the Pharisees and Sadducee's. How long would he have lasted had he had the biblical equivalent of a national press conference? How long would he have lasted if he had gone amongst the Sanhedrin and stood before them and told them to bow down before their Master the Creator, Their Messiah, The Great Jehovah?
Romney isn't even close to that kind of life and death controversy, and yet he still tries to exercise caution. If he indeed made the comment somewhat off handed in jest, he could have IMO chosen his words a bit more prudently, but hey, he isn't perfect. I am not going to hang him out to dry because he had a hard time with a question that should have never been asked. "Let's see, Moses is highly recognizable to Christian and Jew alike so I'll go with that. Joseph Smith definitely qualifies, but to bring him up would be to open that religious litmus test can of worms that I am trying to avoid since it is
- unconstitutional, and
- If I allow it or get sucked into it I will not be able to bring the focus of my candidacy on my politics as the media will turn my faith into a circus that would drown out any value my platform possesses.
- Even worse it could do allot to harm the issues on freedom of religion that are already in danger outside of the US, such as in Canada where criticisms by religious corners are being punished by the court system.
So I better go with "...and perhaps some others...Yeah sure I know the Holy Ghost communicates to us on the Lords behalf, and that from a spiritual perspective is indicative of speech, but this guy is a hack and wants to stir the pot, so I will keep it on a literal level... No God has not actually ever spoken to me."
It isn't that cut and dried, and to believe so is to be naive. Try living in the mission field for most of your adult life and dealing with this kind of garbage on an almost daily basis.