Monday, September 17th, 2007...9:37 am
Oh My Lord…Nearly Literally
One of the truly amusing things on the dexter side of this presidential contest is the back stage sniping among supporters over who is the right sort of Christian. Heck, with the Republicans unable to settle their own sectarian divides, it’s no wonder they are having so many problems managing Iraq.
The “troubles,” at least so far…
- Last month, a dispute errupted between Sam Brownback and Mike Huckabee over anti-Catholic comments made by a supporter of Huckabee. Brownback demanded an apology, which the campaign of the normally affable Huckabee refused to do at the time. Both candidates are still lodged in the just above asterisk level in most polls.
- Social conservatives have put their hopes in Fred Thompson, but as some of y’all read last week, it turns out that Thompson is not a regular church goer. The funny part came when a website supporting Mitt Romney claimed to have evidence that Thompson doesn’t even go to church with his mother.
- Now the latest: John McCain is waffling on his Episcopalianism. McCain is listed as an Episcopalian in numerous congressional guides, but this week he says that he has been Baptist all along. This couldn’t have anything to do with his campaigning in South Carolina, where Episcopalianism is regarded as a leftist cult. Next up: McCain claims to be Hasidic in an attempt to woo voters in Rockland County, New York. By the way, McCain claims to be a Baptist but hasn’t been baptized. I’m not a scholar of Protestant rites, but isn’t that part of the deal? I mean, it is implied by the name of the denomination, ennit? Next, we’ll hear that he’s a Seventh Day Adventist, but goes to church on Sundays.
What Mr. Brown, my American History teacher back in high school, told us was that one of the reasons for the “establishment” clause in the constitution was that so we could avoid this sort of stupidity. These men that wrote the constitution thought that keeping sectarian arguments out of politics would be a good idea (17th and 18th century European politics would have turned anyone off to it). Well, those founders never had to run in a Republican primary.
5 Comments
September 17th, 2007 at 10:52 am
McCain will be the tooth fairy if he thinks it’s what you want him to be.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Wonder is he was even baptized in the Episcopal church as I was. (for you Tucson old-timers, Father Fowler @St Michael’s baptized me)
I agree with romney here, Johnny-Mac wants to be all things to all people. He is a man who is willing to do anything to be President. Makes you wonder what he would do to remain in the WhiteHouse if he is elected. Nixon was just like McCain is now….. and look how tricky-Dick turned out..
September 17th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Although I was baptized into the LDS (mormon) church (and NO! I absolutely would never support Mitt Romney even if he was running for tenth best dogcatcher) and therefore my own baptism would not be acceptable to most protestants, my understanding in terms of mainline protestant churches (Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran) is that for the most part they accept each other’s baptisms.
I may be all wet about that, but back during the time when I was going to a lot of churches and talking to their ministers to try to reach a decision, I remember some of them telling me that.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Romney Facts,
That is a very rich thing to say about McCain when your candidate has flip/flopped and pandered on a host of issues that social conservatives seem to care about. The only thing genuine about Romney is that he is LDS and he appears to be distancing himself from that as well….or sure doesn’t talk about it much.
September 19th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
There is some verse in the bible (my vague memory of bible studies from 30 years ago) that indicates that if any man (person!) tries to add or take away from the Word of God (bible) then that man is being lead by Satan. I think that the LDS church actually has done this with the Book of Mormon so I would assume that there are evangelicals who view Mormonism as a cult of the devil. This viewpoint is bound to be used against Mitt Romney. The Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, etc. may have their significant differences but they at least agree on what constitutes the Word of God.
Leave a Reply