CNN

HAHAHA!

"no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States"
(United States Constitution, Article VII)
This is in our constitution for good reason. I support our constitution. All of this negative clamor about Romney's faith is not only unnecessary but disregards the principles this nation was founded on.

Poor Mitt Romney, he just couldn't help it!

"The claim that we should not use religion as a criterion for evaluating candidates is absurd. Why should we not consider the core values of politicians? What value is more central than a person's religious beliefs?" – Nicolas Martin, Indianapolis IN

Most people don't choose a religion; they inherit it. That is why the children of Mormons are mostly Mormon and the children of Catholics are mostly Catholic.

Most believers do not read their holy books, so we cannot judge a person's inner thoughts by the church they inherited from their parents or by the holy book that is taught. "Seventy-three percent of Catholics; 45% of Protestants (2002); and 40% of those who claim to be 'born again' did not read the Bible in the past week."

Surveys say that 20% of all Christians believe in reincarnation, though 80% do not.

Four out of ten adults (38%) believe that the entire Bible was written several decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Many high school seniors believe that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife.

A majority of Americans cannot name one of the four Gospels.

Jay Leno asked his Tonight Show audience one night to name one of Jesus' twelve apostles; they came up empty." (not a scientific finding)

One in ten Americans believes that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife, and only one-third knows that Jesus (not Billy Graham) preached the Sermon on the Mount.

One of the most frequently quoted passages from the Bible–"God helps those who help themselves'–actually appears nowhere in either the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament.

%Believe,% Do Not Believe, %Not Sure
God – 82,8,10
Miracles – 73,16,11
Afterlife – 70,12,18
Heaven – 70,15,15
Jesus – 70,15,15
Angels – 68,17,15
Resurrection of Christ 66,17,17
Satan – 61,26,13
Hell – 59,25,16
Virgin birth – 58,24,18
Ghosts – 40,39,22
UFOs – 34,41,25
Witches – 28,56,16
Astrology – 25,57,19
Reincarnation – 21,54,25

So, if we know that a person is a Catholic, a Protestant, an Evangelical, or a Mormon, what do we know about him? Nothing

The extent of your anti Mormonism by your monitors is such that I am writing the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Times Warner, Richard D Parsons. It would not be a problem if you let people respond with the truth to blogs by the Christian Right and excommunicated Mormons but you do not.

Robert, Deming, NM:

Since Romney is a Latter Day Saint, I would say that He is more Religious than most of the candidates, Because he holds the Priesthood that was bestowed upon him. This alone makes him a righteous man."

Hate to burst your protected and naive bubble, Robert, however, just because Mitt is a M. Priesthood holder does not mean he's "righteous." In fact, I was married to one who had no problem placing his hands on me, and his Stake President laughed in my face when I showed him the bruises, so you may wish to rethink that silly statement.

All personal experience aside, I don't still don't believe Romney had any involvement in this mess.

This guy's slick! A phony with deep pockets trying to buy the White House.

I wouldn't even consider him for president!

And then the angel Moroni said to Joseph Smith- "Go forth and multiply and in time your religion shall seem less cultish than the rest"

Liar! He flip flops any time for political conviniency. We are not stupid Mr. Romney!

"And about religion at least he has a FAITH." – stella sherman norwood ma

Fundamentalists of all faiths recognize each other even if the two faiths contradict each other. Many evangelicals respect the religiosity of Mormons even if they think Mormon theology is heretical. The important thing is to believe; WHAT you believe is not so important.

We must accept that America is a polytheistic nation. Americans worship dozens or maybe hundreds of gods, all of whom are named capital-G "God". There is no similarity that I can see between Ralph Reed's God and the Pope's God, except for the name. It's like knowing a dozen men named Robert Johnson: one is a crook, one is a priest, one is day, another one is a professor, this one looks and acts like John Wayne, that one looks and acts like Peewee Herman...

Jews, Christians, and Muslims all believe in the God of Abraham, but Abraham must have known three Gods if that be true. Those three deities have nothing in common.

Theology – the names of the angels, the personalities of supernatural immortal beings, whether to eat pork or not, etc. – occurs only in the mind of the believer.

Of course he is not going to sponsor calls that put him in a bad light, over issues that have nothing to do with his religion. This is a liberal media spin like no other. If he wanted to stage anti-Mormon calls, they would have been just that. They were all things anti-Mitt. It was not in his favor in the least.

Liberal media spin.

to Jason Charlotte, NC ....

Being from the South, you could be well aware of the GOP slime ball approach to politics ... just ask John McCain about the GOP whispered campaign about a "black baby" ... and all the unthinking republicans salivated, trembled in horror and voted like they were told... pass the kool-aide and vote GOP ...

No one, and I mean no one, is the master of dirty politics like Karl Rove, Cheney and their tame monkeys knows as swiftboaters for lies ... only the GOP would attack veterans when they themselves didn't go to war – ol' five deferment Cheney only uses guns on those who can't shoot back.

The GOP attempts to steal the elections will make the Clinton campaign look pure as the driven snow.
What was the other lie ... call me?

Good job Mitt. You have that snake oil thing down to a science. You're no Rudy but with a few more psuedo political tricks and a file for the ballot stamper in Florida and a few diebold manuevers in Ohio and you could steal a presidency too.

The claim that we should not use religion as a criterion for evaluating candidates is absurd. Why should we not consider the core values of politicians? What value is more central than a person's religious beliefs?

DANG WE HAD AN ICE AGE, THOUGHT WE LIVE IN GLOBAL WARMING. MAYBE IT'S THE SUN AND NOT MAN. JUNK SCIENCE, FOLLOW THE MONEY! LOL

"jim in austin " refers to a mini ice age. get al gore on the phone, I want to know how that last mini ice age ended. Global warming , indeed !

After reading the first sentence of this artical and most of these comments, it became crystal clear to me why we don't have qualified candidates running for President of the United States of America.

Funny - Mormons actually believe one of the tribes of Israel crossed the Atlantic to become the first natives who settled America.

People who claim that "at least Romney has a faith" ought to examine Mormonism a little closer to discover exactly how ridiculously un-Christian it is.

Doesn't anyone know about the "independent" entities that are putting out ads that support McCain, that McCain himself has repudiated? They are the MOST LIKELY culprits in this situation. They want McCain elected, so they'll do ANYTHING to effect that, EVEN if it means McCain disavowing them!

If I am not mistaken the first man to come to this country was, Lief Erickson, a Viking.
Robert, Deming, New Mexico

you are mistaken I believe the first people here were acestors of inuit eskimos. They crossed from Russia during the last mini iceage.

its probably Huckabee. He is the guy running on being a social conservative, and Romney is his biggest competition in Iowa

Robert in Deming: I wonder what the First Natives thought when the saw the first man, Lief Ericson, coming to THIER country.

And for the Record, Mike Huckabee is also an ordained minister. And holding a priesthood does not make a righteous man. Ask the thousands of children that were sexually abused by "righteous" priests.

I do agree with you about speaking English in this country, though.

I think the asinine comments from Robert from Deming, New Mexico proves my theory that great literature in New Mexico is what written on the back of a can of Coors.

I'm a legal immigrant who waited 10 years for all the legal documentations to be approved before I migrated to this country and I have every right to tell all those ILLEGAL ALIENS to get out of this country and tell all those legal residents to support the law of the land. I truly believe that Mitt Romney will enforce that law once he wins the white house. And about religion at least he has a FAITH.

I do not know who is on the Romney Team, but if they did this, they did it without Romney's knowledge. No way would Romney know and let this happen.

Whoever or whatever person or group is behind this, is pretty weak for not coming forth and taking responsibility. What does that Group or Person have to hide if they believe what they paid for.

The Presidential Political process is ridiculous. After all these Candidates knock each other for how the other is wrong for America they will eventually ask one to be a running mate for VP, or ask the dropouts to throw in their support for them.

Jason in Charlotte – please share the facts of your assertions. The only recent proof of this type of campaigning is that of Bush supporters and their actions against McCain in South Carolina.

Just because you say it and believe it – doesn't make it true. Those that spread lies are the worst of the worst.

In this present political climate...anything is possible, even sabotaging your own campaign and placing the blame elsewhere. What a shame!!!!

I do think Mitt would orchestrate this out of his own campaign. he seems just desperate enough to do somlething this haneous.

Or maybe you think it is a vast left wing conspiracy by Clinton to bring down the best republican candidate?

Posted By Dan, TX : November 21, 2007 12:29 pm

An oxymoron. You can't use "best" and "RepubliKKKan" in the same sentence. The GOP represents everything that's wrong with America.

Don't you think "Hedge Fund Mitt" is a better nickname than Mitt "Moneybags" Romney? Has a better ring, doesn't you think?

It's not so absurd to think someone in Willard's camp actually played the card in reverse. What better way to make yourself look like a martyr when no one else is doing it for you? And if this is such an "un-American" tactic, why did Willard and his crew launch the phone campaign? The guy is lying through his deceitful teeth, just looking to create a sympathy edge for himself because he is slipping across the nation. Nice Mormon trick Willard, but it will not work.

Neither party is immune from this type of stunt.

But it is funny that he is starting to gain some traction and this magically appears, where is Columbo when you need him?

But it's not like this has been a dirty campaign, nobody is getting money from suspicious origins or planting questions in the audience, what's that, oh yeah, I forgot about her...

Doesn't she have a group that was called her "secret police" by HER OWN PEOPLE that would dig stuff up on political rivals or "friends of her husband"?

So based on histories of THESE politicians running NOW.......

Dan is absolutely correct that the GOP smear machine is just gearing up for the general election. Mitt associates himself with the slimiest of slime (the GOP), so he'll find them to be his nastiest detractors.

Jason, you are clueless - Dems couldn't even hold water for the GOP slime machine – you guys are brutal!

This was probably a Democrat. This is exactly the type of thing they like to do.

Repubicans are successful and rich because they don't waste time with stunts such as this... Hillary's camp on the other hand...

Common sense says this is another candidate. If anyone thinks it was Romney provide something know as a "fact" – something that can be verified, or please shut up.

One must understand, for a faithful Mormon like Romney, spreading anti-Mormon sentiments for any reason would be considered a serious betrayal of one's own faith. A Mormon would feel he needs God's help to win the election, and would not risk offending him. Romney has shown he clearly values his Mormonism. He was even a missionary, and certainly has frustrating memories of people who spread anti-Mormon sentiments to thwart his work then. I think, in his mind, using such a trick would be out of the question. I don't think he was involved.

Unbelievable that people would associate Romney's campaign with the calls. That is all...

Romney needs to look no further than one of his "Christian value" Republican rivals. The GOP has taken this kind of lying, smearing stuff to a new level (can anyone forget the lovely South Carolinians turning on McCain because of Bush/Rove calls about his fathering a black baby (the baby was adopted by the McCains)). I kind of lost respect for McCain when he didn't kick Bush's arse and refuse to ever talk to the jerk. And let's not forget the GOP smear machine with Swift Boats (which were proven to be all lies) and then smearing 3-amputee war hero Max Cleland about being unpatriotic. Mitt, look no further than the hateful bunch you associate yourself with.

Come on, the republicans are just practicing for the general election, nothing wrong with that.

Or maybe you think it is a vast left wing conspiracy by Clinton to bring down the best republican candidate?

The ethical principles of business and professional sports, summarized by the sentence "If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying." has completely permeated politics.

Now, candidates are suspected of playing dirty tricks on themselves to gain sympathy. Candidates market themselves like new cars. Focus groups, polls, and psychologists are used to deduce what the voter wants to hear so they can then make certain that they hear it.

This is the kind of thing the democrats do and particularly the Clintons. The entire Clinton political saga has been one sleazy story after another. Mrs. Clinton is the likely suspect here.

Since Romney is a Latter Day Saint, I would say that He is more Religious than most of the candidates, Because he holds the Priesthood that was bestowed upon him. This alone makes him a righteous man. The one thing, he should leave Social Security alone. But he should not give any to the illegal immigrants, they did not earn this..the Americans did. One more thing the national language of this country is English, NOT SPANISH, IF a person comes to this country they should have the capability of speaking English, Because they are not mexican american Etc. They have to be either American or Mexican Etc.
They cannot be both, we are not Europe and have a lot of countries we have STATES (THE UNITED STATES) and if they don't want to speak our language then they should return to the country they came from. If I am not mistaken the first man to come to this country was, Lief Erickson, a Viking.

I don't blame him for acting shocked! This is probably the most insane comment I've read during these primaries...well, if you exclude: Chuck Norris and the wrestler finding it imperative in their lives to endorse Huckleberry.

That was my first thought.
No other campaign is dumb enough to do this.

But Mitt "Moneybags" Romney may be savvy enough to try and court the sympathy vote.

I'm interested to hear the outcome of all this.