December 7th, 2007
06:45 AM ET
15 years ago
Romney gives religion speech
Watch Dana Bash's report about Romney speech on faith.
(CNN) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke about faith and religious freedom in College Station, Texas Thursday. CNN's Dana Bash was there and filed this report about Romney's speech.
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Who cares????????????
I'm not voting for you because of your ridiculous views, not because you're a mormon.
An elected official does not need to be punished for his/her religious beliefs as long as they do not try to force these beliefs on the public... I fear Romney does not understand this, and wants his religion to govern the lives of people that do not share his belief in a specific religion or any religion. Right wing republicans would love to repeal the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution and add one that establishes a conservative approved version of Christianity as the required religion of the USA, and which serves as the test for determining if someone is an American.
JOE IN BOSTON
CNN MUST LOVE THAT ONE,LOL
Best speech I have ever heard in my life! It is obvious to me that he is a man of character.
any religion that believes the black people are an accursed race and can't join the mormons is a racest cult and no matter what speech he gives he is not fit to be president of anything
David,
Did you know that the church had black members in the early 1800's? Many fled to the church because of the churches strong anti-slavery beliefs.
Did you know that the church is well established with hundreds of thousands of members in nearly every country of Africa?
You should visit http://www.mormon.org if you want to know the truth about what Mormons do and do not believe. Or, you can continue to be a part of the uneducated crowd when it comes to Mormonism. It is up to you. But please, if you chose to continue your beliefs about Mormonism based on rhetoric and false information from anti-Mormon sources please keep it to yourself. Reading a few hate filled pamphlets does not make you an expert. To those of us who do know, you stand out as one who is very uninformed.
Have a nice day.
To Karen Houston:
You should read up on your homework and this time, read the who chapter: Blacks were allowed to participate in the church until Brigham Young, who was a racist and was pro-slavery, announced that the mark of cain is to permanently restrict all blacks from being baptized, be married in the temples, going on missions, etc. In fact, if you dig a little deeper, it was also Utah law and church doctrine in 1870 that if a white man had any sexual activity with a black woman, the woman was required to give her "blood atonement" to save the soul of the white man.
Someone who believes wholly and profoundly in a religion with such a racist background will never be on my ticket for president, governor, or any other public office.
God created everyone equal. The Mormons prophets, if they really did commune with god, should have known that.
Having had time to finally digest Mr. Romney's much anticipated "faith" speech, I have to state the obvious: This will not be remembered as one of the great speeches of history.
I realize he probably meant well, but when he said words to the effect that "faith requires freedom and freedom requires faith," Romney in one fell swoop managed to disenfranchise the liberty of every American who chooses to live their life without a faith system - and whether that condition applies to one lone individual or a considerable host, the very essence of being an American is that a person is free to make that choice and still be an American.
But worse, Romney's remarks are but a hair's bredth from the view that "only the TRUE faith" can provide us with TRUE freedom. And if that is to be the case, whose faith must we define as the "true" one? Romney's? JFK's? Pat Robertson's? Joseph Liebermann's?
What Romney's speech has managed to do is guarantee that he will not receive his party's nomination by assuring us all that he cannot possibly win in the general election.