Romney Dodges Doctrine
To be fair to Romney, he is hardly the first politician to invoke this America religion. Even after another round of Religious Right obituaries, it seems that religion matters more in this election than any other. Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan remembers with fondness when voters didn't care about a candidate's beliefs. She fears all this theology talk encourages hypocrisy. So she's had enough. So has Jim Geraghty. This week alone in The Washington Post, two high-profile columnists lambasted Huckabee for campaigning as an outspoken Christian. From the Right, George Will accused Huckabee of attacking Romney's beliefs and raising a religious test for the presidency. From the Left, Richard Cohen attributed Huckabee's Iowa popularity to his "obdurate and narrow-minded religious beliefs."
"Religion does not belong in the political arena," Cohen concluded. "It does not lend itself to compromise. It is about belief, not reason, and is ordinarily immutable. Romney is a shifty fellow, but he will always be a Mormon, and it will never make a difference. Should he become President, he will still light the national Christmas tree and pardon the Thanksgiving turkey and host the Easter egg roll on the White House lawn."
You see, that's the trouble with politics and theology. Meaningful beliefs make a difference. They manifest themselves in more than cute ceremonies. This is especially true in a nation founded on the theological statement "all men are created equal."
Glaring Gaffes
From the moment National Geographic went public with supposed revelations from the Gospel of Judas, evangelical scholars responded with well-informed skepticism. Darrell Bock from Dallas Theological Seminary explained that this redacted document emerged from a peculiar group of Gnostics who flipped biblical stories upside down. As scholars such as Bock made immediately clear, this gospel proved nothing except the existence of early heretics.
In case you dropped the story at that point, you missed some interesting developments, detailed in The New York Times on December 1. Rice University biblical studies professor April D. DeConick took another look at the Coptic text and noticed some glaring mistakes in the original translation. As any first-year Greek student knows, daimon means demon, not spirit. In another instance, DeConick says the scholars deliberately dropped a negative, leaving the impression that Judas ascended to the "holy generation." Glaring, indeed. At least National Geographic has admitted this mistake.
"My word to you when you hear about scholars revealing new things about Jesus is simply to check it out," Bock writes in the December issue of Christianity Today. "Make sure you get the rest of the story when the 'new, industrial-strength' Jesus is presented."
Quick Takes
- T.F. Torrance, renowned Reformed theologian, died December 2 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was 94. Torrance won the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1978 and earned wide acclaim for The Trinitarian Faith, in which he exposits the Nicene Creed. Princeton Theological Seminary professor George Hunsinger eulogized Torrance as "arguably the greatest Reformed theologian since Karl Barth, with whom he studied."
Star Trek Into Darkness
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Andy Burns
This article does not attempt to cast aspersions on Mitt Romney's character or leadership qualities. It does, however, demonstrate that Romney holds some interesting views regarding his personal faith. For instance, he states that Mormons believe that "Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind." Hard to find fault with that statement. He also says in the interview that "every faith he has encountered brings its adherents closer to God." These statements seem to be mutually exclusive. If he holds to the first claim, that Christ is divine and his death is the sole propitiation for our sin, it seems odd to comment that other paths or faiths offer the opportunity to draw "closer to God". These statements that tend to put all religions (and Gods) on equal ground, will probably not sit well with most evangelical Christians who see the Bible as God's word and God's son as "the way, the truth, and the life."
Raymond Takashi Swenson
Mitt Romney celebrates Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, just as all Mormons do. US Mormons gather with their families to eat turkey, they give gifts on December 25, and on Easter Sunday they will note the resurrection of Christ with songs and sermons. No, they don't have the elaborate ceremonies around and about Easter and Christmas that Catholics and some Protestants do, but it is largely for the same reason they do not put crosses on their churches: the founders of their church were New Englanders whose ancestors, the first English settlers of Massachusetts, had simplified their church practices and met in churches without crosses. Mormons commemorate the atoning death and suffering of Christ every Sunday, when every Latter-day Saint takes the emblems of Christ's body and blood during a few minutes of quiet meditation by the entire congregation. It is amazing how journalists think they can comment intelligently on Mormons out of total ignorance.
jon
With all the talk and comments and discussions regarding a person's religion, faith or theology; can anyone recall if, where, or when Ronald Reagan went to church? Should a candidate express their faith unless needed? Without a doubt! Show me by your actions how you will run our entire country; of all faiths, colors, experiences and backgrounds. I am not a Romney or a Huckabee supporter. An American researching the best person who will give our country the leadership, direction and vision we need as a nation.