Mitt wept when church ended discrimination - Mike Allen - Politico.com: "It came up when Russert asked him how he could accept the endorsement of Bob Jones III, president of Bob Jones University, who issued a statement saying he supports Romney but that Mormons are not Christians — an assertion that is deeply offensive to church members.
“Well, you know, religions are in a competitive battle — they’re competing for souls and adherents,” he said. Later, he repeated: “As I indicated, there are competing faiths in this nation.”
Romney added that he was “delighted” to have the support of Jones. “The great thing, of course, is that our values are the same,” Romney added. “We have Christians and Jews, for instance. They don’t have the same faith, but we certainly have the same Judeo-Christian foundation.”
At one point, Romney said he had not made up his mind whether or not to run based on input from church authorities, and would make governing decisions independently of them.
“I believe very firmly in the principle of free agency — people making their own decisions,” he said.
Asked about the statement in his recent speech that “freedom requires religion,” Romney elaborated: “Long-term, for America to remain a great nation, to lead the world, we must have a recognition of our religious faith. Now that’s, of course, not a particular denomination.”
Russert asked, “Can you be a moral person and be an atheist?”
Romney replied, “Oh, of course. Of course.”
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Former Evangelical Minister Has a New Message: Jesus Hearts Darwin: "The Rev. Michael Dowd is preaching a surprising message: Evolution is real and science points to the existence of God. For the last five years, the author and former evangelical pastor has lived out of a van with his wife, crisscrossing the nation to deliver the good news. His latest book, Thank God for Evolution, drew endorsements from five Nobel laureates and dozens of religious leaders. With the battle between science and religion at a fever pitch, it couldn't come at a better time. Just last week Texas papers reported that a curriculum director had been fired in October for forwarding information about an evolution lecture to friends and colleagues. Dowd wasn't always an evolution proselytizer. Presented with an evolution textbook on his first day of biology classes at Evangel University, he stormed out and told his roommate that Satan had a foothold in the Christian school. But after encountering the teachings of Catholic eco-theologian Thomas Berry, Dowd embraced what's known as evolutionary theology."
Pharyngula: "Colorado killer identified Category: We can all breathe a sigh of relief. The gunman who killed four people at evangelical churces in Colorado was not a buddhist atheist Jew evilutionist. He was a deranged disgruntled former member. The gunman believed to have killed four people at a megachurch and a missionary training school had been thrown out of the school about three years ago and had been sending hate mail to the program, police said in court papers Monday. The gunman was identified as Matthew Murray, 24, who was home-schooled by his family and raised in what a friend said was a deeply religious Christian household. Murray's father is a neurologist and a prominent multiple-sclerosis researcher. I suppose they could blame it all on the fact his father was a scientist, still. Posted by PZ Myers at 6:09 PM • 62 Comments • 0 TrackBacks"
Huckabee Alights in Iowa, Has the Judgement Arrived for the GOP?: "Arianna Huffington: Huckabee: The GOP's Cynical Use of Religion Has Come Home to Roost
With Mike Huckabee's continuing surge, the Republican Party now has an Iowa front-runner who, like George Bush, is anti-choice, born-again, against gay-marriage, and gets political advice directly from God. So why is the Republican establishment suddenly in a state of near-apoplexy? They've been cultivating evangelicals and fundamentalists for 30 years. Now they finally have a candidate who's truly part of the movement. Which, it turns out, is precisely the problem. The evangelical crowd was fine when it was just a resource to be cynically exploited every few years in demagogic anti-gay get-out-the-vote campaigns. But now the holy-rolling monster the GOP's Dr. Frankensteins have created has thrown off the shackles, fled the lab, and is currently leading in Iowa. And the party doesn't know what to do."
And now, from the myserious mountains of Afghanistan .. Zwahari!
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