No Faith In Politics

David D. Kirkpatrick of the New York Times wrote this today about Willard Mitt Romney’s 1968 ministry in Paris as a Mormon missionary, when he and other Americans faced often-irate French, angry with the U.S. over the Vietnam War (and I give Romney credit for making this sacrifice, more than that made by some of the other Repug candidates for president).

If you don’t mind, though, I’ll just skip ahead and answer the question of whether or not what Romney dealt with at this time somehow may have made him question our current quagmire in Iraq. I think it’s a reflection of Romney’s utter lack of curiosity or intellect that the answer is a resounding no; the only moment in Kirkpatrick’s story where you learn of any kind of emotional expression by The Mittster is as follows…

When (Romney) heard over a car radio in 1978 that the (Mormon) church would offer blacks full membership, he said, he pulled over and cried.

Gee gosh, Mitt, what a shame that everyone in your faith isn’t as lily white as you.

And also in today’s edition of the Times, we learn here that…

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops approved principles Wednesday intended to guide Catholics in choosing whom to vote for but leaving the door open for them to back candidates who support abortion rights.

Well, well, well now, isn’t that just sooo con-vee-nient for Rudy! This now provides cover for the Catholic Church to embrace “America’s Mayor” over some godless liberal Democrat. I guess this is a sign that Benny won’t try to interfere with the presidential election next year as he did in 2004, since there is still some question as to whether or not Rudy will get the nod.

Actually, though, were Ron Paul to run against a Dem for the White House (and once more people, I’m sorry, but that’s not going to happen), that would solve the Church’s abortion problem, since Paul is rabidly pro-life (indeed, that’s one of the few issues where he is of one mind with the neocons).

That being said, though, I don’t see any statement from a group of clerics of one denomination or another outweighing voter concerns over the towering issues in this election (the war and the economy neck-and-neck along with the intrusions of our government and assault on our freedoms, to say nothing of the environment).

I think it’s safe to say that, as a group, Catholics such as your humble narrator who are decidedly progressive and will never vote for a Republican in a national election again (probably any election at this point) are now ascendant to the point where we properly own issues defined as “moral” and control the dialogue throughout much of this country (E.J. Dionne has some thoughts on that here).

And with that clout, what we should tell everyone with ears to hear is that faith has very little to do with politics, and one should almost always be excluded from dialogue about the other (and I wonder if The Mittster would have a good cry over that?).