Post #2: Similarities between Romney and Obama

Upon researching Mitt Romney I noticed one trait that appeared to be consistent in both he and President Obama. The American public find them both religiously ambiguous to some degree. Although it could be argued that Romney faces an even steeper climb than Obama, it can't be denied that the nation's current President has had his share of public relations drama regarding religiousity. How much does the public image that the majority holds of a religion play into their political decision making? The issue becomes much more complex when one considers the disparities that exist between individuals in terms of their relationship to a specific theology. I found this Washington's post article interesting, particularly when they compared comfortability of American public opinion between candidates on the horizontal scale just before the fifth paragraph,

Obama-Romney faith comparison

As the Washington-post article points out, religion and relgiousity do matter. Most Americans are religious, and regardless of if they intend to let religion affect their political decisions or not, the fact that they are conscious of the differences in personal religious affiliations will most likely hold some significance. 

I am interested to see how Obama and the re-vamped Obama campaign 2012 will deal with Romney if he does in fact become the Republican candidate. Will Obama make religion a focal point in his race against Romney? I think it will be interesting to see. What does it mean for America to elect a Mormon president? But at the same time, what does it mean if Americans elect a President who once promised to bring change and progress to Washington will accept a campaign as tired  as the one that nods at religious intolerance as a way to win the race.

Post 1:Faith in America speech

Is it fair to be questioned about the basis of one’s religious beliefs when running for political office?  The spotlight has been regularly cast on the 70th Governor of Massachusetts and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for his connection to the Mormon Church. Romney’s stance has remained consistent throughout his campaign; he has always maintained that he separates his political ideologies from his religious beliefs, and asserts that we need to have religious tolerance in politics. But don’t the creeds that are instilled in individuals through religion have some impact on the way in which they would care for an entire nation? The lines between church and state are blurred in this way. If we examine Romney’s speech on faith in America it becomes clear that his conceptualization of religious tolerance is contained within the framework of Christ-based theologies. If you fast forward to 1:25 you will hear Romney proclaim that if he were elected president he would serve all people of the nation regardless of the religious schools of thought to which they belong:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4nULh2gUxk 

If you then fast forward to 2:51 you will hear Romney discuss his beliefs on Jesus Christ, in doing so he assumed that those who were listening were followers of Christ-based religions. This alienates those believes of non-Christ based religions, including atheists and those who consider themselves to be spiritual rather than religious. I felt it was an extreme contradiction to his first point of universal tolerance when dealing with religion in politics.