Romney now basing his presidential decision-making on his religion, but don't you dare ask him about his religion - AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth

Romney now basing his presidential decision-making on his religion, but don't you dare ask him about his religion - AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth:

"So which one is it? Is Mitt Romney's Mormon religion off limits for everybody
but Mitt Romney? It's okay for him to give a religious reason for policy
decisions, but not okay for anyone else to inquire more about Romney's religion.
What other policy decisions is Mitt Romney going to make based on the Mormon
religion? Romney, like so many folks on the religious right (even though Romney
isn't really religious right, he's a far-left liberal who's only now pretending
to be a right-winger) firmly believe that their religion should be the basis of
every political decision they make, but when you ask just what their religion is
all about, they get all offended, when they're the ones who made their religion
an issue to start with.

And let's not ignore what's really going on
here. Romney is worried that the religious right, and a lot of Americans, won't
vote for him because he's a Mormon. So he's now quoting the Bible to show that
he's really one of us. The real reason most Americans won't vote for Romney is
because he's a lying hypocrite whose views on everything from guns, to gays, to
the environment, to abortion change every two years based on the political
winds."

I think that there is some subtle language in understanding my point here. It is one thing to look at a religion and say that you disagree with this or that aspect of it. It is clearly another to talk about that religion and those who are followers of it as if they are lower than your religion.

I think that the religion of a candidate has a role in understanding what kind of person they are and in turn what kind of leader they are. I think that if done respectfully, which there is no reason it can't be - there is room to talk about religion and its effects on politics.

The problem comes when you move from a discussion to slander, when you write someone off based on their religion alone. When you demean someone not for who they are, or the ideas that they hold but because of the ideas that you disagree with in their religion. There is a shocking truth that some people can follow a religion and admit that it has and does make mistakes, some may disagree with ideas held by their faith but still have faith.