Sunday 22 January 2012

THE US REPUBLICAN RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE 2012 - The faith of the candidates

The next United States presidential election will be held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. Presidential elections occur quadrennially or every four years (the count beginning with the year 1792). It is held on the first tuesday following a monday - that is, no earlier than November 2nd and no later than November 8th.

Barack Obama (from the Democratic Party) intends to run for a second term, but the eyes of America and the world is on the Republican Party campaign - to see who his challenger will be for the elections.

As of January 22nd there are four people vying to be the Republics choice for the Presidential election.: Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

The 2012 Republican National Convention, in which delegates of the Republican Party will choose the party's nominees for President of the United States and Vice President of the United States, will be held during the week of August 27, 2012, in Tampa, Florida at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. A candidate must accumulate 1,144 delegate votes to win. So far the running is:

Mitt Romney - 31
Newt Gingrich - 26
Ron Paul - 10
Rick Santorum - 8

So Mitt Romney is clearly in the lead. So what do we know about these peoples faith:

MITT ROMNEY: Mitt is a practicing Mormon. His faith is not separate from his life. His biography tells the story of a man who's father was governor and who lived his life as a mormon, even in politics. Wikipedia notes "Mitt served as a Mormon missionary in France. He received his undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University, and thereafter earned Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration joint degrees from Harvard's law and business schools. Very active in his church, he served as ward bishop and later stake president in his area. He ran as the Republican candidate in the 1994 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, losing to incumbent Ted Kennedy. Romney organized and steered the 2002 Winter Olympics as head of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, and helped turn the troubled games into a financial success. In his church life (as a Pastor) Romney tried to balance the conservative dogma insisted upon by the church leadership in Utah with the desire by some Massachusetts members to have a more flexible application of doctrine. He agreed with some modest requests from the liberal women's group Exponent II for changes in the way the church dealt with women, but clashed with women who he felt were departing too much from doctrine. In particular, he counseled women not to have abortions except in the rare cases allowed by LDS doctrine, and also in accordance with doctrine encouraged prospective mothers to give up children for adoption when a successful marriage was not present. Romney later said that the years spent as pastor gave him direct exposure to people struggling in economically difficult circumstances different from his own affluent upbringing, and empathy for those going through problematic family situations." His worth is between 20 to 100 million US dollars.

NEWT GINGRICH: According to Wikipedia "Gingrich was raised a Lutheran. In graduate school he was a Southern Baptist, and he converted to Catholicism on March 29, 2009, (the faith of his third wife Callista Bisek). He said "over the course of several years, I gradually became Catholic and then decided one day to accept the faith I had already come to embrace." The moment when he decided to officially become a Catholic was when he saw Pope Benedict XVI on his visit to the United States in 2008: "Catching a glimpse of Pope Benedict that day, I was struck by the happiness and peacefulness he exuded. The joyful and radiating presence of the Holy Father was a moment of confirmation about the many things I had been thinking and experiencing for several years."Gingrich has stated that he has developed a greater appreciation for the role of faith in public life following his conversion, and believes that the United States has become too secular. At a 2011 appearance in Columbus, Ohio, he said, "In America, religious belief is being challenged by a cultural elite trying to create a secularized America, in which God is driven out of public life." In 2007, Gingrich authored a book, Rediscovering God in America, arguing that the Founding Fathers actively intended the new republic to not only allow, but encourage, religious expression in the public square. In a 2011 interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Gingrich addressed his past infidelities by saying, "There's no question at times in my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate." In December 2011, after the group Iowans for Christian Leaders in Government requested that he sign their so-called "Marriage Vow", Gingrich sent a lengthy written response. It included his pledge to "uphold personal fidelity to my spouse"."

RON PAUL: There is not much about Ron Pauls Faith other than what he says on his website when he decided to run for President: "My faith is a deeply private issue to me, and I don’t speak on it in great detail during my speeches because I want to avoid any appearance of exploiting it for political gain. Let me be very clear here: I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, and I endeavor every day to follow Him in all I do and in every position I advocate. It is God Who gave us life. As He is free, so are those He created in His image. Our rights to life and liberty are inalienable." Ron Paul is a Christian (baptist).


RICK SANTORUM is a Catholic. The following is from WIKI - "In 2003, Santorum and fellow Republicans heard from Hillel, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Zionist Organization of America about combating anti-Semitism in American colleges. Santorum drafted language on "ideological diversity," which Race & Class magazine suggested was tantamount to "policing thought." Inside Higher Ed suggested that he was pandering to David Horowitz and had no deep-seated position on the legislation. Santorum added a provision to the 2001 No Child Left Behind bill that would have promoted the questioning of the theory of evolution in public school science classes and required the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative. The bill, with the Santorum Amendment included, passed the Senate 91-8 and was hailed as a victory by intelligent design theory promoters. In an interview with the National Catholic Reporter, Santorum said that the distinction between private religious conviction and public responsibility, espoused by President John F. Kennedy, had caused "great harm in America." All of us have heard people say, 'I privately am against abortion, homosexual marriage, stem cell research, cloning. But who am I to decide that it's not right for somebody else?' It sounds good, but it is the corruption of freedom of conscience. In his 2005 book, It Takes a Family, Santorum advocates for a more family values-oriented society centered on monogamous, heterosexual relationships, marriage, and child-raising. He says he is pro-life; yet opponents have labelled him a counterfeit conservative pointing to his votes that continued the federal funding of Planned Parenthood. He opposes same-sex marriage saying the American public and their elected officials should decide on these "incredibly important moral issues", rather than the Supreme Court, which consists of "nine unelected, unaccountable judges.”

So of the four I would choose Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich. I am anxious to see how it plays out.... and I won't let the daily show's anti republican stand bother me.

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