The Hypocritical Mitt Romney

By all accounts, including my own, Gov. Mitt Romney’s speech on the significance of his Mormon faith in his run for the presidency was brilliant.  The governor’s immediate challenge was to convince the Evangelical caucus members about to vote in Iowa (as well as Evangelical voters across America) that the exercise of his religion as president posed no threat to them.  He came off as sincere in his faith and nonthreatening to Evangelicals.  If Romney carries the Iowa caucus, it will be because of what he did today to mobilize the religious right.  One might even project the same for his election to the presidency.

That is not to say that his speech is not troubling to others who may not be Evangelicals.  The statement, "Any believer in religious freedom, any person who has knelt in prayer to the Almighty, has a friend and ally in me," seems to cast doubt on Romney’s friendship and support of those who are not religious.  Without saying this directly, yet in so many words, Romney believes that the best Americans are religious Americans.  It’s not too much of a stretch to suggest that nonreligious Americans will be regarded as second-class citizens.  He could even be accused of declaring war on secularists (Oh how the religious right hates secularists) with, “They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America – the religion of secularism. They are wrong.”

But most troubling to me is a statement he made that sounds as hollow as most Christian churches who advertise, “Everyone is welcome here.”  Romney said, "We believe that every single human being is a child of God – we are all part of the human family. The conviction of the inherent and inalienable worth of every life is still the most revolutionary political proposition ever advanced. John Adams put it that we are 'thrown into the world all equal and alike.'

"The consequence of our common humanity is our responsibility to one another, to our fellow Americans foremost, but also to every child of God. It is an obligation which is fulfilled by Americans every day, here and across the globe, without regard to creed or race or nationality.”

What is missing from the last phrase of the last sentence is “or sexual orientation.”  When congregations advertise that “everyone is welcome here,” they mostly mean, “if you are straight.  Nonheterosexuals need not apply.”   Unfortunately, Romney’s appeal to equality and inclusiveness that he so desperately needs for himself and his personal ambitions is a one-way street.  After all, as Massachusetts governor, he actively promoted a state constitutional amendment to ban legal gay marriages, and supports a similar amending of the U.S. Constitution.  One could infer that he is actually being influenced in this belief by teachings of the Mormon Church which are decidedly anti-gay.

So the governor wishes to have his cake and eat it too.  People of good will, whether religious or not, who truly believe in the equality of ALL people, will immediately see the hypocrisy in the not so veiled plea of “freedom for me, but not for thee.”