The Gum Tree for 2007 October 4

Reading this morning Robert Novak's column about the great challenge that Mitt Romney's religion poses, I was struck by this quote:

Mormonism is the only minority category where bias in America has deepened.

Reading this article, I am reminded of the street preachers who will undoubtably flock to Temple square this weekend to denounce a whole people as children of the evil one, as well as otherwise intelligent colleagues of mine who because of my rejection of the "catholic" creeds of christianity, refuse to acknowledge my personal christian faith. Even after being characatured and mischaracterized I try in a spirit good-will to explain deeply held beliefs which intimately guide my life, and as a reward: rank prejudice and rejection of everything I have said because somehow "we know more about your deeply held religious beliefs and your standing with Jesus Christ than you." I hope someday those biased Americans (as well as the Islamic radicals who have frozen the middle east in the middle ages) will try understanding rather than attacking others based on slight differences in matters of faith. But, as I have stated in my last post, one thing all people of faith can (and should) unite against is the spirit of cultural libertarianism mixed with the subjugation of individual political will. I am much more worried about ubiquitous pornography's effect on my children than on the suppression of my childrens right to pray in public or the imposition of OBL's brand of Sharia law. I only wish the Religious Right would see it that way, nevertheless hope may be on the horizon.