Mitt Romney is the highest-profile Mormon politician in the history of the Latter-Day Saints Church. Since I've been exploring and writing about the subject of Romney's beliefs and how they will shape him as a president, it's not at all surprising
August 23, 2012

Mitt Romney is the highest-profile Mormon politician in the history of the Latter-Day Saints Church. Since I've been exploring and writing about the subject of Romney's beliefs and how they will shape him as a president, it's not at all surprising to me that he's speaking out against separation between church and state.

Remember, a Mormon such as Romney performed his perfunctory duty by fulfilling his two-year mission work obligation. Not many people realize that the prime directive of Mormon mission work is to convert people to the LDS faith. Many of us are accustomed to Mother Teresa and the sort of mission work she did, which was to help the poor and struggling people across the world. It’s a noble act, but trying to convert someone is hardly noble. It's a recruitment tool, much like what Scientologists and Jehovah's Witnesses use to entice members into joining their flock.

Now Mitt Romney has become the quintessential Mormon Church recruiter, as influential and broad-reaching a figure the Church has ever had, outside of Joseph Smith himself (and perhaps Brigham Young).

Romney said this to the National Cathedral's magazine, Cathedral Age:

Romney said those who "seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God" aren't acting in line with the Founders' intent.

The separation of church and state is enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution, but Congress and the courts have debated the practical extent of that separation since its founding.

Romney said the Founders didn't intend for "the elimination of religion from the public square. We are a nation 'Under God, 'and in God, we do indeed trust."

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Romney, who is Mormon, didn't mention his faith by name during the nine-page interview, but acknowledged that, "I am often asked about my faith and my beliefs about Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind."

"Every religion has its own unique doctrines and history," he said, and "these should not be bases for criticism but rather a test of our tolerance."

Mitt Romney often uses this definition to make it appear that Mormons are in complete agreement with every other faith about who and what Jesus Christ does and is. But the point he will constantly hammer home over and over again is that Americans should be tolerant towards all beliefs as a way to shield his own from any scrutiny. And that's all I'm asking for.

As for the Founding Fathers, let's remember that Thomas Jefferson was not a Chrisitan, he was a Deist:

The United States of America is a country whose Constitution provides for separation of church and state. Thomas Jefferson is often painted by Christians and some uninformed news media to be a Christian.

Jefferson was a "Deist." Deist is a person that believes in God, but not in religion. In fact, Jefferson re-wrote the Bible and reduced it to a 47 page version with his showing that Jesus Christ was a great philosopher of goodness, not of God-ness.

You can probably count John Quincy Adams, Ethan Allen, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine, and George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as among the Founders who werepractitioners of Deism.

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