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Don’t get me wrong because for the most part I think Mike Huckabee is probably one of the more genuine candidates over on the Republican side of the election. His sense of humor is realistically enough suited to him when it comes to the non stop religious questions thrown at him. Being a Republican candidate for President you pretty much need to be wearing your religion on your sleeve and if you are not then you better be explaining yourself. Which brings me to the thought process of why Mike Huckabee is not giving a JFK speech like Mitt Romney did just a few days ago? After all, Mitt is only a Mormon faith member, he was never a religious leader of his flock like Mike Huckabee was.

Is Mike Huckabee not concerned about all the people of the Jewish faith that just might also be a Republican. How about all them Catholic Republican’s like Bill O‘Reilly? Skip the Catholic’s, we gave up on Bill O’Reilly when he signed his pact with the devil but don’t tell anyone. Everyone knows that being a Catholic and a Republican too is like taking scuba diving lessons by jumping out of a plane at ten thousand feet, those two things just do not go together.

Is it possible for a preacher to go from the religious pulpit to the Presidential podium? Granted Huckabee was Governor of Arkansas but that is in the midst of the bible belt and in those states having the right religion can be the gold card of politics.

Over at MotherJones.com they have this very interesting read on just this subject…

Huckabee Hides His Full Gospel? Washington Dispatch: Is Mike Huckabee the presidential candidate shunning Mike Huckabee the preacher? Before entering politics, he was a pastor at two Baptist churches. Now his campaign tells Mother Jones it won’t make his sermons available to the media and the public.By David Corn and Jonathan Stein
December 10, 2007
Now that he has his moment in the political spotlight, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee does not want his days at the pulpit to be scrutinized.

As Huckabee has surged to the front of the Republican pack in Iowa, his religious views have drawn media and voter attention. After all, Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor, has been campaigning as a “Christian leader.” But he has vacillated on how far to interject faith into politics. At an early debate, he indicated he does not believe in evolution, but at a more recent debate, when he was asked by Wolf Blitzer if the creation of the Earth occurred six thousand years ago and only took six days, as stated in the Old Testament, Huckabee said, “I don’t know. I wasn’t there.” During a question-and-answer session with students at fundamentalist Liberty University last month, he asserted that his rise in the polls has an explanation that is “beyond human” and is due to the power of his supporters’ prayers. Afterward, he backtracked slightly, adding, “I’m saying that when people pray, things happen…. I’m not saying that God wants me to be elected.” (At a victory rally held after Huckabee won a 1993 special election for lieutenant governor, Huckabee told his supporters that he had only won because God had intervened, according to the Texarkana Gazette.) - MotherJones.com

It perplexes me why the topic of religion is so heavily debated among the Republican’s in the race for the Presidency and it never ends. Fractures in the political party of the current President are rampant from state to state and it will not end until the last vote is cast. If the thinking behind the votes cast is solely based on a candidates religious belief then the voters do not see what politics is really all about. Being President is not about what God you believe in or how many times you attend services. It’s about making decisions for the greater good of all of our people. Current President exception. There are decisions to be made that frankly, yes religion and your personal faith can and will have a bearing on but there is also the fact that as President you have to defend the Constitution of the United States of America to the best of your abilities over any other vow you have ever taken in your life. There is no exception written into the oath that you must take once elected President of this nation. Again, current President exception.

Thou shall not kill, one of the biggies of the ten commandments is pretty relevant if you are the Commander in Chief of our nations military. Can the preacher break this commandment by using military force where many lives could be lost as President of our country to defend our people? If not, then how does he defend our nation and prove that America is not to be messed with by all the little dictators that think they are the next toughest kid on the block? Could he direct the CIA to find and kill terrorist leaders around the world that are intent on the ultimate destruction of America? Could Huckabee put the bible down to make these kind of decisions and live with it or not?

There is a large difference between a Sunday sermon and the highest political office in the land. Sermons are easy enough, running a nation is not about words and phrases that can roll off the tongue. It’s about actions that President’s have to take and in some instances it runs counter to whatever religion you have under your belt. Once more the current President exception.

Papamoka

Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk

Mitt Romney is going to give a speech at former President George H. W. Bush Library in Texas to defend, define, explain or totally confuse the Christian right wing of his Republican Party.

In the words of former Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas…”You Sir are no Jack Kennedy”.

Let me first say that if someone in America thinks your personal religious practice and belief is a reason not to vote for you then you don’t want their vote. Religious faith is what most American’s have on Sunday when they put on the very best clothes that they have and attend whatever service they practice. You smile nice to the widows and widowers and of course pat the young children on the head that look so angelic in their Sunday best. All is well in the world and God is pleased.

Come Monday morning they revert back to being the jerk boss that eyes the nineteen year old receptionist with thoughts of lust, or the cranky garage mechanic owner that will overcharge you for labor and parts that never existed. God forbid they recognize one another in the liquor store or choose not to look one another in the eye. Come Monday the services are ended and it all becomes business as usual where everyone is trying to screw everyone else.

Mitt Romney explaining his religious belief as a Mormon is a bad decision and this one will cost him New Hampshire and Iowa. Why that is what will happen is simple, none of the other candidates are explaining their religion. They do not have to and neither should Mitt. The guy was elected in the bluest of the blue states of Massachusetts as Governor because he simply had the right message at the right time. Put another way, if there were a war in Massachusetts with Republican’s fighting Democrat’s, there would be three hundred Democrat troops and one Republican. Overwhelming odd’s and yet Mitt was elected Governor. Religion had no realistic play in the voters minds. Mike Huckabee is posting advertisements with bold print “Christian Leader”? He obviously is not running from his faith!

President Kennedy needed to defend and explain his religious stance if elected because of the direct link to a religious leader in the Vatican called the Pope. In the Catholic faith you can be excommunicated for failing to follow the Pope’s decree. American voters at that time were concerned about a President possibly bound by an outside influence from a foreign land and rightfully so. That was a risk for him personally and it was something that Kennedy was willing to face to serve our people if that was what the Pope ordered on any decision he made as President of our nation. Kennedy put his faith to the side but did not give it up entirely as he simply understood the Presidency of the United States of America was not about him or his faith as an individual but it was entirely about the greater good of the nation.

That is a huge difference when compared to what Mitt Romney is going to offer and he isn’t giving this speech to defend his personal faith. He’s doing it for votes from a base that he really does not want. That is the reality of what his speech will be about and the Christian Conservative Right will see right through it.

President Kennedy was almost fifty years ago in expressing his religious belief and the concerns of the separation of church and state issue. We as a people have a much larger tolerance for religion, race and sex of our political candidates these days and Mitt Romney just does not get that. Maybe all the trips out of the state he was supposed to be Governing didn’t have a chance to let reality reach him.

Here in New England some folks call us prudes when it comes to our religion or belief in God. Screw them! If someone questioned your faith no matter where you live, how many seconds would be on that time watch before you slugged the SOB? Big Mistake Mitt… HUGE!

American’s do not elect people based on where you go to church, we elect people to the highest office on what your ideas are to make our nation better.

I’m jumping in the shower. I just realized I’m offering advice to a Republican candidate for President. I feel dirty for some odd reason.

Papamoka

Feel free to link to this post…

Cross posted to Papamoka Straight Talk, Michael Linn Jones

Prominent Jesuit Is Target of New Federal Charges

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and SUSAN SAULNY
Published: November 3, 2007

A prominent Jesuit priest accused of sexually victimizing teenage boys who were his valets as he traveled the world leading Roman Catholic spiritual retreats was taken into federal custody yesterday in Chicago.

The priest, the Rev. Donald J. McGuire, was charged by the federal authorities with traveling to Switzerland and Austria to engage in sexual conduct with a minor. Father McGuire was convicted last year of sexually abusing two high school students on trips to Wisconsin.

(Snip)

Victims’ lawyers released documents this week that showed that as far back as 1969 parents had contacted Jesuit officials to report that Father McGuire was behaving in sexually incorrect ways with their sons.

The order also received complaint letters from parents in 1993, 1994, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003.

In that time, Father McGuire traveled alone with teenagers as young as 13, usually sharing a room and often a bed, according to the affidavit unsealed yesterday.

The actions continued despite orders from his Jesuit superiors in the Chicago Province in 1991 instructing Father McGuire not to travel on overnight trips “with any boy or girl under the age of 18 and, preferably, even under the age of 21.”

(Snip) My words and not the Times… So the Catholic Church leaders knew the creep was a problem but still let him loose on the parish children? I’m guessing the Jesuit superiors are hoping to cover their sorry asses with a strongly worded letter rather than calling 911?

Sometimes after the abuse, he would perform the rite of absolution. One of the reported victims said the first time Father McGuire molested him was at confession, when he was 9. The parents had considered it an honor when the prominent priest mentored their sons.

The boy who reportedly traveled with Father McGuire to Switzerland and Austria roomed with him in a Jesuit residence in Evanston, Ill., in 1999, starting at age 13, and stayed until 2003.

That was one year after the Catholic bishops of the United States declared that all priests credibly accused of abuse should be removed from ministry service. - New York Times

The right of Absolution? For the child? Yet another sick minded SOB priest that raped young boys.

What the hell is the deal with my Catholic Church? Who in their right mind would allow a “Known” sex offender against children to still have contact with children? Direct report senior officials in the church should be tried right next to this SOB and given the same damn sentence. This is a crime against humanity in the most disgusting form and it angers me so much that it has rocked my faith in the church to the point of wanting to leave it.

Yes, I mean leave the church that has shown me the world of Jesus Christ and that we all are our brothers keeper. How can I go to my church and look any priest in the face without thinking if this man of God is also a pedophile in disguise? What is going through his mind as my children are taking the body of Christ? I can not rely on or trust the Bishop’s or the Cardinal’s to clean up their act and cast out the sex offenders any more than I could trust a known serial killer not to kill… again!

What I see as a serious problem with the brotherhood that is the priesthood of the Catholic Church is that they take care of their own no matter what wrongs they have committed. In their minds, it seems better to hide a known criminal amongst themselves than report the criminal to the authorities. After all they are all looking out for the greater good of the Catholic Church. With the criminal priest on the lamb for one or more sexual crimes against children they have knowingly farmed them out to other dioceses to start all over again for decades. Who the hell do these people think they are? Wearing that collar does not absolve you from being a sinner at any level of the church and if you knowingly hide someone that has sexually abused children then you are just as guilty.

If the United States government or for that matter states and local law enforcement looked at the Catholic Church as just another corporation then they would have seized all the records of the Bishop’s (Vice President’s) and Cardinal’s (CEO’s) within the church and shut this sexual predator pedophilia syndicate down years ago.

I’m disgusted as a practicing Catholic. If my church does not see this as a long running problem then I can not participate in this church in the same ways as I have in the past. If I can see it in the press then so can the Pope. If he looks the other way still, then somebody needs to call Saint Peter and tell him about the going out of business sale.

My suggestions to parents thinking that their child may have been sexually abused by anyone in any church. Call the police first and then call your District Attorney General’s office. Then call a lawyer. Insist on an arrest no matter who the accused is.

Calling the church or the abusers boss in circumstances of sexual abuse against your child is like swatting at the rain. The drops are still going to come down and get your feet wet.

Papamoka

Cross Posted at Papamoka Straight Talk