I\u2019m beginning to think that if Mitt weren\u2019t a Mormon, I probably wouldn\u2019t be as excited about him.<\/p>\n
Better writers than I have plumbed the depths of CNN\u2019s perfidy in their plant-ridden YouTube debate, which I thought was a disgrace from beginning to end. And I was also deeply disappointed in the performance of all the candidates. Huckabee had far and away the best showing of the night, which doesn\u2019t say a lot about the prickly Giuliani, the plastic Romney, the Manchurian McCain, and the somnambulant, drooling Thompson. (They\u2019re the only candidates that matter. Paul is a novelty; Tancredo and Hunter are wastes of space.) It\u2019s also somewhat irksome that Huckabee seems to be riding the crest of a whispering anti-Mormon campaign, which is disappointing but hardly surprising.<\/p>\n
Mitt, however, isn\u2019t doing himself any favors.<\/p>\n
The defining moment came when CNN found a Unabomber wannabe who brandished a Bible and, with a zombified glare, demanded that all the candidates swear eternal fealty to \u201cevery word\u201d in the Good Book. Even Huckabee, the self-proclaimed \u201cChristian candidate,\u201d was wise enough to point out that the Bible contains allegorical passages, citing Christ\u2019s injunction to \u201cpluck out thine eye if it offend thee\u201d as something we ought not take literally. Giuliani did the same, albeit less artfully.<\/p>\n
But all Mitt could say was \u201cI believe the Bible to be the Word of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ALfm5dA4mFw&rel=1]<\/p>\n
A nice, safe answer, yes? Yes. And it didn\u2019t hold up to scrutiny. Do you believe every word in the Bible? I believe the Bible to be the word of God. But what does that mean? It means I believe the Bible to be the word of God. Every word? Well, I believe the Bible is the Word of God and I try to live by its teachings. Great, Mitt. You also try to dodge difficult questions with stock answers.<\/p>\n
The best answer to that question comes from Brigham Young, who would have responded to Mr. Unabomber thusly:<\/p>\n
I have heard ministers of the gospel declare that they believed every word in the Bible was the word of God. I have said to them \u201cYou believe more than I do.\u201d I believe the words of God are there; I believe the words of the Devil are there; I believe that the words of men and the words of angels are there; and that is not all \u2013 I believe that the words of a dumb brute are there. I recollect one of the prophets riding, and prophesying against Israel, and the animal he rode rebuked his madness. (See Discourses of Brigham Young, edited by John A. Widtsoe, pp. 192-193) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
That wouldn\u2019t have gone over so well, though. Neither would a recitation of the LDS Church\u2019s eighth Article of Faith, which includes the line \u201cWe believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly.\u201d But a discussion of the allegorical concept that was co-opted by Giuliani and Huckabee would have gone a long way toward making Romney look less mechanical and evasive.<\/p>\n
Word has come down that Romney will soon be giving \u201cThe Speech,\u201d<\/a> wherein he addresses his Mormon faith directly and tries to assuage the fears of a wary electorate. It\u2019s a risky thing to do, but Huckabee\u2019s surge, fueled largely by antipathy to Mitt\u2019s faith, leaves Romney with no choice. He hasn\u2019t contacted me to tell me if he\u2019s going to use my speech<\/a>, but he\u2019s welcome to it at this point. I\u2019m not sure if it would do him much good.<\/p>\n
If Mitt loses Iowa, he\u2019s in serious, serious trouble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019mbeginning to think that if Mitt weren\u2019t a Mormon, I probably wouldn\u2019t be as excited about him. Better writers than I have plumbed the depths of CNN\u2019s perfidy in their plant-ridden YouTube debate, which I thought was a disgrace from beginning to end. And I was also deeply disappointed in the performance of all the ... Read more<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}