Mitt Romney doesn’t want to be discriminated against on the basis of his personal beliefs. He wants it so bad that he decided to badmouth all people who don’t give homage to invisible supernatural sentient beings [1]:
As expected, [Romney’s] speech itself was a delicate tightrope walk. He evoked the patriotism of the Founding Fathers, and the clear message of John F. Kennedy in 1960, when Kennedy rejected the idea of a religious test for the White House. Romney pandered to the Republican Party’s evangelical base, which wants more Nativity scenes and public references to God. And he alienated, to some extent, a vast portion of secular city dwellers by asserting that “freedom requires religion,” effectively dismissing the worldviews of those who do not source their meaning — or their morality — to a higher celestial power.
Here’s the precise quote from Romney: [2]
Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.
How those deist founding fathers [3] ever managed to establish this country without believing in angels or believing that Jesus preached in Central America shortly after his resurrection [4] is one hell of a mystery, indeed. It’s ironic that so many of our country’s founders, many of whom rejected organized religion, must therefore be burning in hell despite risking their lives so that people like Romney could insult them as part of his own alleged exercise of freedom of religion.
At least Romney’s attempt to disenfranchise non-believers wasn’t quite as harsh as the words of George H.W. Bush (in 1987): [5]
- RS:
- “Surely you recognize the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are atheists?”
- GB:
- “No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.”
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