Happy New Year.
According to the Chinese this is the year of the rat. They are right. This year begins with the news being dominated by the quest for many to become President of the United States. It has become a battle by two political factions for control of the 2 Trillion dollars that flow into Washington, D.C. every year. In the open weeks of this year the two factions will both select their candidate to face off against the opposition. Unless you live in Iowa, New Hampshire or a state with a large population you will probably never see any of them in person and chances are by the time the candidates make it to your state their will be only two or three left. I make no apologies for voting for Republican candidates since 1988. But this year may find me in awkward dilemma. Would I vote for Mitt Romney for president if he was the republican nomination for president?
I have to asked myself the simple question, is his religion the reason I can not vote for him, or is there more? The answer is yes.
If he is a faithful and believing member in good standing in his church, I can not vote for him. It is not the theology of his church, although it is built on a false foundation. It is that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints is a dishonest organization claiming to be Christian, when it is anti-Christian, by the admission of its founder, Joseph Smith, jr. who said God told him that all religions were wrong including every form of Christianity that was present in the 1820’s. Every believing and faithful member is either a partner in the deception or are blinded by it. Either way I can not voluntarily elect anyone that is participating in the deception or is blinded by it. I will not put someone in authority over me that is either deceiving others or is blinded by religion-a rigid set of beliefs and practices.
My world view is based on careful study, meditation, and prayer from the Holy bible. Its directions on answers to life’s hard questions form the core of my beliefs and practices. The pinnacle is following the command to Love God and to love one another. Commands given by the Messiah-Jesus Christ, who is the author and finisher of my faith. He is also the foundation of my faith. Religion is not my foundation. The Bible teaches that men are to be submissive to their human authorities; Jesus, Paul, and Peter all teach this.
If by living in the republic of the United States of America, I have the solemn duty to chose my leader, why would I place someone opposed to my fundamental beliefs as my leader. That would be unwise. The premise for any Mormon’s belief is that traditional Christianity is corrupt and under the dominion of Satan. I categorically reject that premise from the words of Jesus found in Matthew chapter 16. The gates of hell will not prevail over it. But my defense of quoting the bible as my authority is my real contention with the LDS church. I hold the bible to be exactly what it claims to be the words of God revealed to God’s servants.
The LDS do not believe the bible to be the word of God, one of their chief beliefs given by their founding false prophet in the eighth article of faith in their religion’s creed is that the bible is the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. That disclaimer is a giant scar that nullifies any portion of the bible that contradict any modern “revelation” received by the self-proclaimed false prophets of the church or any other fabled written records they claim to have “discovered”. This rejection of the bible disqualify any Mormon from their claim to be a Christian.
A side note: If LDS really believe that Bible is not translated correctly, then why have their 15 prophet, seers, and revelators not made translating it correctly their highest priority? Surely after almost 200 years they would have receive revelation from God to “correct” atleast one of those errors and publish new bibles with that correction. In other words, why do these “seers” not translate the bible for the world. Either they do not what to share the truth with others, or they do not have the ability to divine “what is truth”. Which ever it is, why follow such men?
That one belief in distorting and rejecting the bible alone is enough to keep me from voting for Mitt Romney for President regardless of any of his other political or philosophical positions on any other issue. Many of his positions on core values are dynamic and progressive. I would expect that from any Mormon who is taught by his church that all truth is relative to time and is progressive and may or may not apply at this time, it depends. His position of choosing to be LDS trumps the rest of his positions.
That being said, there are other reasons that Mitt Romney is not my candidate. He is from Massachusetts. Anyone that is elected to a statewide office in that state must hold positions on core values that oppose what the bible teaches on those issues: abortion, gays, marriage, to name a few. He also is the poster child for the “large business” wing of the republican party. He was the head of the Olympic organizing committee. As far as I know, the only purpose of that committee is to get “large corporations” to finance the Olympics, because by themselves the Olympics do not have enough money to sustain itself. I suppose as President he would do the same the thing, try and get the largest business in America, the taxpayer, to finance government which can not sustain itself either. He represents the part of the republican party I least connect with.
I favor John McCain as my first choice as a republican. He stood up in an attempt to get “large money” out of politics. Although He did not completely succeed. Elections are now financed by known political activist groups. Everyone knows what moveon.org and other organizations are and what they stand for. They have been exposed. They money continues to flow, but everyone can now see where it comes from. I hold the resolution of the Iraq war as the highest priority of the next president, and I see McCain as the only candidate that would honor the returning soldiers regardless of the outcome of the war. Whether it be a victory or a defeat. He would not repeat the greatest error of the Vietnam War, in the mistreatment of thousands of military servicemen after their return home. The senator from Arizona would work to defend the honor of the warriors America sent to fight against our enemies. Soldiers that put their lives at risk for their nation. Whether or not you agree with the war, they are overseas and away from home. And the way America treats them in their return displays if what they risked their lives for was really worth defending. I know that John McCain understands how important it is to honor the returning American Soldier regardless of the outcome of the battle they fought. I still believe that America can achieve victory in establishing a more free Iraq with a relatively secure lifestyle. To defeat the Nazi’s, America suffered the most casualties in the closing year of the war.
Well, Happy New Year, America: may peace, joy, and hope fill our hearts-all supplied by God.
