At a recent campaign stop, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon, was told by a heckler that he was a non-Christian and that Christians should not vote for him. (You can see this @ http://blip.tv/skin/blipnew/cache/drudge/151254.html#comment_form. ) The audience was not amused by the heckler and Romney replied that in this diverse country, “We need to have a person of faith lead the country.” Of course, the crowd erupted in applause. Few persons outside of the community of reason took notice that Mr. Romney had bigotedly ruled out persons of no faith from leading the country. In other words, according to Romney, atheists need not apply for elected office.
Fast forward a couple of weeks later to a public debate between Al Sharpton and non-believer Christopher Hitchens on the topic of religion where, according to Newsday, Rev. Sharpton said, "As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways, so don't worry about that; that's a temporary situation." The most sensible understanding of this quote is that Mormons don't "really" believe in God; why this would refer to Mr. Hitchens, who makes no bones about his unbelief, is hard to understand. Of course, Romney's campaign took exception to this "insult".
To Romney and Sharpton: both should just shut up, and to the American public; is it any wonder why non-believers are finally speaking up?
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