Playing the 'religion' card......

It finally happened. It was inevitable. As many feared, one of our religious fanatics has finally come out with the words needed to undermine Mitt Romney who is accused of being a cult member because he is a practicing Mormon. Everyone was aware of Mitt's convictions, but nobody with anything to lose would discuss them. Finally, a supporter of Rick Perry, Robert Jeffress  publicized Romney's Mormonism claiming the confession is a non-Christian cult. Jeffress is the pastor of a First Baptist church in Dallas, Texas. He was actively anti-Romney during the last elections in which Romney also sought nomination for the presidency. You should be aware that the Dallas and Fort Worth area is a hotbed of conservatism and the home of several wealthy and diehard Republicans.

The accusation by Jeffress occurred following a campaign speech by Rick Perry in Dallas. Perry has since distanced himself from the remarks, but the damage is done. I cannot say that Rick conspired with Jeffress to make the statement, but Rick certainly knew of Jeffress' anti-Mormon track record and apparently had no problem with being introduced by Jeffress prior to his campaign speech.

Romney is clean as a whistle as far as I can tell making it difficult to attack him on personal grounds. His so called waffling on various issues does not really hit the mark when opponents bring up the subject. What does hit home is Romney's Mormonism. Historically, Mormons were not accepted by Christians and were chased out of many locations on the trek to Utah. The big problem is they augmented the Christian Bible with the Book of Mormon. The latter contains a multitude of deviations from the Christian Bible that most Americans find difficult to swallow if not outright offensive. As a nation composed largely of Christians, any contender for public office in the USA who does not  fit into this category is at risk.

My take is that the biggest damage that can be done to Romney is to expose his Mormonism and to make the argument that he is not a Christian. This is debatable, however, as Mormons, including Romney, claim they are Christians. Herman Cain entered the fray as a voice of reason asking 'what does all this have to do with fixing our economy'. Other contenders similarly distanced themselves without getting into the theological debate.

The bottom line is the USA is far from a religiously tolerant nation. First and foremost, it is a Christian nation that suffers sects and other world religions provided they do not challenge our Christianity. The American Jews wisely avoided this issue. For some reason, belief systems like Hinduism and Buddhism are non-threatening. Islam, however, is increasingly threatening what with large-scale migration from places like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria into the US. Moreover, the growth of the Black Muslim movement here has domesticated Islam in the sense that it is now home-grown. Every other black athlete, it would appear, bears a Muslim name on his or her jersey. This movement will soon overtake any issues concerning Mormons and will seriously test our official claim to freedom of religion.

Islamaphobia is growing. Witness the claims that Obama is a Muslim as evidenced by his middle name and his father's religion. Some Muslims claim that if a persons father is a Muslim, then the offspring are also Muslim. Following this logic, the recently departed CEO of Apple Inc. Steve Jobs, is also a Muslim given his Syrian and Muslim father.

Nor should we forget that some white Americans also grow up in Muslim families or convert to Islam later in life, although the percentage of white Muslims is low. Of the 7 million Muslims in the US today, about 33% are of Arab descent and 30% are African-Americans. Islamic sect members, such as the Sufi, Dervish and Ishmalis, are better tolerated in the US than in their home countries. Moreover, Sunni and Shia divisions have far less importance here than in the Middle East.