Hat tip National Review
Now that it is becoming clear that Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee, the hired guns at MSNBC are focusing their attacks on him. Unfortunately, they have already sunk to this level. Last night, MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell ripped into Romney's religion, Mormonism.
In 2007, O'Donnell was also attacking Mormonism and implying that Romney was a racist for following the tenets of his faith.
(For the record, Romney has publicly stated that he welcomed the announcement that the Mormon church was changing its policy regarding blacks.)
I hardly know what to say about O'Donnell's comments last night, and had not been aware of his previous comments about Mormonism. As a nominal Protestant Christian, I have formed my own evaluations of various religions over the years. I have lived in a Buddhist country (Thailand), am married to a Catholic, and only recently learned that the Presbyterian church at the highest levels was on a world-wide movement against the state of Israel. Like most, I have my private attitudes about religion including Mormonism. I am also somewhat familiar with the story of Joseph Smith's life.
Having said that, what O'Donnell has done on both occasions is despicable. We don't have to agree with any religion. We don't have to regard that religion's prophet as a great or even good man. Most religions have episodes in their history that are hard to defend including mine. Yet, we don't go around insulting someone's faith. We have millions of Mormons in this country, and most all of them are fine, upstanding people. That is what counts.
Of course, this leads to the obvious fact that there is a ton of religious strife going around these days, isn't there? Anti-Semitism is back in fashion, but it has little to do with the tenets of Judaism. And of course, Islam has come in for its share of criticism, has it not? Since I write often on this topic, I know I have to walk a thin line. For example, O'Donnell would never talk about the Prophet Mohammed the way he did last night about Joseph Smith. Nor do I. I know all the talk, but I choose not to indulge in it because Mohammed is the prophet of decent Muslims as well as well as those Muslims that I do dare to criticize. What I feel comfortable in saying is that Mohammed, in his later (Medina) years, spread Islam through war. That is incontrovertible. I am also quite comfortable in blasting away at jihadists, terrorists, terrorist supporters, those that consider non-Muslims as infidels and worthy of being killed, hate-mongers, and those that want to impose Islam and sharia on the rest of the world. I consider that as the most important issue of our time. But to insult Muslims for their religion? No.
O'Donnell, like so many liberals, has bought into the philosophy that it's OK to slam certain groups of people but not others. That is the intellectual rot of liberalism and political correctness. But more so, he has brought this campaign down to a new low. One could point out that President Obama came out of a church in Chicago led by a vile, hateful pastor who cried, "God damn America" in a sermon. In fact, it was an issue in 2008. However, to condemn Jeremiah Wright for his hateful rhetoric is not to damn Christianity as a religion and demean Christians.
Lawrence O'Donnell should make a public apology to Mormons.
