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Romney Understands America
Townhall.com ^ | May 15, 2012 | Dennis Prager

Posted on 05/15/2012 6:26:56 AM PDT by Kaslin

On Saturday, Mitt Romney delivered a speech to the 6,000 Liberty College graduates.

It was an important speech, not only because it seems to have closed the gap between Romney and evangelical Christians but also because it spelled out major themes in Mitt Romney's understanding of America.

Romney: "You know who you are. And you know whom you will serve. Not all colleges instill that kind of confidence . . . ."

This is a truism. Most American universities seek to graduate men and women who are as committed to secularism as nearly all the members of faculty are. In contrast, at traditional Christian and Jewish schools, the aim is, as Romney said, to produce students who know "whom [they] will serve."

What Romney is asking is this: If one is not morally accountable to God, to whom or what is one morally accountable? Most universities will respond: to one's conscience. But those who adhere to Judeo-Christian values do not trust the conscience alone. What Nazi or Communist mass murderer was not at peace with his conscience? The conscience is as easily manipulated as the heart (the heart being the other guide to behavior among most college graduates).

Romney: "Moral certainty, clear standards, and a commitment to spiritual ideals will set you apart in a world that searches for meaning."

The death of God has not only led to moral uncertainty; the secular left actually boasts of its moral uncertainty. Unlike the religious, who have a black and white view of moral issues (so the left tells us), those on the left struggle with moral complexity. But this is self-delusion. The left is as morally certain about its positions as the most fundamentalist Christian. Where is the left's moral uncertainty about same-sex marriage? About abolishing capital punishment? About race-based affirmative action? About higher taxes? Indeed, about anything the left believes in?

Romney: "That said, your values will not always be the object of public admiration. In fact, the more you live by your beliefs, the more you will endure the censure of the world."

Is that ever true. Those of us who adhere to Judeo-Christian values and live a religious life are mocked as fools when not dismissed as dangerous. If you believe that nature was designed by a Creator, you are regarded as an anti-science buffoon. If you get your values from the Bible, you are considered a living anachronism.

Romney: "Harvard historian David Landes devoted his lifelong study to understanding why some civilizations rise, and why others falter. His conclusion: Culture makes all the difference. Not natural resources, not geography, but what people believe and value. . . . For those who graduate from high school, get a full-time job, and marry before they have their first child, the probability that they will be poor is 2 percent. But, if those things are absent, 76 percent will be poor. Culture matters."

This is the key to understanding the underclass here and in Europe. But it is the antithesis of what is taught at American universities. They -- and the rest of the left -- teach that it is not values or culture that most determines human behavior. Violent crime is not caused by a murderer's lack of moral values, father, self-discipline, church life, or marriage, but by poverty and/or racism.

Romney: "Central to America's rise to global leadership is our Judeo-Christian tradition . . . ."

Exactly right. Every free country on earth was formed by Christianity or shaped by a Christian country that imposed it (India and Japan, for example). And the freest of them all, America, has been the most Judeo-based Christian country in the world.

Romney: "The American culture promotes personal responsibility, the dignity of work, the value of education, the merit of service, devotion to a purpose greater than self, and, at the foundation, the pre-eminence of the family."

And each one of these values has been under siege by the left. The left undermines personal responsibility by excusing the irresponsibility of all but white Christian males; undermines the dignity of work with ever-increasing entitlements; shifts "the merit of service" from individuals and communal institutions to the state; and weakens the family by strengthening people's reliance on the government, and by removing all stigma to unwed motherhood.

Romney: "From the beginning, this nation trusted in God, not man."

This is why one of the mottos of this country is "In God We Trust." This is the heart of the cultural civil war in which America is now engaged. Do human rights come from the Creator or from men?

Romney: "People of different faiths, like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology."

A very significant statement -- a major Mormon figure stating that mainstream Christians and Mormons have "different faiths." But even more important is his truly American realization that all Americans, of every faith (including Islam, one might add), and even those who have no formal religion, "can meet in common purpose." And that purpose is living by and promulgating the American value system: "Liberty," "In God We Trust," and "E Pluribus Unum."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
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1 posted on 05/15/2012 6:27:03 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
Now if Romney will just stick with that program and go after Obozo et al. like an avenging angel. He has enough verifiable ammunition to utterly destroy the administration in power and its supporters but he has a formidable enemy in Obozo's lap dog media.
2 posted on 05/15/2012 6:39:04 AM PDT by mongo141 (Revolution ver 2.0, just a matter of when, not a matter of if!)
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To: Kaslin
Romney: "You know who you are. And you know whom you will serve. Not all colleges instill that kind of confidence . . .

Add Hillsdale College to that list too.

3 posted on 05/15/2012 6:40:46 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: Kaslin
Romney Understands America

I guess that's why he homosexualized the public schools, state government, and the courts, banned guns, pushed through socialized medicine, complete with $50 co-pay taxpayer-funded abortions, and instituted homosexual faux "marriage" in violation of his state's constitution.

/s

4 posted on 05/15/2012 6:44:48 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (We're not Republicans or Democrats. We're Americans. Visit SelfGovernment.US.)
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To: Kaslin

Going to mention something to consider, before this becomes a Romney-bashing foodfight:

This morning I lurked on that DUmb site. Two observations: I’ve never seen so many angry homosexuals gathered in one single place before. Good grief, the left won everything they had hoped for in 2008, yet to this day they’re still po’ed. Liberals actually seem to want, to be unhappy.

But that’s not the most important point.

That was: one poster actually mentioned and presented in support of Obama, something they’d found against Romney ... lurking on FR. And attributed it, as such.

Loose lips time, people.

Romney’s not the problem anymore, not one single candidate is competing against Romney anymore. Except ... Obama.

Obama is the problem.


5 posted on 05/15/2012 6:44:57 AM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network (Vote for the straight guy.)
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To: Kaslin

What Romney is asking is this: If one is not morally accountable to God, to whom or what is one morally accountable?
________________________________________

Bit of mind reading going on there Dennis..

Willard never said that and you dont know that he meant that...

You just assume from your own Christian perspective that Willard meant that...

But Willard Mitt Romney is a Mormon with a entirely different mindset from Christian theology when it comes to what or who God is and what He might require of us...

Willartd drops unexplained little sayings frequently woith no frollowup or challenge...

Did anyone dare ask Willard what he meant by “From the beginning, this nation trusted in God, not man.” or did Dennis just take that as face value and contribute it to the God of the Bible ???

Did Dennis know that like Beck, Willard thinks Mormons came here 5,000 years ago from Israel ???

And look at this one “People of different faiths, like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology.”

Right there Willard is admitting he is not a Chjristian

and yet Dennis laps it up and ignores the obvious...

Couldnt Liberty University find a Christian to give that speech ???

Jerry Falwell must be rolling over in his grave...


6 posted on 05/15/2012 6:57:58 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana (Why should I vote for Bishop Romney when he hates me because I am a Christian)
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To: Kaslin

Romney: “That said, your values will not always be the object of public admiration. In fact, the more you live by your beliefs, the more you will endure the censure of the world.”
________________________________________

Romney’s family lived by their belief that only men who practiced polygamy became gods and earned their own planet and looked what happened to them ..

they had to so-called “endure the censure of the world.”

Oh noez them awful Christians...


7 posted on 05/15/2012 7:04:48 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana (Why should I vote for Bishop Romney when he hates me because I am a Christian)
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To: Tennessee Nana; Kaslin; mongo141; Don Corleone; EternalVigilance; Cringing Negativism Network
Did Dennis know that like Beck, Willard thinks Mormons came here 5,000 years ago from Israel ???
And look at this one “People of different faiths, like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology.”
Right there Willard is admitting he is not a Christian

Bibi Netanyahu is American educated, best friend of freedom in the middle east, probably the closest thing to a Margaret Thatcher-like friend America could have.

I'd rather have him as President than Obama. But for you, since he's a Jew and not a Christian, I suppose you'd prefer 4 more years of a marxist racist?

8 posted on 05/15/2012 7:05:39 AM PDT by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: Kaslin

bttt


9 posted on 05/15/2012 7:07:28 AM PDT by Matchett-PI ("Andrew loved the battle and he knew the stakes." ~ Mark Levin 3/2/12)
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To: sam_paine

Why on Earth would I think that ???

Mind read much ???

I’d love to have Bibi as president ...

Same God...


10 posted on 05/15/2012 7:08:56 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana (Why should I vote for Bishop Romney when he hates me because I am a Christian)
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To: Tennessee Nana
Why should I vote for Bishop Romney when he hates me because I am a Christian

Nobody hates you for what you say you are. I don't hate DUmmies either for what they post. You're just another Obama supporter that's all.

11 posted on 05/15/2012 7:10:04 AM PDT by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: sam_paine

WOW RomneyBot

Youre really trying this morning...

But I dont have time to play with you right now

I have work to do...

Read your primary book or something and I’ll be back later...


12 posted on 05/15/2012 7:17:45 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana (Why should I vote for Bishop Romney when he hates me because I am a Christian)
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To: sam_paine

I don’t oppose Romney politically because he’s Mormon. I oppose him because he is the most liberal governor in the history of the United States, and an obvious prevaricator.


13 posted on 05/15/2012 7:20:08 AM PDT by EternalVigilance (We're not Republicans or Democrats. We're Americans. Visit SelfGovernment.US.)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

i agree..and i am sure Obama/dnc is taking notes.


14 posted on 05/15/2012 7:20:08 AM PDT by tankrlm
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To: Kaslin; jimrob; VinL
.


Where's the "Barf Alert" for this Thread ?


"Anyone" who thinks that "Predatory Vulture Bain Capitalist" and the "Mormon Celestial-God Child from Planet Kolob" ...

cares about "anything" other than complete Averice, Power and Greed ... and Gay marriage and adoption ...

is "severely" (smile) delusional ...



And that includes Rush Limbaugh ... who must be getting sicker and sicker every day over Mittens as the "presumed" GOP nominee ...

Well, Rush ... we'll all be enjoying that fabulous "Two-If-By-Tea" stuff ... as we watch the "Romney Titanic" sail straight for the ice bergs ...

at "warp speed" ...





Jim Robinson ... "thanks" for letting us continue to post the "truth" about Mitt Romney here at Free Republic ...

Your decision will be "vidicated" completely someday ...

just wait patiently ...

and tell your critics that you're "content to let history be your judge" ...




.
15 posted on 05/15/2012 7:26:12 AM PDT by Patton@Bastogne (Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin will DEFEAT the Obama-Romney Socialist Gay-Marriage Axis of Evil)
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To: Kaslin
Most American universities seek to graduate men and women who are as committed to secularism as nearly all the members of faculty are.
Committed to secularism, committed to socialism, and committed to tearing down the sovereignty of the US and replacing it with the Tyranny of International Law.
16 posted on 05/15/2012 7:29:02 AM PDT by samtheman ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-4gnNz0vc)
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To: Tennessee Nana

Don’t bother sweetheart. You’ve pretty much emptied out all the bile I need to see.


17 posted on 05/15/2012 7:33:32 AM PDT by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: sam_paine
While those of us who have been there and done that appreciate your Quixotic quest, you will find that trying to reason with this pack of idiots is about as useful as trying to train a dog not to pee on a fire hydrant.

It can't be done, because that is the nature of a dog.

I don't even bother reading the drivel which they write anymore, much less respond to it. Like the left, they are always miserable, full of anger and full of hate. They have nothing positive to offer, so they get their jollies by sharing their hate and misery.

Long after they are mouldering in some forgotten grave, the objects of their hatred will still be thriving and doing positive things.

18 posted on 05/15/2012 7:33:45 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: tankrlm
.


The idea that Axelrod, Obama, or the DNC is "taking notes" (opposition research) from Free Republic postings ...

is completely laughable ...



There is only "one" person who knows where all of Mitten's bodies are buried ...

and that's Mittens himself.

And Axelrod-Obama-DNC "already" know where ALL of Romney's corpses are buried ...

if for no other reason ... that Juan McCain complied the list himself (in 2008) ... and the damn thing is available on the internet ...



The "bravo-sierra" that you Romney-Botts try to peddle around here is (frankly) nauseating ...

please just dump your "steekin" garbage where it belongs ...

in an eliptical orbit around Planet Kolob ...




.
19 posted on 05/15/2012 7:33:45 AM PDT by Patton@Bastogne (Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin will DEFEAT the Obama-Romney Socialist Gay-Marriage Axis of Evil)
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To: mongo141

It’s very simple. Holder and Obama are black racists, in gist of Wright preacher guy, of the Mexican genocide in fast and furious etc...

Why would we condone as GOP members of congress the conivance with genocide of Mexicans in FAst and Furious? Why would we have that in our backyard?

Why let them run with the MExican vote when they murder Mexicans?

Once again, the GOP which was for civil rights is surrendering the credit to racist retarded democrates. WHY?


20 posted on 05/15/2012 7:42:47 AM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security Whorocracy & hate:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
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