Romney Watch: Mormonism v. Americanism as Religious Persuasion

[philly_bob]

Those who focus on Mitt Romney as a Mormon may be misled. Romney is not a polygamous hard-core Utah Mormon. In the following piece, a commentator says that Romney's religion is more correctly described as Americanism:

"From where I sit, it looks like Romney's 'own' faith is faith in America. Americans needn't worry about Romney's Mormonism because, at the end of the day, the faith that trumps all others is 'Americanism.'

"Don't get me wrong: this religion has a long and illustrious history (documented in David Gelertner's recent book, AMERICANISM: THE FOURTH GREAT WESTERN RELIGION). It is a noble faith that feeds off the blood of its martyrs - in particular 'the greatest generation' to which Romney first appeals -- who made the greatest sacrifice for the sake of the religion's highest value: freedom (understood, I should note, in largely negative terms as freedom of choice). Indeed, 'freedom' and 'liberty' are the mantras of this faith, and Romney's speech invokes these shibboleths no less than thirty times (God or 'the Creator' or 'divine author' comes in at a close second with 21 references). And Romney doesn't fail to allude to the great artifacts of this religion. Americanism has its own sacred documents (the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution), its own saints (the Founding Fathers), and has even birthed its own cathedrals and grottos (just stroll the National Mall).

The article is at: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/blog/2007/12/james-ka-smith-the-god-of-amer.html

For those who want to look up Gelertner, first look at his Wikipedia biography, which notes that he was a Unabomber casualty, a fellow at conservative American Enterprise Institute, and a neocon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gelernter. Here's his Americanism book: http://www.amazon.com/Americanism-Fourth-Great-Western-Religion/dp/0385513127. I'm buying a used copy. Gelertner seems to be an adherent of religious Americanism, not an objective analyst.

[Hestia]

1. No wonder the teabaggers go ape-shit crazy when they hear facts. You are dissing their religion.

[elocs]

2. So he's Mormon Lite. That will make all the difference in world to conservative evangelicals

who believe that Mormonism is a cult that perverts Christianity and therefore is of the Devil. I'm sure they will flock to vote for him like he is the Second Coming then.