When I moved to the United States, I never knew I shouldn't call myself a Christian. I was told that I'm not a Christian. Instead, I'm a Catholic. Then, I realized that each American Christian domination calls itself a different name. There are Catholics, Baptists, Southern Baptists, Episcopalians, Mormons, etc... The list is very long. It gets even worse when some people try to preach Catholicism to me because I was born in the Middle East. In their opinion, it means I'm not Catholic enough.
This is so wrong. It's even more wrong when it's used in politics. Here's the latest:
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Leaders for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Rev. Al Sharpton are planning an in-person meeting, a church spokesman said.
Sharpton asked for the meeting during a telephone apology he gave to two church elders last week after he said during a debate that Mormons don't believe in God.
[...]
The Pentecostal minister and former Democratic presidential candidate's remarks were about Mitt Romney, a Mormon who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. Sharpton said that "as for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyway, so don't worry about that, that's a temporary situation."
Sharpton says the remark was distorted for political purposes and has apologized to "regular Mormons" for the slight. He later told a web site editors that he "wasn't saying that Mormons didn't believe in God, I was saying that we weren't going to have to rely on atheists" to defeat Romney.
My late father-in-law was a Mormon. So, I find Sharpton's remarks very wrong. I met Mormons during the last six years and none of them strikes me as "Godless person."
What's Sharpton's definition of a good Mormon? And what makes him think that Romney isn't a good Mormon? Sharpton isn't a Mormon. How can he decide who is or isn't a good Mormon?
Then, what does Sharpton mean by "we weren't going to have to rely on atheists."? Does that mean all Democrats are atheists? If no, then does that mean Barak Obama - my favorite candidate for the 2008 presidency - is a better candidate than the other Democrat candidates just because he's not afraid to talk about his faith during his campaign? I don't think so.
It's time to clear the clouded religious air in America. At times, it goes overboard for no good reason.
