Welp! Looks like we aren’t the only people who have to avoid talking about politics when Grandma comes to visit the kids every year lest we subject ourselves to some sort of KIDS THESE DAYS lecture about modern politics.
Brad Pitt is currently suffering silently in humiliation after his mother penned an open letter to her local newspaper in Missouri. Her letter, generally speaking, is a call for Christians to vote for Mitt Romney despite the fact that he’s…ahem….Mormon. Jane Pitt, Brad’s momma-dukes, wrote it in response to another open letter that had been sent in to the paper by another local named Richard Stoecker.
Dick Stoecker. Heheh.
AnyHOO, Mr. Stoecker’s letter warned his fellow compatriots of the potential dangers of having a Mormon in the “nation’s highest office.” Those things included misogyny and the worshipping of more than one god. (EEP!) It was called Vote for Mormon against beliefs, and I’m not sure anyone even knows what that means, grammatically speaking.
Christians who want a government that reflects their values believe that God guides and protects their country. Not a few Christians believe that, just as Romney and his supporters are offended by complaints about Romney’s Mormonism, Christians are offended, and believe God could be offended, by the teachings of Mormonism. Do they have a right to express their view without being immediately shouted down and denounced as bigots, by both the Christian and secular media? GOP leaders who ignore such dissenters risk losing the election.
But the conscience of many Christians will not allow them to vote for a Mormon. Like me, their vote will be for none of the above, or as Romney protester the Rev. Bill Keller has suggested, they might write in the name of Jesus on their ballots.
Whether Christians opposed to Romney are denounced as bigots or not, I hope that in America their freedom to follow their conscience can still be respected. And I hope that wealthy and powerful GOP leaders who feel Romney will guarantee their victory will come to see that he likely will guarantee defeat.
The paper in which this OpEd piece was run, News-Leader.com of Springfield Missouri, printed Stoecker’s letter in June, and most of the comments dissented with Stoecker’s sentiments. Jane Pitt, mother of Brad, apparently also disagreed, but it was less religion-is-irrelevant-as-long-as-they-defend-the-Constitution and more but-we-can’t-let-Obama-win-again-or-the-gays-and-zombie-babies-will-take-over!
An excerpt from Jane’s letter, titled Election-casting ballot deserves prayerful consideration:
I have given much thought to Richard Stoecker’s letter (“Vote for Mormon against beliefs,” June 15). I am also a Christian and differ with the Mormon religion.
But I think any Christian should spend much time in prayer before refusing to vote for a family man with high morals, business experience, who is against abortion, and shares Christian conviction concerning homosexuality just because he is a Mormon.
Any Christian who does not vote or writes in a name is casting a vote for Romney’s opponent, Barack Hussein Obama — a man who sat in Jeremiah Wright’s church for years, did not hold a public ceremony to mark the National Day of Prayer, and is a liberal who supports the killing of unborn babies and same-sex marriage.
SAD TROMBONE.
Listen, as much as it may seem like I’m mocking religious beliefs, I hope my dear readers can see that I’m just mocking everyone equally. But mostly I’m just mocking these people because they are directly connected to Brad Pitt, who has been very vocal about his support for same-sex marriage and women’s rights, and OMG ISN’T THIS AWKWARD?!
I bet he’s getting all squirmy. Do you think Angelina will give her mother-in-law the cold shoulder during their next wedding-planning meeting? Oh, to be a fly on the wall!
About Kristine Cook
