What Freedoms are you Grateful for?

I'm grateful for the freedom to vote for whomever I want to lead my government. I am also grateful for the ability to speak out when those leaders travel down the wrong path.

I'm grateful for the ability to practice my religious beliefs according to the dictates of my own conscience, no matter what that may be.

I'm grateful for the vast amounts of information available to me, and the freedom to input my points of view to the discussion.

I'm grateful for the freedom to assemble with those who are of like mind.

I'm grateful to live in this great country.

-Bob

Freedom and Religion

Mitt Romney, "Faith in America" Speech, December 6, 2007:

Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.

Mitt Romney, with Tim Russert, on Meet the Press, December 16, 2007 (hat tip KVNU):

MR. RUSSERT: But when you say freedom requires religion, can you be a moral person and be an atheist?

GOV. ROMNEY: Oh, oh, of course. Oh, of course.

MR. RUSSERT: And participate in freedom?

GOV. ROMNEY: Oh, of course. Yes, this…

MR. RUSSERT: So freedom doesn’t require religion?

GOV. ROMNEY: Well, this–the, the context was talking about the, the founding of the nation and the, the sense in this case of John Adams describing the fact that our constitutional form of government and this American experiment required morality, which in turn required religion. And, and yet, of course, on an individual basis, you have many individuals of great morality and–that, that don’t have any particular faith.

MR. RUSSERT: So if you determined that the most qualified person for the Supreme Court or for attorney general or secretary of education happened to be an atheist or an agnostic, that wouldn’t prevent you from appointing them?

GOV. ROMNEY: Of course not. You, you, you look at individuals based upon their skills and their ability, their values, their intelligence. And there are many who are agnostic or atheist or who have very different beliefs about the nature of the divine than I do, and, and you evaluate them based on their skills. But I, I can tell you that I, I myself am a person of faith and, and respect the, the sense of the common bond of humanity that comes from that, that fundamental belief.

MR. RUSSERT: But there’d be no litmus test?

GOV. ROMNEY: No, no. There’s no litmus test of, of that nature.

No litmus test, except for Muslims, who you have said won't have a place in a Romney Cabinet.

Iraqi Christians Were Better off Under Saddam

I have talked a few times about how there was less religious freedom under the current Iraqi government than there was under Saddam's regime.

Now, 60 minutes has a report on just how bad it is for Christians in Iraq these days.

Sounds like freedom is on the march, doesn't it?

-Bob