Republican Romney cried when he learned Blacks could be priests

By M&C US News Dec 16, 2007, 17:56 GMT

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney arrives prior to the Des Moines Register/Iowa Public Television Republican presidential debate in Johnston, Iowa, USA, 12 December 2007. The first political test of the 2008 will be the Iowa caucus on 03 January 2008. EPA/STEVE POPE / POOL

Will the U.S. race for the president ever divorce itself from talk of dogma, faith and stripe of religion? Not anytime soon if the latest interview with GOP candidate Mitt Romney shows the mainstream media's fixation on the personal subject.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” today that he "wept with relief" when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints announced a 1978 revelation that the priesthood would no longer be denied to black people.

Romney's eyes glistened with tears as he discussed the subject during an appearance.

“I was anxious to see a change in my church,” said the Republican presidential candidate, on for the full hour.

“I can remember when I heard about the change being made. I was driving home from — I think it was law school, but I was driving home — going through the Fresh Pond rotary in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I heard it on the radio and I pulled over and literally wept.

“Even to this day, it’s emotional,” Romney added.

“And so it’s very deep and fundamental in my life and my most core beliefs that all people are children of God. My faith has always told me that. My faith has also always told me that in the eyes of God, every individual was merited the fullest degree of happiness in the hereafter and I had no question that African Americans and blacks generally would have every right and every benefit in the hereafter that anyone else had and that God is no respecter of persons.”

Host Tim Russert asked if “it was wrong for your faith to exclude them for as long as it did.”

“I told you exactly where I stand,” Romney said. “My view is that there’s no discrimination in the eyes of God. And I could not have been more pleased than to see the change that occurred.”

This was Romney’s first appearance on “Meet the Press” where he also discussed his radically altered views on abortion, immigration and defended continued charges of flip-flopping by all of his rivals.

The subject of Romney's "fees" raised when he was Massachusetts governor and the semantics of fees versus taxes were also discussed.

“These were not broad-based fees,” Romney said. “If they are broad-based, they have a sense — a feeling like a tax. A fee is different than a tax in that it is for a purpose. We had fees that hadn’t been changed for decades.”

Romney said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has passed him in many polls in the GOP presidential race, should apologize for his statement in Foreign Affairs magazine that the Bush administration has an “arrogant bunker mentality.”

“That’s an insult to the president, and Mike Huckabee should apologize to the president,” Romney said.

Russert hit Romney with a greatest hits of pre-conservative Romneyisms, videotape showing a string of flips in policy stances, but Romney countered with his usual answer to that very question.

“Tim, if you’re looking for someone who’s never changed any position on any policy, then I’m not your guy,” Romney said. “I do learn from experience. If you want someone who doesn’t learn from experience, who stubbornly takes a position on a particular act and says, ‘Well, I’m never changing my view based on what I’ve learned,’ that doesn’t make sense to me.”

Regarding his flip-flop on abortion rights from the time he was running for office in Massachusetts, Romney said he thinks “almost everyone in this nation” opposes abortion.

“I was always personally opposed to abortion, as I think almost everyone in this nation is,” he said, adding that the question for him was “the role of government.”

Romney said he hopes the U.S. ultimately bans abortion.

On stem cell research, he follows President George Bush's lead and would continue in that path.

And illegal immigrants?  “They should go home eventually.”

Eventually?

Romney would favor substantial fines to companies who hire illegals and “potentially worse if they were egregious ... offenders.”

And gun control?  “I don’t line up 100 percent with the NRA,” he said. “I don’t see eye to eye with the NRA on every issue.”

Romney referred to a Mormon view that evangelical Christians are cool to them in part for competitive reasons. Both camps fight for inductees, to bolster their power by numbers, and keep their coffers flowing.   

On organized religion as big business and as a special interest group: “Well, you know, religions are in a competitive battle — they’re competing for souls and adherents,” he said. Later, he repeated: “As I indicated, there are competing faiths in this nation.”

Romney added that he was “delighted” to have the support of Jones. “The great thing, of course, is that our values are the same,” Romney added. “We have Christians and Jews, for instance. They don’t have the same faith, but we certainly have the same Judeo-Christian foundation.”

Asked about the statement in his recent speech that “freedom requires religion,” Romney elaborated: “Long-term, for America to remain a great nation, to lead the world, we must have a recognition of our religious faith. Now that’s, of course, not a particular denomination.”

Russert asked, “Can you be a moral person and be an atheist?”

Romney replied, “Oh, of course. Of course.”

Romney pledged he would have “no litmus test” about faith for nominees to the Supreme Court, or for such jobs as Secretary of Education.