Romney Did Great...Could've Done Better in Morgan Interview

I thought Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney did absolutely the right thing in his sit down with Pierce Morgan earlier this month by directing questions about the Church to the Church. Romney is NOT a spokesman for the Church and he is NOT doing interviews to talk about his church. He's doing them to talk about why he is qualified to be President of the United States. I would applaud members of any other religion for also directing questions about their religion to the official spokespeople of their religion, too. That's not why they're there.

However, I can understand why people would be bothered by Romney's response to Morgan's question about whether or not Romney personally believes homosexuality is sin (sidestepping Romney's instruction to contact the Church about his religion's stance on homosexuality). He says the right thing "...as president I have to represent the interests of all people." That absolutely true and I absolutely believe Romney could do that (I'm not saying that I'll necessarily vote for him either, it depends on who enters the race).

But I thought about it a little more and asked myself: if Morgan had asked Mike Huckabee "Do you think Mormons are going to hell?" during the 2008 campaign, no doubt his answer would have been similar to Romney's, but...I would have wanted to know if he thought I was a sinner or going to hell. The given answer is totally understandable and acceptable, but not exactly satisfying. Do I think Romney should answer 'yea' or 'nay' to that question? No unless he wants to lose the election, but more importantly, he shouldn't have to.

I think a better response to that question, and one I would like to hear from Mormons more regarding this issue, goes something like this. "Look, it's not my place judge other people. My job as a Christian and a Mormon is know what I think is right and wrong and behave accordingly. My job is accept and love everyone and appreciate what they bring to the table. I'll leave the hard job, the judgement stuff, up to God." Or something along those lines. I think if I heard that answer from Romney or anyone else, I would be much more satisfied because it backs up what he's saying about representing all people.

I'm available for speech writing and political adviser positions :)