"I take him on the basis of what he says. And, you know, there isn't any reason to doubt that."
Well, Hillary still became Obama's Secretary of State (keep your friends close but your enemies closer), and in Mississippi 52% of Republicans still think Obama is a Muslim (see: http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2012/03/12/most-alabama-mississippi-republicans-think-obama-is-muslim.html).
But does it really matter? As someone who has placed his life in the hands of Bedouin trackers and who last year shared a tiny hospital room with three Muslims, a person's religion doesn't matter to me. Far more important is whether someone is capable of love, compassion and respect for the rights and sensitivities of others.
In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Is Elvis a Mormon?" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/dowd-is-elvis-a-mormon.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss) Maureen Dowd launches a two-pronged attack upon the likely Republican presidential nominee. First, Dowd observes that Mitt Romney is something other than a man of the people:
"Romney has filed an application to replace his single-story 3,000-square-foot beach house in La Jolla, Calif., with a 7,400-square-foot home featuring an additional 3,600 square feet of finished underground space."
Okay, but the story surrounding the manner in which Obama acquired his Chicago mansion is not much prettier (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2011/12/paul-krugman-all-gops-gekkos-was-obama.html). Dowd might also want to have a gander at John Kerry's residence in Boston (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeV0gOwBMZ0), or, closer to home, stroll through the palatial estate of New York Times columnist Tom ("Hot, Fat, and Crowded") Friedman (see: http://cryptome.org/eyeball/friedman/friedman-mansion.htm).
Dowd also pokes fun at the Mormon practice of baptizing the souls of the dead, including Hitler, Holocaust victims, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis. As observed by Dowd:
"Mormons had designated Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor, as 'ready' for a posthumous proxy burial, even though he is very much alive at 83 and still teaching at Boston University and in Florida."
Wiesel says that this is "an insult." Me? I'm not quite 83, but I've got 200,000 missiles pointed at my house (somewhat smaller than the homes of Romney, Kerry and Friedman) from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran, and I'm not certain who should expect to live longer.
In any event, my youngest son often asks what I expect after death. My response: the same as I experienced before I was born. Of course, I wouldn't mind being proven wrong.
More to the point, it doesn't matter to me whether the Mormon Church baptizes me after my death without my concurrence. These days, I'm just too busy trying to be a good father, husband, friend and human being, and pray that I will be remembered as such.
Is Elvis a Mormon? Is Obama a Muslim? Sorry, Maureen, I just don't care.
