Romney-Ryan GOP ticket reflects religious shift

By naming devout, conservative Catholic U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan to be his running mate, former governor Mitt Romney, once a Mormon bishop, did more than ensure the USA will have a Catholic vice president in 2013.

He established the first Republican ticket without a Protestant since 1860, when Abraham Lincoln, who belonged to no church, chose Maine Sen. Hannibal Hamlin, a Unitarian as his running mate, says Mark Silk, professor of religion and public life at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

Yet today's GOP ticket — two Christians who are neither evangelical nor mainline Protestants — isn't a major marker of social change, University of California history professor David Hollinger says.

For a real sign of the decline of American mainline Protestantism, Hollinger looks to the Protestant-free U.S. Supreme Court: six Catholics and three Jews. The Romney-Ryan ticket is well in line with today's wider, less brand-specific Christian culture, he says.

The number of Americans who identify with a Protestant denomination has been steadily slipping from over 60% in the 1970s to 52% in 2010, says Duke University sociology professor Mark Chaves, who tracks religion statistics in the national General Social Survey, conducted biannually by the National Opinion Research Center.

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Chris

Oh the irony of blatantly promoting hypocrisy. "We cannot figure out which religion is right so we'll go with two different ones."

What a complete joke.
- Evermyrtle
  
  You are right about one thing, hypocrisy reigns rife in the world in these end days. The anti-GOD will meet HIM face to face just the same as HIS own people. HE will separate the HIS own from those that follow Satan. HE will place HIS people on HIS right and Satan's people will be place on HIS left. Te ge the whole story about this separation read
  Matt, 25:32-46
Washington22

I am so happy that our two candidates are Godly men. They are men who hold their religion dear and practice it. Thank you God Almighty for getting us closer to the finish line with these fine men. I am so hopeful that traditional America is going to be re-setablished.
- Chris
  
  Really – they are both richer than snot. "Blessed are the poor"? Isn't that one of your mantras? They are greedy materialists. Presumably you worship materialism?
  - Vladimir
    
    Honestly, does anyone take Chris the Troll seriously?
    - Evermyrtle
      
      Never!!!
Evermyrtle

We need to do a study on the Mormon and on the Catholic religion before we swallow this, hook line and sinker. We do not get choose to what to follow in GOD'S WORD., as could apply to each religion.

Rev. 22: 18- 19
18.For I testify unto every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, GOD shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book::
19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, GOD shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Without some great move from GOD, I can only imagine no hope of recovery, whoever wins the election. As we praise Romney, I remember the decisions he has made in the past and wonder if he has really changed.The last disastrous comment I have heard, just recently is that he had no peoblem placing an orphan child in thehome of two married homosexuals. There i noway that I can swalow that coming from a Christian?
- http://twitter.com/BradNova Brad Nova
  
  Romney repeats support for homosexual Boy Scout leaders, members
  http://americanvisionnews.com/4273/romney-repeats-support-for-homosexual-boy-scout-leaders-members
  - http://www.answersingenesis.org/ keyboardshark
    
    So I suppose that Obama, the first gay president, would be a better choice?
    
    http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/05/obama-newsweek-cover-gay-president-/1#.UDLGWt2PX8k
  - Vladimir
    
    Romney supports homosexual Boy Scout leaders?????? I have a bridge in New York City I'll sell you cheap.
    - Eric
      
      Well, actually he does. I guess it depends on how you define "supports." He believes the Boy Scouts should be able to do what they want, but he personally thinks that homosexuals should be allowed to serve as leaders. http://whyromney.com/#boyscouts
      - Vladimir
        
        Eric, please don't read in something that is not there. Romney stated that the BSA should run their own show. The BSA bans homosexual men from leadership positions. Romney said nothing about putting homosexual adults into LEADERSHIP positions which you maintain.
        Romney further stated that, "all people should be allowed to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation". That accommodates boys who are sexually confused and adults in NON-LEADERSHIP positions. Romney is not dictating a change to BSA policy. Also I doubt that the BSA will admit homosexual adults in non-leadership positions anyway and Romney will certainly not force the BSA to do so.
    - Evermyrtle
      
      He is not pure white when it comes to homosexuality is concerned. as indicted in reports that I have read.
  - Vladimir
    
    Romney supports the Boy Scouts of America's decision on homosexuality. BSA bans homosexual leaders but doesn't ban boys who are sexually confused.
    Big difference, Brad Nova.
- Wesley
  
  true Catholics like Paul Ryan believe in Christian orthodoxy while Mormons do not. Mormons social beliefs are the same as orthodox Christianity.
aceituna

Remember, God has used "godless" rulers to get his will done. The morals of the 2 men on the GOP ticket are more in line with my morals. I would choose them over the Deme ticket any day.
mallen11

It is not who is in power that matters; it has to do with Christians who are growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and applying Biblical principles to their lives each day. Then our Nation will be cleansed from most of the evil that is upon us. God is the only one who can help this nation.
Psalm 33:10-11 The LORD nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of nations. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation.
Chris

Wow – at the republican convention we are going to have the Mormon cult lead a prayer. This is just truly disgusting. It's a fake religion. Did anybody find the gold plates yet? Didn't we find that the Native Americans came from the west not the East? Don't we know that steel wasn't invented back then? It's just a croc and you gullible suckers are going to run with it and bow down at Mitt's feet. Read THEIR bible and see what a bunch of rubbish it is. Can't you people tell fact from fiction?
Mexseiko

More historically significant is the fact that we already have a Muslim president who took joy in announcing "we are no longer a Christian nation." Yes, he sneaked in dressed as a Christian, but now we know and he is still high in the polls. Skin color, smiles, and Entitlements appear to rise in priority above faith.

By the way, the Book of Mormon is as theologically removed from Christianity as the Book of Mohammad. Regarding Catholicism, it's the one that has given Christianity a bad name. Her history is interestingly similar with the Harlot of Revelation 17. Read it again, but after reading Foxe's Book of Martyrs and baring in mind that the Vatican seats in Rome, aka "The City of The Seven Hills." It might also help playing a round of Chess observing the Bishop right next to the King.

The religious shift is not reflected by this ticket but by the use of Church&State argument to forbid Christianity in public, the argument of Privacy Rights to legalize the killing of human life, and Equality to regard sodomy as consummation of marriage.

Please, report something we don't know.
- Vladimir
  
  Mexseiko, I really liked your first paragraph. Good insights. However, your comment on the Book of Mormon was as wrong as your first paragraph was right. Obviously you have never read the Book of Mormon, but have depended on bad information.
  - Mexseiko
    
    Enlighten me, please. As far as I'm concerned, any statement in any book that contradicts or adds to the Holy Inspired Scriptures is false, even satanic.
    
    The Qur'an talks about Isa (Jesus) but not as Creator or Savior of souls, but as a mere prophet or Imam. Jesus is God. Any adjustment to that statement unless in 100% agreement with the Bible is false.
    
    Rev 22:18,19.
- ounbbl
  
  As to a Mormon president, it is not worse than a fake Christian
  president – as long as he does not try to tell Mormons are Christians.
  (They are not, and the Church of Mormon writings adamantly declare). We
  have a record at the oval desk of a pseudo-Christian, closet Muslim,
  closet socialist, half-atheist, a first Kenyan American president (no,
  he is not 'black' American – he ain't Martin Luther King), a first gay
  president (meaning one who would go on gay parade dancing in the full
  uniform with proclamation of emancipation of all to come out of closet),
  a first president who does not know when a human life begins, a first
  president whose full time job is 'campaigning' for agenda through out
  his term and beyond.
Winston

Bringing together a Mormon and a Roman Catholic only smoothes the way for the advancing of a one-world religion. Many are and will be deceived but not those who know the one true way to God/Jesus (the real Jesus)… add in Islam and the other religious cults and you have the formula for the great falling away…as prophesied in the Scriptures. Open your eyes, remove the scales from your eyes to see what God's truth is about today.
Mary Wood

It seems to almost everyone the stance taken by Mitt Romney is an unusual one. It'snot. The Mormons are the least of peoples to hold a person's religious turn of mind against them. They have been on the receiving end of the worst kind of prejudice possible, and would not meter the same onto any human being. The Mormon church itself, is officially apolitical, and the members are taught that every person on the face of the earth are here as probation, in a sense, in order to make choices in the Father's plan of salvation. The Father is not a god of wrath, but He is loving; entities that are wrathful are, simply, satanic.