27 November 2007

Ricky's out again

After hyping Ricky Williams' return to the NFL yesterday, I'm embarrassed at how quickly Ricky went down during the Dolphin's 3-0 loss to Pittsburgh. On his fifth carry of the night, Williams tore a chest muscle and is done for the season .

Well that was anticlimactic.

In other NFL news, Redskins safety Sean Taylor died today after being shot during what appears to be a home invasion. As much as some of us tend to see the NFL as being filled with thugs waving guns around all the time, it's sobering to see a player actually die from gunshot wounds.

Here's hoping Taylor's family can overcome this tragedy. ESPN is wondering how the Redskins organization will cope with the loss of their talented safety, but in my opinion, this doesn't matter much. As much as I love sports, even I can occasionally recognize that they are not that important in the big picture.

Christopher Hitchens, columnist and well-known atheist, wrote an article demanding Mitt Romney explain his faith. Hitchens writes with his typical amount of vitriol... I imagine him foaming at the mouth while typing about how Romney's family is part of "the dynastic leadership of the mad cult invented by the convicted fraud Joseph Smith."

Wow.

Overlooking Hitchens' obvious biases, I think he makes some decent points. He is correct in stating that Romney needs to assure America that he won't be taking direct orders from Salt Lake if elected. JFK, Jr. did it and America was appeased.

I also believe Clinton, Obama and Giuliani need to explain where they stand on religion as well if we demand it of Romney.

Hitchens is dead wrong, however, in his claim that we claim that out "leadership is prophetic and inspired and that its rulings take precedence over any human law."

Do you have any examples of that, Mr. Hitchens? Because I've been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all my life and haven't seen any situation where the prophet has told me to break the law of the land.

I believe we'll only see more articles of this type as Romney grows in prominence. Polls show him leading in key primary states like Iowa, New Hampshire and Michigan. I'm not sure he can overcome the prejudices Southern Christians have against Mormons and gain the Republican nomination, but if so, I believe he can win versus anyone the Democrats put out there.

The thought of Southern Baptists being forced to choose between a Mormon and a Hillary makes me laugh.

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