Candidate aims to boost faith
Path U.S. is on worries a 3rd District hopeful
One may wonder why 3rd Congressional District constituents need to renew their faith, considering that Utah is one of the most religious states in the nation and the 3rd District one of the most conservative. Across the state, city councils, school boards and the Legislature open each meeting with prayers, asking for guidance and wise decisionmaking.
Yet Leavitt, the former Juab County attorney, says on one of his campaign fliers: "We are not independently strong. We must rely on God to keep us free — free from financial burden, free from Washington bureaucracy and free from our enemies.
"We hold a duty to maintain public belief in a Supreme Being, regardless of our personal religious beliefs. If we do not, future generations will never understand the critical role our Creator has played throughout the history of this great Nation," Leavitt writes.
On his Web page, Leavitt has a slightly different version: "The majority's tolerance to the viewpoint of a few has changed. Instead of tolerating their opinion (of God outside of government) we are subjected to it, and that is not freedom! Americans have a patriotic duty to maintain a public belief in and acceptance of God. If we do not, future generations will never understand the critical role our Creator has played throughout the history of this great nation."
"When government doesn't have to answer to something higher, like a supreme being; when government sees itself as the highest authority, then government will do anything to keep itself in power — as we saw in the Soviet Union," Leavitt said. If America keeps going down the road "of political correctness" where a supreme being is not acknowledged as an authority above government, then America will change for the worse, Leavitt added.
Karen McCleary, executive director of the Utah Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, says Leavitt's attitude "is very heavy-handed."
"You have to say in public that you believe in God, or somehow you are not patriotic? — that you are un-American if you don't accept a belief in God" as it relates to government, McCleary said.
Many politicians take their religious teachings into office, and that is fine, she said.
Recent comments
government >stay out of religion
close the borders
aclu...
Jim Ryan | June 25, 2008 at 5:05 p.m.
Anybody But Chaffetz!!!
Chaffetz is too similar to Hillary...
ABC | May 7, 2008 at 11:59 a.m.
Let's get one thing straight: Our Nation was NOT founded on religion...
Littleton | March 23, 2008 at 4:08 p.m.
