Republican Roundup: Santorum, Kennedy, Romney & Posthumous Conversions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"J.J. Goldberg, frequently one of the most sane voices in American Jewish journalism, has a very interesting post about Santorum and his negative effect on\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/03\/republican-roundup-santorum-kennedy-romney-posthumous-conversions.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Republican Roundup: Santorum, Kennedy, Romney & Posthumous Conversions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"J.J. Goldberg, frequently one of the most sane voices in American Jewish journalism, has a very interesting post about Santorum and his negative effect on\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/03\/republican-roundup-santorum-kennedy-romney-posthumous-conversions.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-01T18:19:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. Falick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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{"id":404,"date":"2012-03-01T18:19:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T18:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/03\/republican-roundup-santorum-kennedy-romney-posthumous-conversions.html"},"modified":"2012-03-01T18:19:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-01T18:19:00","slug":"republican-roundup-santorum-kennedy-romney-posthumous-conversions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/03\/republican-roundup-santorum-kennedy-romney-posthumous-conversions.html","title":{"rendered":"Republican Roundup: Santorum, Kennedy, Romney & Posthumous Conversions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

My own Republican informants tell me that most of the GOP\u2019s Jews are for Romney, in part because of his higher mainstream appeal.\u00a0 Others, namely Orthodox Jews, are backing Santorum and Gingrich.\u00a0 But Orthodox Jews count for a tiny percentage of Republicans and fewer than ten percent of American Jews.\u00a0 So, Sheldon Adelson notwithstanding<\/a>, most Republican Jews back Romney and expect him to win.<\/p>\n

Politics being politics, Romney\u2019s opponents from within and without are now seizing on anything to tarnish him in the eyes of the Jewish community.\u00a0 With news that Mormons<\/a> are still baptizing Holocaust victims, they may have found their hook. \u00a0Plenty of people have contacted me about my feelings about this and the fact that Romney once participated in similar rituals.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t know the whole history of this Mormon practice, Jeff Jacoby provides a good survey in the Boston Globe<\/a>.\u00a0 I must say that I agree with his conclusions.<\/p>\n

Frankly, as a secular humanist I don\u2019t care what people do in the privacy of their own churches, mosques, synagogues or temples.\u00a0 They can perform rain dances, play with snakes or convert my dead grandparents to Mormonism.\u00a0 Their rituals are meaningless to me.\u00a0 It\u2019s what they do to living people that interests me.<\/p>\n

I oppose Romney and all of the others in this clown car of a GOP campaign not because of what they believe about dead people, but because of how they treat the living.<\/p>\n

Is Romney\u2019s religion an issue?\u00a0 Well every Republican in the race has made his faith an issue so it\u2019s an issue.\u00a0 Where it affects their ideas for how to lead America it matters very much.\u00a0 But what they believe about magic wafers or magic underwear doesn\u2019t mean a thing to me.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re going to start staging contests about strange religious beliefs and rituals then we are never going to talk about anything else.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"