… but it’s something, I suppose:
Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, once criticized for leaving out atheists and nonbelievers when he delivered a much-touted speech on faith in America, now says he missed a chance to discuss their role in society.
Romney, who addressed his Mormon faith on Dec. 6 to allay concerns by hesitant voters, was criticized for asserting in that pre-primary speech that, “freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom.”
This week, Romney said he is still convinced of that, but that he regrets omitting atheists and agnostics from his initial address.
“Upon reflection,” Romney said at the Metropolitan Club in New York City, “I realized that while I could defend their absence from my address, I had missed an opportunity – an opportunity to clearly assert the following: Nonbelievers have just as great a stake as believers in defending religious liberty.”
As Siamang points out, he could’ve phrased the rest of his remarks slightly better.
Whether or not Romney actually means all this is still in question. It’s not like atheists weren’t around when he made his original remarks on faith. But he wasn’t trying to get their votes, either.
Too little too late?
(Is it even worthy of being called “too little”?)
[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]
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