Sharpton accused of 'bigotry' after remark on faith

Source: cnn.com

As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways, so don't worry about that; that's a temporary situation," Sharpton said Monday during a debate with Hitchens at the New York Public Library's Beaux-Arts headquarters.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/09/romney.sharpton.ap/index.html

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those who really believe in god eh? sounds like bigotry by rev al. perhaps we should call for his ouster of his radio show now?

This should be on the sci-fi channel but I have to admit I got a chuckle out of reading his comment this morning. I mean this is Romney he was talking about. It is highly probable that Romney doesn't actually hold a single belief on any topic anywhere in his heart ... nothing. I cant recall ever seeing anyone as completely and totally fake.

We can't excuse what's wrong just because a Dem did it.

The real undertone of that remark, which will go completely unnoticed, is that non-believers don't even deserve a seat at the table. Do you see any hypocrisy there Mr. Civil Rights?

And CNN just couldn't mention Sharpton without taking it to the point where they actually have to once again publish the words Imus spoke. :eyes:

That might be wrong, but I think it's true. And there are millions of fundamentalists who do not view Mormons as Christians in any respect. It would be interesting to see if Democrats would exploit that tension to their advantage.

it's true. He is a Pentacostal minister. Speaking in toungues, the whole 9 yards.

I saw like 10 of them on TV the other night

:rofl::applause:

I guess they don't practice what they preach. No surprise there.

religious intolerance?

They accuse those of us who object to coulter and Imus as whiney and then when their surrogates are criticized in a similar way, it's okay for them to complain.

It is taking things to another level to seek to have someone punished for what they say. Not saying that it is not justified at times, but it is distinct from merely disagreeing with or complaining about what someone else has said.

I absolutely think people have the fundamental right to say, for example, "I think bigoted speech is offensive, and also that speech should have consequences for the speaker."

Are you suggesting that censorship (even if by one's self) is good? Or if not good, then preferable to free expression? I would disagree with that, if so.

What about those that rail against people like Imus, arguing that such intolerance is, well, intolerable. Suddenly they're finding excuses for it--if only saying, "Well, we only really hate bigotry of all kinds in repubs, but you're wrong to hate it in dems."

Next time Sharpton yells "bigotry" this will come back to haunt him. Between his unstinting race- and class-based faith in Mangum in the Duke case, and this little incident, he's taken his moral authority and flushed it. Then again, a lie vaunted him to notoriety, so it's not unexpected.

Until then, let's remember that this is the "Democratic" Underground and that part of the agenda here is to support dems and attack the puke stance, i.e., pro-dem partisanship. I offer no apologies for doing just that.

LOL at your sentence that Sharpton has "flushed moral authority." He hasn't really ever had much to begin with.

But that support is conditioned by my sense of morality. I'm not going to include hypocrisy and blindness as cardinal progressive values. Repubs do something wrong, it's wrong. Dems do the same thing, it's still wrong.

Sharpton screwed up. Let's put a blindfold on and only take it off when repubs are idiots, thereby joining the ideology-based community, by all means.

You're in a minority on this thread in defending him, and it seems most unlikely that many of the DUers criticising him here were defenders of Imus.

Quite apart from being contemptible and bigotted, his remark is also completely wrong - whatever your views on Mormons, to say that they don't believe in God is daft.

Al Sharpton is a nasty piece of work, and a severe liability to the American left.

They're trying to get Sharpton fired by falsely accusing him of religious intolerance.

That is very different than just making a statement that someone's words represent a form of intolerance (which is something we do a lot of at DU.)

As some sort of childish revenge for Imus? Why do you think they're making false allegations of intolerance in the first place?

you got it.

disagree with what he says but not want to see him punished for speaking. "They" may not be a monolith and I am not privy to the inner workings "their" minds at any rate.

You or I can "think" whatever we want about their motivations, but "thinking" it does not necessarily make it true. The only person's motivations I am sure of are my own.

You can never know what a person is thinking, but that doesn't mean it's not obvious. Hence the expression, "it's written all over their face."

of being religiously intolerant and a hypocrite. if imus got fired for what he said, shouldnt sharpton be fired for his show of bigotry

If Sharpton were a bigot. He's not though.

perhaps you are forgetting these little remarks from Rev al

"Al sharpton declared that Cato’s death was not merely the result of a car accident, but rather “the social accident of apartheid.” The contentious activist then challenged local Jews—who he derisively characterized as “diamond merchants” —to “pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house” to settle the score"
http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=27826

then of course there was this

In 1995, Sharpton led his National Action Network in an ugly boycott against Freddy’s Fashion Mart, a Jewish-owned business in Harlem, New York. The boycott started when Freddy’s owners announced that because they wanted to expand their own business, they would no longer sublet part of their store to a black-owned record shop. The street leader of the boycott, Morris Powell, was the head of Sharpton’s “Buy Black” Committee. Repeatedly referring to the Jewish proprietors of Freddy’s as “crackers,” Powell and his fellow protesters menacingly told passersby, “Keep right on past Freddy’s, he’s one of the greedy Jew bastards killing our people. Don’t give the Jew a dime.”


sounds like a bigot to me. if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck....

you can find these elsewhere than the link i gave, (From a site i do not like)

Many Christians do not consider Mormans Christians, including myself.

His god is better than others?

Is that what he implied?

Excuses, Apologies are not what is needed... what is needed is for Al Sharpton to be exposed as the fraud that he is.

First he get's bus loads of church goers to be deployed to events of his choosing to 'protest' - most of these people having nothing else to do, they don't work, they study the bible and are led around by Al and his crew.

The outrage against Imus... let us be real here... 'Nappy Hair' is not racist. Go to a google on Nappy Hair, for heavens sake there are dozens of websites owned by apparently people who happen to be black selling hair care products for consumers who have 'Nappy Hair'.

His radio show, www.SharptonTalk.net - is RACIST.. i mean come on, 'Black America Web' is his search engine, and is linked to a website / radio show named that.... if that isn't as bad as 'White America' ... then all the critics need to just shut up and let anyone say anything anywhere.

I am beyond fed up, I am mad as hell and I am NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE.

There is no difference between Al Sharpton and an Ayatollah over in the middle east... except for the 'God' they worship.

Pathetic.

:crazy:

"i mean come on, 'Black America Web' is his search engine, and is linked to a website / radio show named that.... if that isn't as bad as 'White America' ... then all the critics need to just shut up and let anyone say anything anywhere."



:rofl:

In the context, Al Sharpton was debating an atheist.

He implied his religion is the real deal dismissing Mitt Romney's as inferior / wrong / misguided.


Listen for yourself

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUMQw-hVlc0

You're intentionally misinterpreting. He's telling an atheist that people who believe in God, i.e. Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, Muslims, Jews, etc. are going to keep Romney out of office.

Get a grip, Al. You can accuse Mormons of a lot of things. Not believing in God is not one of them.

Did you read the article?

I don't buy Sharpton's explanation for what he said. It doesn't make sense. But, it's really not a big deal. If you open your mouth often enough a foot will surely slip in at one point, or another. It happens to all of us. So, perhaps I will close mine for a while.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUMQw-hVlc0

Draw your own conclusions.

After all, the book Hitchens is hawking now is called "God is Not Great," and it's entirely possible that in the context of the "debate," Sharpton was riffing off of some nonsense that Hitchens had just spewed.

I wouldn't trust a report from CNN any further than I could throw Glenn Beck.

Where would we be without this great man

:puke:

but on the other hand, every time this issue is raised, there is a Christian theocrat in the Bible Belt who finally catches on to the fact that Romney does not share his specific beliefs and that hurts Romney's chances. Just today, at lunch, we were talking about this at a big table and one person (a Republican, but one who reads the newspapers and chews with his mouth closed) said - with great disbelief "Romney's a MORMON?!?"

This meme is hurting Romney at least as much as it is hurting Sharpton. What's a poor Hannity to do?

n/t

I know I don't!

to secure the black OR white vote. So I'm not surprised that he's going "Ann Coulter" on us for media attention.

:headbang:
rocknation

...and a hypocrite

In fact he is still attacking Romney for things in the Mormon faith's past, like it is his fault. You look at any religous faith there will be bad things in the past. Imus said something that was hurtful and bigoted and was fired because of his "pattern of behavior." Well this is not the first time that Sharpton has done something like this and he will get a pass again because of who he is, lets be honest about it.

of the Mormon Church - that isn't THAT far in the past. I believe Romney was a Mormon in 1978.

Not giving Sharpton a pass, just saying Romney and anyone who has been a Mormon since 1978 doesn't get a pass either.

this republican party has it's platform firmly rooted in the fact that they are the only ones that believe in God and the mormon ways don't fall in line...he was just stating the obvious, I don't understand why people are getting up in arms, anything to attack sharpton, not that he doesn't have it coming sometimes but this is not a good reason.

If it isn't, it should be.

I don't support Sharpton. He is full of it. But we ought to be able to discuss religion freely. Even if it means offending some people. This is still America.

Its not about Sharpton. Its about the gotcha attitude of so many - including people here.

The worst Sharpton could have done is to impugn the man's religion. To borrow from the Paula Jones judge, if he did the worst he is accused of, there is still no crime.

It ought to be acceptable to say negative things about someone else's religion. Freedom of religion requires it.