Mitt Romney: "Europe is facing a demographic disaster"

I haven't been following the US Republican nomination race in as much detail as the Democrats, but was really struck by Mitt Romney's speech made yesterday when he stood down.  It seems as though he saved his best oratory for when it was no longer of value to the nominations, but is absolutely still relevant to the state of the world today.

He said:

"The attack on faith and religion is no less relentless. And tolerance for pornography – even celebration of it – and sexual promiscuity, combined with the twisted incentives of government welfare programs have led to today's grim realities: 68% of African American children are born out-of-wedlock, 45% of Hispanic children, and 25% of White children. How much harder it is for these children to succeed in school and in life. A nation built on the principles of the Founding Fathers cannot long stand when its children are raised without fathers in the home.

"The development of a child is enhanced by having a mother and father. Such a family is the ideal for the future of the child and for the strength of a nation. I wonder how it is that unelected judges, like some in my state of Massachusetts, are so unaware of this reality, so oblivious to the millennia of recorded history. It is time for the people of America to fortify marriage through Constitutional amendment, so that liberal judges cannot continue to attack it.

"Europe is facing a demographic disaster. That is the inevitable product of weakened faith in the Creator, failed families, disrespect for the sanctity of human life and eroded morality. Some reason that culture is merely an accessory to America's vitality; we know that it is the source of our strength. And we are not dissuaded by the snickers and knowing glances when we stand up for family values, and morality, and culture. We will always be honored to stand on principle and to stand for principle.

Whilst I wouldn't hold America up as a particular example in this regard, they do still have the religious backbone that means that the average American respects Biblical truth and the significance of marriage in that regard.

Mr Romney goes on to say:

"And finally, let's consider the greatest challenge facing America – and facing the entire civilized world: the threat of violent, radical Jihad. In one wing of the world of Islam, there is a conviction that all governments should be destroyed and replaced by a religious caliphate. These Jihadists will battle any form of democracy. To them, democracy is blasphemous for it says that citizens, not God shape the law. They find the idea of human equality to be offensive. They hate everything we believe about freedom just as we hate everything they believe about radical Jihad.

Now, whether this is rationale for further stay in Iraq with all that follows is not something I am sure about. However, given Rowan Williams' comments yesterday, I think that there is no doubt who appears to be the most Bible-believing of the two - and it isn't the Archbishop of Canterbury!