Freedom requires religion?

Slated on Backbone Radio, December 9 Listen every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver.. 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs... and streaming live at 710knus.com.

"Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom.... Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone." What? Mitt Romney would dare say that, in today's secular-haunted America? He would, and he did, and we at Backbone Radio agree with him. Romney's speech in Texas on Thursday was powerful and hit the mark. Go to his website and read it, even if you've already seen the TV clips and the analysis. Our show hasn't taken sides in the presidential race; we won't until there is a Republican nominee. To us it's more a matter of who's on our side for a country that honors the Creator in its politics as the founders did, and Mitt the Mormon is clearly one of those. Well done.

Politics, education, civics and civil rights, war and peace, will be among our topics on this Sunday's program. We'll dig even deeper than usual into what America really means, what dangers it faces, and each of us ought to be doing as citizens.

** I'll talk with Kimberly Field, co-author of a new book on Romney and religion, and with Paul Mero of the Utah-based Sutherland Institute. Is anything different about the LDS home state, we'll ask him.

** Terri Hill of the Fund for Colorado's Future, an education policy group, joins us again for a hard look at Bill Ritter's vision for schools: more money, less accountability. And we'll hear from Paul Mero about how the teachers union killed vouchers for Utah kids.

** That visionary plan for a US Department of Peace that you've been hearing about is serious stuff for Ron Cole of Centennial, a Navy veteran and airline pilot. He'll be in to tell us why.

** Plus an update from Ward Connerly on his national push for colorblind laws, and a look into the future with high school students Nanxi Liu and Max Dovala, who led last month's mock legislative session for Colorado Youth in Government.

Christmas is coming, Hanukkah has come, and Kwanzaa; sorry, don't know. Try Backbone Radio for fast relief if the holidays are getting to you. We're not fattening like eggnog, indigestible like fruitcake, fake like a mall Santa, or grating like yet another Rudolph rendition. Our one-horse open talk show is about to come dashing through your Sunday -- jump in and ride along.

Yours for a long winter's nap, JOHN ANDREWS