In which he urges voters not to reject him because of his Mormon faith, and stresses the areas of agreement he has with the mainstream of American voters: ""If I am fortunate to become your president, I will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause and no one interest. A president must serve only the common cause of the people of the United States," Romney said a crowd of 400 to 500 people at the George H.W. Bush Library at Texas A&M University.
With surveys suggesting up to half of likely voters have qualms about a Mormon president, Romney said he shares "moral convictions" with Americans of all faiths. "I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it," Romney said. "My faith is the faith of my fathers. I will be true to them and to my beliefs." Nonetheless, he said his faith doesn't define his candidacy. "A person should not be elected because of his faith, nor should he be rejected because of his faith." Romney said. "Let me assure you that no authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions. Their authority is theirs, within the province of church affairs, and it ends where the affairs of the nation begin," Romney said."
What jumped out at me immediately upon reading about the speech is that, although Romney's people had been saying earlier this week that this was NOT to be a reprise of John F. Kennedy's 1960 don't-reject-me-because-of-my-Catholicism speech...it did remind one of JFK's Houston moment.
On the other hand, as the Washington Post points out, Kennedy spoke out mainly for separation of church and state--while Romney does not seek to keep religion out of the public square.
"But he was equally emphatic in defending the idea that there is a place for religion in public life. Arguing that the doctrine of separation of church and state had been carried too far, Romney said some have pushed to remove "any acknowledgement of God" from the public domain. "Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life," he said. "It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America -- the religion of secularism. They are wrong."
But still, it does remind one of Kennedy in Houston. Only this time the faith is Mormonism. We'll see how it plays out.
