Observers of presidential hopeful Mitt Romney have been awaiting “the speech” — the one that’s going to settle once and for all his intent that his Mormon beliefs would not interfere with his leading the country.
The situation has been compared with that of John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic president, who on Sept. 12, 1960, wowed the Greater Houston Ministerial Association with an assurance that Rome would not dictate his actions.
Back then, mainline Protestants made up the most unified religious force in American politics. Today, it’s evangelical Christians, who are one-quarter of the electorate.
“Evangelical Christians have heard from their leaders that the Mormon Church is a cult,” said John Green, senior fellow in religion and American politics at the Pew Forum. “If you look at the poll numbers, Romney faces a challenge in that a significant minority of Americans are skeptical of voting for a Mormon candidate. Certainly that is a challenge the campaign would want to meet.”
However, Mr. Romney has passed up several opportunities to address the issue, including his May 5 commencement address at Regent University in Virginia Beach, a citadel of evangelical piety.
Last year, he turned down an invitation to address the topic in Salt Lake City during an annual gathering of the Religion Newswriters Association (RNA), an organization of 300 religion specialists in the secular media.
Last week, his campaign turned down a second invitation to speak at an RNA gathering later this month in San Antonio.
It brings up the question of whether such a speech is needed. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, says it might help.
“I’d like to see every candidate address the church-state issue with some specificity,” he said, “but just because someone is a member of a minority religion, he is under no obligation to do so.
“Kennedy said that if he ever found his religion to be at variance with his constitutional duties, he’d quit as president. I do not see a candidate saying that today.”
Nancy French, co-founder of Evangelicals for Mitt in Columbia, Tenn., said no statement is necessary.
“There’s no speech to give,” she said. “What evangelicals care about is that Mitt is a person of faith and he doesn’t apologize for it. That’s the bright line of demarcation. Theology matters to the evangelical voter to the extent that it has political ramifications.
“I disagree with Mormonism, and I wouldn’t want Governor Romney to teach my son’s Sunday school class. But there is no difference between Romney and evangelicals and their positions on moral issues.”
The Romney campaign did not respond last week to requests for comment on the matter, but Romney spokesman Kevin Madden told the Salt Lake Tribune that the campaign has not made a decision on the matter.
Mr. Romney told the newspaper he wants to be known as a candidate who has strengths “across a spectrum of all the issues” rather than being defined solely as a Mormon.
Sunstone, a liberal Mormon magazine, pointed out in March that coverage of Mr. Romney continues to focus on Mormon beliefs rather than his political views.
Some of the more unusual doctrines of the religion, formally known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, include beliefs that God has a wife, that Jesus Christ and Lucifer were spirit brothers and that there is no such thing as original sin.
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