I had been urging Governor Romney to give such a speech for over a year, ever since he invited me to his home, along with about a dozen other Evangelical leaders to have an open and free-wheeling discussion about his candidacy and the questions he needed to answer to get a serious hearing from Evangelicals.
I told him then that he needed to give a JFK style speech and I even gave him a copy of my then forthcoming book, The Divided States of America? which contains then Senator Kennedy’s speech as an appendix.
I had the privilege of attending Gov. Romney’s speech, and sitting on the second row, you could not only see the Governor’s emotions, you could feel them. One of his staff members told me, “I’ve been working for the Governor for six years, and I have never heard him more eloquent.”
I responded, “Nothing generates more eloquence than heart-felt conviction.”
Gov. Romney followed the Kennedy script on crucial issues. He echoed Kennedy in making it clear that church authority extended only to “church affairs, and it ends where the affairs of the nation begin."
Also, like Kennedy, he made it clear he was an “American running for President,” not the candidate of any religious group.
He also spent no time trying to define, describe, or defend Mormon beliefs, just as JFK similarly did not do so for Catholicism. And, I might add, he should not have been expected to do so.
Instead, he made the cogent and correct argument that his faith shapes his character and conscience, informs his public policy positions, guides his performance in public service and inspires his vision for America’s future. He asked Americans to judge him on his character, his record, his public policy views and his vision for the nation’s future—not on his person religious beliefs—that would be un-American, unconstitutional—and unfair.
All Americans of religious faith have a significant stake in the principles Gov. Romney articulated and defended in his speech. As JFK reminded us 47 years ago, while then it was a Catholic who was the victim of “suspicion,” “in other years, it has been, and may some day be again, a Jew—or a Quaker—or a Unitarian—or a Baptist.” Indeed, as JFK reminded the nation, it was persecution of Baptists in 18th century Virginia which inspired Thomas Jefferson’s “statute of religious freedom.” In other words, discrimination against a person of any faith opens the door to discrimination against people of all faiths.
Whatever the outcome of the 2008 election process, and I do not endorse candidates as a matter of policy, Governor Romney helped himself with his Dec. 6 speech. More importantly, he helped the country and the cause of religious freedom even more.
Please e-mail On Faith if you'd like to receive an email notification when On Faith sends out a new question.
Email Me | Del.icio.us | Digg | Facebook
