Oxford, Ohio, 7 December (ENI)–Political and religious observers agreed on only one point regarding US presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s speech about his Mormon faith: it was a brilliant tactic for garnering international media attention to his wavering standing as a leading Republican Party contender.
Beyond that, reactions to the 6 December speech ranged widely – from glowing comparisons to John F. Kennedy’s address to Baptists in 1960 about his Roman Catholic faith to criticisms that Romney’s speech lacked any significant account about the differences in theological views between Mormons and traditional Christians.
‘I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavour to live by it,’ Romney said at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas. However, he stated, ‘I do not define my candidacy by my religion.’ He added, ‘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.’
The presidential candidate only once used the word ‘Mormon’, the term used to describe a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is often referred to as the Mormon Church. ‘My faith is the faith of my fathers. I will be true to them and to my beliefs,’ Romney said. ‘Americans do not respect believers of convenience. Americans tire of those
who would jettison their beliefs, even to gain the world.’
But Romney also was criticised for not explaining any significant elements of his faith.
‘Why does Romney get to show them some of his doctrinal beliefs while shutting off discussion of the others?’ asked writer John Dickerson of the Web site Slate (www.slate.com). ‘He wants credit for saying Jesus was the Son of God but doesn’t want to answer for the other ways many Mormons see Jesus. This is not just a quibble, as Romney seemed to suggest. This is evangelicals’ fundamental question about Mormonism.’
A poll by the Pew Research Center in September found that a quarter of all members of the Republican Party in the United States – including 36 percent of white evangelical Protestants – said they would be less likely to vote for presidential candidate who was a Mormon.
Latter-Day Saints adherents believe that authentic Christianity vanished a century after Jesus and was restored only through Joseph Smith, who the church considers to be a prophet. Smith also revised – and, in his view, corrected – large sections of the Bible in the 19th century, an act of heresy in the eyes of Protestant and Catholic leaders.
Former Massachusetts governor Romney’s campaign overall has focused on his clean-living lifestyle – he neither smokes nor drinks alcohol – his 38-year marriage and his five married sons as signs that he shares the most important values of average Americans.
In mid-November, Romney had dismissed the prospect of a speech discussing his faith. However, in recent weeks he began slipping in the Iowa state polls to former Southern Baptist minister Mike Huckabee, who is seen as one.
