COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- His campaign at a crossroads, Republican Mitt Romney said Thursday his Mormon faith should neither help nor hinder his quest for the White House and vowed to serve the interests of the nation, not the church, if elected president.
"When I place my hand on the Bible and take the oath of office, that oath becomes my highest promise to God," Romney said in a speech that explicitly recalled remarks John F. Kennedy made in 1960 in an effort to quell anti-Catholic bias.
After declining for months to address the issue of his Mormonism directly, Romney switched course as polls showed widespread unease about his religion — and showed him losing his once-sizable lead in the opening Iowa caucuses to Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former governor of Arkansas.
Romney said some believe that a forthright embrace of his religion will "sink my candidacy. If they are right, so be it. But I think they underestimate the American people."
"Americans tire of those who would jettison their beliefs, even to gain the world," he 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," he pledged. "Their authority is theirs, within the province of church affairs, and it ends where the affairs of the nation begin."
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."
This is shameful.
Poll after poll finds a sizable number of Americans wouldn't vote for Romney solely because he is a Mormon. That's shocking to me.
It reflects so poorly on the level of religious tolerance in America. Are people really so ready to cast aside Romney's character and experience, his respect for the law, for the Constitution of the United States, and just focus on his religious affiliation?
There are plenty of reasons one can legitimately have to not vote for Romney; but the fact that Mormonism is being smeared by so many in such a matter-of-fact fashion is truly disturbing.
IT'S A CULT. IT'S A CULT. IT'S A CULT.
I don't want to hear it anymore.
Believe what you want to believe. If you have a problem with Mormons, then you do. If you think that being a Mormon is a disqualifying factor to become president, then you do.
Voters have the right to cast one ballot for president. They can vote for whomever they please and for whatever reasons.
But the fact that in 2007, at this point in our history, Mitt Romney was compelled to make this speech today is nauseating.
What about Mormonism as practiced in 2007 is a threat to the country?
I would like to hear every candidate for president, Republican and Democrat, loudly and clearly speak out against the disgraceful display of intolerance being directed at Romney and all Mormons.
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Read Charles Krauthammer's take on "Making an Issue Out of a Religion."
The God of the Founders, the God on the coinage, the God for whom Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving Day is the ineffable, ecumenical, nonsectarian Providence of the American civil religion whose relation to this blessed land is without appeal to any particular testament or ritual.
Every mention of God in every inaugural address in American history refers to the deity in this kind of all-embracing, universal, nondenominational way. (The one exception: William Henry Harrison. He caught cold delivering that inaugural address. Thirty-one days later, he was dead. Draw your own conclusion.) I suspect that neither Jefferson's Providence nor Washington's Great Author nor Lincoln's Almighty would look kindly on the exploitation of religious differences for political gain. It is un-American. It is unfortunate that Romney has had to justify himself in response.
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