Earlier today, at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, Republican Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, gave a great speech on the topic of his Mormon faith and politics. Well, I should technically rephrase that, as the speech was more on faith in general than Romney's Mormonism, but nonetheless it was a compelling address with several points that were spot on and one that was not. "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."
The above statement was made by Romney and is one that I think everyone can agree on: an individual's personal church or any church should have zero influence on the happenings in the White House. Romney was also quite impressive when he said:
"They (some in the public) would prefer it if I would simply distance myself from my religion, say that it's more a tradition than my personal conviction, or disavow one or another of its precepts. That I will not do. I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. I will be true...to my beliefs."
I was happy to see Romney stand up for what he believes in. Too often these days, candidates try to distance themselves from their religion in an attempt to appease the public, but today, Romney did not. Its refreshing to see a candidate basically tell voters, "hey, either like me or don't, but I'm not changing." (Of course Romney has changed on just about every other issue to gain votes, but thats a different story.)
The final thing, and possibly the biggest, that could prove to help Romney out in the Republican field was when he talked about different faiths and their respective appealing qualities. By saying the following, Romney was able to shift the focus away from his Mormonism, to faiths in general.
"In every faith I have come to know, there are features I wish were in my own: I love the profound ceremony of the Catholic Mass, the approachability of God in the prayers of the evangelicals, the tenderness of spirit among the Pentecostals, the confident independence of the Lutherans, the ancient traditions of the Jews, unchanged through the ages, and the commitment to frequent prayer of the Muslims."
However, the above statement also paves the way for the message of Romney's speech which was, quite frankly, slightly offensive. Throughout the speech, Romney talked highly of all faiths, stressing their importance. But while doing this, he also sounded derogatory to those who do not have an organized faith and/or do not believe in a religion. It would have been much better if Romney would have come out and said that principles and values, not religion, are important qualities in Americans. He proceeded to make this outrageous claim:
"Freedom requires religion."
The truth is, freedom does not require religion. It is the state, not the church, that gives us Americans our freedom. Not only is that statement an insult to those who aren't religious, somehow saying that they don't have freedom, but it is a complete contradiction to the U.S. Constitution.
Nonetheless, overall, I have to give Romney an "A" on this speech; not because I necessarily agree with it, but because of what it did for him as a candidate in the Republican field. Romney, regardless of the content of his speech, looked and sounded presidential. And, considering he is running for the Republican nomination, the content of his speech isn't likely to offend those who he is trying to court. The benefit of this speech was that for today, and likely for the coming days, Romney has been able to move the "spotlight" off of Giuliani and Huckabee and onto himself, something that can only benefit him this close to the primaries. Its because of that, the fact that this speech is likely to help Romney regain momentum in Iowa and gain national recognition, that this speech can be considered a success for now. However, if you look forward to a general election, there are undoubtably some who would get offended by this and thats the danger Romney has put himself in. It's not that there are a tremendous amount of non-religious affiliated voters, but Romney doesn't want to put himself in the position of appearing bigoted to the many Americans who feel that religion does not and should not matter and that a non-religious individual is just as much of an American as one who is religious.
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