INEVITABLY, Mitt Romney’s long-awaited speech on faith and religious freedom tomorrow at the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M will be compared to John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech to Protestant ministers in Houston, just 90 miles away. Like Kennedy, Mr. Romney faces questions about his religious beliefs and how they might affect his judgments as president. Also like Kennedy, Mr. Romney realizes ”” and polls demonstrate ”” that a sizable number of voters (again, mostly Southern white Protestants) oppose him because of his religion.
But the differences are more pronounced than the similarities. In 1960, Kennedy had already won the Democratic nomination and, as a Catholic, faced a phalanx of religious groups working publicly against his election. Among them was Protestants and Other Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, which was opposed in principle to any Catholic as president. An Episcopal bishop, James A. Pike of California, was its best-known spokesman.
Five days before Kennedy’s speech, moreover, a group of prominent Protestant clergymen headed by Norman Vincent Peale and L. Nelson Bell, the editor of Christianity Today and father-in-law of Billy Graham (Mr. Graham himself backed out at the last minute), mobilized the National Conference of Citizens for Religious Freedom specifically to block Kennedy’s bid. In addition, the Baptist state conventions in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona and Texas had already voted to oppose any Catholic candidate for president. In short, Kennedy knew his adversaries, some of whom were seated right in front of him.
Woodward’s op-ed provides a nice perspective. I’ll be listening closely to what Romney chooses to talk about, and what he doesn’t choose to talk about. Romney is taking a risk, because he is speaking about his religious faith in a period of political life where every clause in every sentence is parsed to death, and bloggers stand ready to strike. Pray for him!
I won’t be listening to the speech nor will I particularly care what Romney says. I’ll be judging his positions on various economic, international, and social positions and making my decision based on those positions.
Mormons are not Christians; despite protestations to the contrary. As the U.S. becomes more secular, people do not seem, especially in a state like Massachusetts, to care. To the extent that Mormons claim to be Christians, there is an inherent element of obfuscation in all they say, including, unfortunately, what Mr. Romney, an otherwise fine person, says as well. Kennedy, a Catholic was a Christian. Romney is not. That should be the subject of this discussion; not how this will compare to Kennedy’s speech.
I’ll add a personal anecdote that illustrates the problem here. My 25 year-old daughter dated a (nominal) Mormon for much of the last three months, despite the attempts of my wife and I to discourage the relationship. Over Thanksgiving the whole family sort of ganged up on her and we finally convinced her to break it off (and it wasn’t just because he was a non-Christian, there were other issues too).
It was hard for her, since it was her first serious boyfriend and I think she was in love. But the Monday after Thanksgiving, she got up her courage and broke up with the guy. But long before that, when they first started dating, she asked me for suggested reading about Mormonism, so she could understand his background (his parents at least are devout and practicing Mormons).
I suggested “Mormon America,” a best-seller and a pretty objective, standard book. I recommend it to this readership as well. It looks at the whole phenomenon of the Mormon culture or world; and it’s by journalists, not theologians, so it may seem sketchy on the whole wierd realm of Mormon doctrine. But it’s a good place to start. With Mitt Romney as a leading Republican candidate, Mormonism is going to be in the news during this election cycle, and many of us will have chances to bear witness to the authentic gospel when chatting with friends and co-workers about the differences between Christianity and Mormonism as the upcoming election approaches. It behooves us all to be better informed.
David Handy+
Advocate of High Commitment, Post-Christendom style Anglicanism