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Speech Is Romney's Cross To Bear

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By MICHAEL LUO, The New York Times

Published: December 6, 2007

Mitt Romney's planned speech today at the George Bush Presidential Library in Texas to confront suspicions about his Mormon faith is being viewed as the biggest moment of his presidential campaign.

With surveys showing many Americans less likely to vote for a Mormon presidential candidate, the address has drawn comparisons to then-Sen. John F. Kennedy's call for religious tolerance when, as the Democratic presidential nominee in 1960, he sought to defuse hostility about his Roman Catholic faith before Southern Baptist ministers in Houston.

Kennedy's task in many ways was easier, given that there were 42 million Roman Catholic Americans then, compared with an estimated 6 million U.S. Mormons today, 2 percent of the population.

Romney and his advisers have made clear he will not be explaining his faith, or doing "Mormon 101," as one top adviser put it, in his speech.

Some scholars and evangelical Christians, who make up a crucial voting bloc in the Republican Party and consider Mormonism to be heretical, say that many voters would like to hear more from Romney about exactly what he believes, even though he has studiously avoided discussing this except in the broadest terms.

"Most people don't have a clear understanding of the faith," said Tamara Scott, executive director of the Iowa chapter of Concerned Women for America, a Christian conservative group. "Really what they would like is maybe a little more explanation."

Scott said she was uncertain about what might be accomplished "if he's not going to express the tenets of his faith."

The address comes as the religious divide his supporters long feared appears to be emerging in Iowa, where Romney has seen his lead in the polls evaporate in the face of a vigorous challenge by Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor whose rise has been driven by evangelicals. In recent days, Huckabee has refused to address the question of whether the Mormon faith is a cult.

Romney's advisers say that in his address, he will emphasize religious liberty and his embrace of the shared values that make up the country's common moral heritage, and that he will make a case for the robust role for faith in public life, a marked departure from Kennedy's speech.

In choosing not to address misconceptions about Mormonism, Romney and his advisers assert that he is a not a spokesman for his church and that theological matters have no bearing on what he would do as president. They also are concerned about unleashing more questions about Mormon beliefs.

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