The Speech Romney Should Have Given

John M. Parrish is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Loyola Marymount University. His teaching and research interests include the study of political rhetoric and public discourse.

Fellow citizens, fellow believers in America:

My name is Mitt Romney and I am a candidate for the presidency of the United States. In my life, I have been a leader, an entrepreneur, a governor and a reformer. I am also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – a Mormon – and no member of my church has yet been elected to the high office which I seek.

No Roman Catholic had been elected president until John F. Kennedy sought the presidency in 1960. Since the beginning of my own campaign, the pundits and political professionals have repeatedly urged me to make a speech like Senator Kennedy’s famous address seeking to reassure those who might have doubts about the political implications of his unfamiliar faith. Some have suggested that I use this speech to praise religious liberty in vague, general terms, but make as little specific mention as possible of my own Mormon faith, a faith which some Americans find mysterious and even alarming.

Until now I have resisted these appeals, for several reasons. One is that I have believed it to be largely unnecessary. I trusted that my fellow citizens held the spirit of our Constitution’s prohibition of religious tests deep in their hearts and that they would judge me fairly on the merits.

But another reason I have resisted is that I knew I could not say about my religion precisely what John Kennedy said about his. Like Senator Kennedy, I can assure my fellow Americans that I foresee no possible conflict between my public duties and the teachings of my church. And like him I can also state without reservation that I will consider my oath of office my most binding promise to God.

But Senator Kennedy also asked voters to bracket comprehensively whatever they privately believed about his faith, in return for his assurance that he would govern as a Democrat rather than as a Catholic. Those who know me know that my faith is far too integral a part of my life, and of my motivation to serve, for me to ever succeed in bracketing the moral values I draw from it.

Instead I ask not to adopt the details of my church’s doctrines, but rather to accept the faith I profess as my own legitimate and positive source of those moral values which so many Americans share, and which will – inevitably and rightly – guide my choices as President.

The LDS Church is one of many descendants of the great Judeo-Christian tradition in which so many of our nation’s shared values are rooted. Our church first flowered in American soil because of this nation’s bedrock commitment -- not always fulfilled, but never forgotten -- to a society of tolerance and religious liberty.

Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits.” I am proud of the fruits my church has produced. I am proud that we have made the family the center of our faith community, and I am proud that we have helped to build and sustain some of our nation’s strongest and most loving households. I am proud that we have cultivated in our members and in our children the great American virtues of hard work and individual initiative. I am proud that as a church we have reached out to every corner of the world with the story of God’s love and redemption.

I am also proud to be a member of the Republican Party. I take great pride in the fact that so many in our party see the practice of their citizenship as an integral part of the acting out of their faith. I am so very proud that our different faith commitments lead us to stand up together for unborn children and for traditional families. Our shared traditions of faith all profess that God is alone King – not any man, nor any party, nor in the end any church. That is what makes a pluralistic and free society possible.

I must be honest: as President, I would inevitably govern as a Mormon – though of course not only as a Mormon. I would be entrusted – by you, and I believe also by God – to be president of all the people, not just who shared my beliefs; to be true to myself, but also true to all my fellow citizens in all their myriad, and worthy, faith commitments.

In recent years our nation has churned with social discord and unrest, fueled by essentialist claims about our religious identities that serve to polarize and isolate rather than harmonize and heal. But in a deeply pluralistic society like ours, no party and no cause can hope to lead a stable majority until it can learn to transcend even significant differences in doctrine and belief to advance broader purposes and the common good.

And so, my fellow Americans, I ask you today to embrace again what is perhaps the oldest and most fundamental idea of American life: the belief that we can still make common cause, even within a framework of genuine religious difference.

Fulfilling that promise would be a victory, not of party or of creed, but rather of the ideal of authentic civic respect – and for the enduring truth that in America it is our many-ness that cradles our precious oneness.

 

Posted 2-27-08