Life's an Adventure

Sander and I are off tomorrow morning to hear this "definitive" speech by Romney. My sister Victoria works as the Bush Presidential Library and has miraculously managed to get not one, but TWO tickets to this invitation only speech. Romney has chosen to fill it with only his invited guests and the press. We'll keep you updated.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16933414

All Things Considered, December 5, 2007 ·
In a speech at Texas A&M University, Romney will try to dispel concerns
about his religion, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The speech
has been compared to John F. Kennedy's address to Protestant Evangelical pastors
in 1960, and he hopes it will give him an easier forum to explain a complicated
religion.
For example, last week during the CNN/YouTube debate, Romney was
asked an awkward question for a Mormon: Does he believe every word of the Bible?
"You know," Romney sputtered uncharacteristically, "yes, I believe it's the
word of God, the Bible is the word of God. The Bible is the word of God. I mean,
I might interpret the word differently than you interpret the word, but I read
the Bible and I believe the Bible is the word of God. I don't disagree with the
Bible. I try to live by it."
Romney did not say he believes the Bible is
inerrant, which evangelical Christians do. Nor did he say he believes the Book
of Mormon is a new revelation from God, which Christians reject. Such
theological shoals are difficult to negotiate in sound bites. And so Romney is
offering a summary of his faith on his own terms – uninterrupted – in a speech
in Texas on Thursday.
Shaun Casey, an expert on religion and politics at
Wesley Theological Seminary, says Romney will be talking to the people he needs
to in order to win the Republican nomination: the nearly 40 percent of white
evangelicals who hold an unfavorable opinion of the Mormon faith.
"He has to
show that his Mormon values are equivalent with evangelical, Christian values,"
Casey says. "The difficulty is he really can't drill down very far doctrinally
or theologically because of some of the historic differences and the historic
animosity between evangelical Christians on the one hand and Mormons on the
other."
You could hear that ambivalence at Bob Evan's restaurant in
Springfield, Va., where a group of men met to study the Bible on Wednesday
morning. While Mormons insist that their faith is Christian, Lou Preebee says,
they hold different views of the role of Jesus, salvation, the afterlife and the
Trinity.
"By definition, you have to wonder if Mormonism is an authentic
Christian faith. Most evangelicals would say definitely not," Prebee says,
adding that electing a Mormon president would send a signal. "It gives a
validation of Mormonism as a legitimate Christian denomination, which it is
not."
Computer programmer Eric Hughes is willing to consider Romney — and he
says Romney's speech could help or hurt his vote.
"Probably the biggest deal
breaker for me would be if he were to go up there and claim that fundamental
Christianity and Mormonism are identical," he said.
Why would that be a deal
breaker?
"There are so many chameleons," Hughes says, "I would love to see
somebody who can be completely open and honest with their faith."
Ralph
Weitz, a lay minister, says he, too, is troubled by the doctrines of Mormonism.
"But on the other side, the Mormon faith does bring some values to the
table, just like Kennedy's Catholicism did," Weitz says. "And he needs to
clarify how much he will be controlled by the denomination, versus a faith that
brings value."
In September 1960, then-Sen. John F. Kennedy made a speech to
Evangelical leaders in Houston, Texas. Like Romney, Kennedy faced questions
about whether he would follow the wishes of his church in public policy. He
declared he would not. And he warned about religious intolerance.
"For while
this year, it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed,
in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew, or a Quaker, or a
Unitarian, or a Baptist," Kennedy told the conservative pastors.
Kennedy
added: "It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that
helped lead to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the
victim, but tomorrow it may be you, until the whole fabric of our harmonious
society is ripped at a time of great national peril."
But much has changed in
nearly a half-century. In 1960, political candidates were not expected to wear
their faith on their sleeve, as many do today. Kennedy also represented a
religion followed by nearly one-third of all Americans. Mormonism claims about 3
percent.
And yet, some evangelical leaders have been receptive to Romney's
message. Albert Mohler at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville
has not endorsed Romney, but says he finds him an "attractive candidate."
"I
find him attractive in terms of his policy positions," Mohler says. "And, I
think along with many evangelicals, I would find Mitt Romney very attractive in
terms of who he is as a man, as a husband, as a father. I think you're looking
at someone who really does have the kind of experience, who carries himself like
a president, and one that evangelicals could see in that office."
Mohler says
evangelicals who say they won't vote for a Mormon may reconsider:
"If, for
instance, there is a liberal Democrat, a Hillary Clinton, for example, at the
top of the Democratic ticket, I think an awful lot of evangelicals will
discover, 'Well, you know, a week ago, I didn't think I could vote for a Mormon.
But now, I think I will.'"
Mitt Romney hopes to make that easier for them,
starting with Thursday's speech.