Missed Opportunity

Mitt Romney's speech on faith and freedom was well written, well delivered and contained some nice rhetorical flourishes. I personally found little in it with which to disagree. But it was hardly a speech for the ages. To my ear it was a political speech in the narrowest sense, aimed at reassuring evangelical primary voters, especially in Iowa, who are wary of his Mormon faith.

Once again Romney asserted his belief in Jesus Christ as "the Son of God and Savior of mankind." And he went on to acknowledge obliquely that what his church means by that "may not be the same" as other faiths. Evangelicals probably wanted more, but Romney wisely avoided parsing differences. Fair enough.

But the most obvious omission was Romney's failure to follow up on his promise to "offer perspectives on how my own faith would inform my presidency, if I were elected." True, he did tell us—as he had to—that he would not allow the authorities of his church to "exert influence on presidential decisions," that "I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office," and again that "I will serve no one religion…" But there was absolutely nothing in his speech that told us what he would bring from his Mormon faith to benefit his responsibilities as president. None of the other candidates, Democrat or Republican, has been good at answering that question either. But why promise what you do not intend to deliver?

On the other hand, there were numerous points throughout the speech designed to appeal to the party's evangelical base. For example, in his list of  "challenges" foreign and domestic, Romney included "the breakdown of the family." Since Mormons believe that family bonds continue for all eternity, concern for family breakdown in this life is one area where Mormons and evangelicals share a common concern. But he failed to mention what he as president might do to strengthen the family unit.

Among his citations from the Founding Fathers, Romney shrewdly led with a quote from John Adams—"Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people"—that is evangelicalism's favorite proof-text for religion's role in public life. He connected with evangelicals again by pledging not to disavow his Mormon tradition and then wisely asked tolerance from them. His best political dart, aimed it seemed especially at Rudy Giuliani, was: "Americans do not respect believers of convenience."

Romney hit evangelical pay dirt when he included "the right to life itself" with abolition and civil rights in his short list of "movement(s) of conscience."  And he hit it again by denouncing "the religion of secularism." Evangelical leaders have long insisted that secularism is a religion.