Romney, JFK and the God question<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The atmosphere was tense as the handsome presidential candidate from Massachusetts rose to address an audience packed with Protestant conservatives that\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2007\/05\/romney-jfk-and-the-god-question\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Romney, JFK and the God question\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The atmosphere was tense as the handsome presidential candidate from Massachusetts rose to address an audience packed with Protestant conservatives that\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2007\/05\/romney-jfk-and-the-god-question\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-05-16T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-30T21:42:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2007\/05\/romney-jfk-and-the-god-question\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2007\/05\/romney-jfk-and-the-god-question\/\",\"name\":\"Romney, JFK and the God question\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-05-16T12:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-30T21:42:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"The atmosphere was tense as the handsome presidential candidate from Massachusetts rose to address an audience packed with Protestant conservatives that\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2007\/05\/romney-jfk-and-the-god-question\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2007\/05\/romney-jfk-and-the-god-question\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2007\/05\/romney-jfk-and-the-god-question\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Romney, JFK and the God question\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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{"id":1438,"date":"2007-05-16T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-16T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmatt\/2007\/05\/16\/romney-jfk-and-the-god-question\/"},"modified":"2013-01-30T16:42:13","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T21:42:13","slug":"romney-jfk-and-the-god-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2007\/05\/romney-jfk-and-the-god-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Romney, JFK and the God question"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

We\u2019re not talking about Mitt Romney\u2019s recent trip to Virginia Beach to deliver the commencement address at Regent University. For political insiders, the only controversy in that speech was when he said, \u201cI want to offer my sincere thanks to Dr. Pat Robertson for extending me the honor of addressing you today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

No, the daring campaign address that politicos are still discussing was the one John F. Kennedy delivered in 1960 to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, the speech in which he erected a high wall of separation between his public political life and his private Catholic faith.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI believe in an America,\u201d said Kennedy, \u201cthat is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish \u2014 where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source \u2014 where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials \u2014 and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cFor, 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 \u2014 or a Quaker \u2014 or a Unitarian \u2014 or a Baptist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Or a Mormon? That\u2019s the question facing legions of evangelicals as they gird their loins for battle in the Bible Belt political primaries. They are waiting to see if Romney will publicly address their concerns about his deep Mormon faith<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

That didn\u2019t happen at Regent, where the candidate stuck to marriage, parenting, public service and positive thinking. There was one clear religious reference, when he referred to the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re shocked by the evil of the Virginia Tech shooting,\u201d said Romney. \u201cI opened my Bible shortly after I heard of the tragedy. Only a few verses, it seems, after the Fall, we read that Adam and Eve\u2019s oldest son killed his younger brother. From the beginning, there has been evil in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Regent was a signpost in Romney\u2019s quest to calm evangelical fears, in part because the campus contains the headquarters of Robertson\u2019s Christian Broadcasting Network \u2014 which addresses Mormonism in its \u201cHow Do I Recognize a Cult?\u201d website page. It states, for example, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> is a \u201cprosperous, growing organization that has produced many people of exemplary character. But when it comes to spiritual matters, the Mormons<\/a> are far from the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

That passage is mild compared to the incendiary language common among many Christian conservatives. Bill Keller of LivePrayer.com, for example, bluntly states that the teachings of the \u201cMormon cult are doctrinally and theologically in complete opposition to the Absolute Truth of God\u2019s Word. There is no common ground. If Mormonism is true, then the Christian faith is a complete lie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Mormons do believe that the Old and New Testaments \u2014 as read by traditional Christians \u2014 are packed with errors and that Mormonism is the one true faith. Mormons believe that their president is a living prophet and that faithful mortals, in the next life, can achieve godhood. Thus, Mormons reject or redefine the Trinity, teaching that this world\u2019s Father God has both a literal body and a literal wife.<\/p>\n\n

These are not the issues that obsess typical voters, but they are important to many Christian leaders who wield great influence in the public square. The Vatican, for example, refuses to recognize the validity of Mormon baptisms.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThere are valid questions that Romney will have to answer,\u201d said veteran religion writer Richard Ostling, co-author of \u201cMormon America: The Power and the Promise.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

\u201cPeople need to know, \u2018Is this man going to take orders from Salt Lake City? Are there elements of Mormon theology<\/a> that will affect public policy?\u2019 \u2026 But before he gets to those questions, Romney may have to say, \u2018We have different doctrines. We have different scriptures. \u2026 We even have different concepts of God.\u2019 He has to know that he can\u2019t just say, \u2018We all have the same faith.\u2019 That is not going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"