Romney address may skirt religion

This weekend, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney will deliver the commencement address at a conservative Christian college campus — but don't expect a major speech on his own LDS faith.

Some political pundits have said the Saturday speech at Regent University in Virginia should be used by Romney to confront misconceptions about his beliefs just as John F. Kennedy did nearly a half-century ago as a Catholic candidate.

But campaign officials tell the Deseret Morning News that Romney isn't ready to give the so-called "JFK speech" even though the school founded by televangelist Pat Robertson could be the perfect venue because evangelical Christians are among the toughest critics of Mormonism.

Romney, they say, has yet to decide when — or even if — during the 2008 race for the White House he'll deal directly with questions raised about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including whether an LDS president would take orders from church leaders.

"I think the governor is perfectly willing to talk about issues people care about ... the economy, national security, health care, immigration," Romney's spokesman, Kevin Madden, said Tuesday.

The interest in Romney's religion is coming mainly from the media, Madden said, not voters. "In terms of faith," he said, "when we're on the campaign trail, most people express they do want someone of strong faith to lead the country."

Saturday, Romney will focus on the graduates and their achievements, not his own beliefs, according to his traveling press secretary, Eric Fehrnstrom. He'll offer advice on how the "graduates can live outside themselves and make their nation and communities better places to live," Fehrnstrom said.

But Romney's address, "Leadership in Critical Times," likely won't ignore religion altogether. Faith is, after all, key to the two-decade-old institution whose low-ranked law school has placed some 150 graduates in the Bush administration, including a former top aide to embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Kennedy waited until less than two months before the 1960 presidential election to counter claims that as a Catholic he'd be controlled by the pope, telling Southern Baptist leaders meeting in Houston that he'd govern "without regard to outside pressure or dictate."

It's time for Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and Utah Olympic leader, to do the same, at least according to several recent articles written by a variety of sources ranging from a Regent University dean to a contributing editor at Newsweek magazine.