Mitt undecided on a speech about his faith

PRINCETON, N.J. — Voters still have to wait, perhaps indefinitely, for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to give a John F. Kennedy-style speech addressing his faith — which is just fine with some religious scholars and political experts.

At a Saturday campaign event in New Hampshire, Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and a Mormon, said he likes the idea of such a speech, but his advisers have warned him against it.

Meanwhile at Princeton University on Saturday, some religious scholars said such an address could help clear concerns voters have about sending a Mormon to the White House, while others said such a speech would not help much.

"Now is not the time to rock the boat," said Noah Feldman, a Harvard Law School professor who specializes in the relationship between law and religion. He said Romney is doing well in the early voting states of New Hampshire and Iowa, and has used his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to show evangelicals and other Christian voters that they share the same basic values.

"The values of my faith flow from the Judeo-Christian heritage that we probably all share in this room, which are values of believing in God," Romney said in New Hampshire. "In the case of those that follow the Christian line of that philosophy, I believe Jesus Christ is my savior. I believe in the Bible. I believe that liberty is a gift of God and not of government. I believe in serving other people, that it's part of a religious heritage."

Romney said that he hasn't yet decided whether to give a major speech regarding his faith.

"Until that time, you'll have to rely on what you just heard," he said to applause in New Hampshire.

In New Jersey, as part of a keynote address at a two-day seminar called "Mormonism and American Politics" hosted by Princeton University's Center for the Study of Religion, Feldman said the main question is what Romney would have to say in such a speech. Because he is using his LDS faith as a way to connect with other religious voters, he is facing a different scenario than President Kennedy.

On Sept. 12, 1960, then-Sen. John Kennedy told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association that there are bigger issues facing the country than his being a Catholic. He emphasized that he did not speak for the Catholic Church on issues, and the church did not speak for him.

"I am not the Catholic candidate for president," Kennedy said. "I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic."

Kennedy told the gathering he would make decisions based on what his conscience would tell him would be in the best national interest, not what outside religious pressure would dictate.