When he did talk about the Mormon religion, Romney said he would not distance himself from it, saying he believed in it and strived to live by its precepts.

"Some believe such a confession of my faith will sink my candidacy," he said. "If they are right, so be it. But I think they underestimate the American people. Americans do not respect believers of convenience. Americans tire of those who would jettison their beliefs, even to gain the world."

Romney said it was inappropriate for a presidential candidate to be asked to explain the details of his or her faith.

"There are some who would have a presidential candidate describe and explain his church's distinctive doctrines," he said. "To do so would enable the very religious test the founders prohibited in the Constitution. No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith. For if he becomes president he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths."

His one allusion to the fact that many people, especially evangelical Christians, do not consider Mormonism to be part of Christian orthodoxy came when Romney spoke of his belief in Jesus Christ. In a notable departure from the way he has talked about the subject on the stump, he added a caveat that other people might have different interpretations, an apparent reaction to the way some evangelicals have recoiled from Romney's past mentions of Jesus Christ, apparently intended to signal some kinship with them.

"I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind," Romney said. "My church's beliefs about Christ may not all be the same as those of other faiths. Each religion has its own unique doctrines and history. These are not bases for criticism but rather a test of our tolerance. Religious tolerance would be a shallow principle indeed if it were reserved only for faiths with which we agree."

The speech drew inevitable comparisons to John F. Kennedy's speech nearly a half-century ago in Houston, when he strolled directly into the lion's den of Protestant religious opposition to his Roman Catholicism, and promised that he would uphold the separation of church and state before a gathering of Southern Baptist ministers. Romney alluded to that event himself.

Romney's address on Thursday, however, differed significantly from that signal moment in recent history, which historians say was a turning point in the 1960 election. For one thing, Kennedy later took questions hurled at him from the ministers, many of them hostile, while Romney spoke before a friendly audience whose front row included four of his five sons and his wife, Ann, as well as many people affiliated with the campaign.