From Deseret News archives:
Romney urges protection against secularism
The former Massachusetts governor"s chase of the Republican presidential nomination has been threatened in the early-voting state of Iowa by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist minister. In his speech, Romney echoed Kennedy"s remarks in Houston before Kennedy won the presidency in 1960.
Like Kennedy, who reaffirmed his Catholic allegiance, Romney said he wouldn"t forsake his Mormon religion. Like Kennedy, Romney also said he wouldn"t be ruled by his church if elected president.
"I will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause, and no one interest,"" Romney said. "A president must serve only the common cause of the people.""
His 20-minute speech, delivered against a backdrop of U.S. flags during a week he was raising money in Texas, mentioned the word "Mormon"" only once.
" ... I will take care to separate the affairs of government from any religion, but I will not separate us from 'the God who gave us liberty.'"
That statement drew one of about a dozen pops of applause from an audience of invited guests in an auditorium at the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University. The guests were joined by former President George H.W. Bush, Barbara Bush and most of Romney"s immediate family, who climbed on stage afterward to stand with Romney.
Romney, who listed aspects of several religions he admires, said: "Any believer in religious freedom, any person who has knelt in prayer to the Almighty, has a friend and ally in me. And so it is for hundreds of millions of our countrymen: we do not insist on a single strain of religion rather, we welcome our nation"s symphony of faith."
In his only direct use of the word "Mormon," Romney said some would have him distance himself from his religion or disavow its precepts.
"That I will not do," he said. "I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers; I will be true to them and to my beliefs."
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