COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Stepping beyond John F. Kennedy"s nearly 50-year-old commitment to absolute separation of church and state, Mitt Romney declared Thursday that the nation is rooted in religious values that leaders must preserve 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.

Romney suggested a need to reaffirm religion"s role in public life. "We are a nation 'Under God" and in God, we do indeed trust,"" Romney said. "We should acknowledge the Creator as did the (nation"s) founders — in ceremony and word. He should remain on our currency, in our pledge, in the teaching of our history, and during the holiday season, nativity scenes and menorahs should be welcome in our public places.

" ... 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."