Fr. Neuhaus on Governor Romney’s Faith Speech

December 10th, 2007 at 09:36am Mark Noonan

The view from one of the strongest Catholic and religious voices in America today:

It was a powerful speech powerfully delivered. I don’t do political endorsements but am on record as saying that I think Mitt Romney is in many ways well qualified to be president. There is nothing in the speech that prompts a change of mind on that.

Note the title “Faith in America.” That has an obvious and, I expect, intended double meaning: Faith as it is practiced in America, and faith in America, i.e., America as an object of faith. The entire address is a skillful weaving together of those two themes.

I strongly suggest reading the whole thing. Fr. Neuhaus points out that we Catholics - as well as Jewish Americans - are less likely to have trouble with a President Romney than our Evangelical brothers and sisters may have. Aside from John Kennedy - who, Neuhaus points out, wasn’t much of a Catholic - all American Presidents have been Protestants from the Protestant mainstream of American life. We’re used to it, you see? Having, that is, a President we consider wrong on some fundamental religious issues. Given this, having a Mormon as President isn’t disturbing to us, regardless of what we feel about some particular theological aspects of the Mormon faith. For Evangelicals, it is a bit different.

While Mormons will stoutly assert they are Christian, Christians are mostly unwilling to accept this assertion. The Mormon faith grew out of the Christian faith (especially the Protestant branch of it), but it can’t be said to be in direct line descent from the early Church of the Apostles. Mormons have an answer for this objection, but the answer isn’t really relevant - the fact of Christianity considering Mormonism to be outside the Christian Church won’t be changed by Mormons explaining themselves, certainly not in time for the 2008 election. Whatever may happen in the future to reconcile the Mormons with Christians, for now it is just something to be dealt with, as is. Romney’s speech, at bottom, was an attempt to deal with it by stressing the shared values between Mormons and traditional Christians.

And there is a lot of that - and God grant that we Christians emulate the Mormons in their devotion to their faith in such things as tithing and mutual support amongst the members of the community. Think about it - aside from that crackpot, polygamist Mormon sect, have you ever heard of a Mormon running afoul of the law? They work hard, raise their families, pay their taxes, obey the laws and in all manner of actions make our nation the better for their being in it. Given the practical results of the Mormon faith as demonstrated by Governor Romney and his faimly, it should only be on matters of policy that a person votes for, or against, Romney. But it may not be like that at all.

While Governor Romney’s speech did a lot of good things, only time will tell if Evangelical voters have been convinced to support Romney in the primaries. One hopes that each GOP primary voter is weighing things entirely on rock-solid policy issues, but there’s no way to tell what will factor into a person’s actual vote. Its a subjective thing, and it might not be resolved in a lot of minds until the voter is in the voting booth, making the actual vote. All Governor Romney can do from this point on is argue his positions, and hope that he’s crafted the right set of policy proposals to offset any lingering doubts on the religion issue.

Tags: Christianity, Mormon, Republican Nomination, Romney

Entry Filed under: Campaign 2008, Religion, Republicans

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