- WALLACE: I want to ask you about another area of possible controversy and it involves something very personal, your religion. You are a Mormon. As you well know, a number of evangelicals say that could be a problem for you in Republican primaries because they say Mormonism is a cult. Your response.
- ROMNEY: Well, I think people in this country want a person of faith to lead them as their governor, as their senator, as their president. I don't think most people care what brand of faith they have. And I don't believe that that's been an issue for me in my race for governor.
It wasn't an issue, I believe, serious, for John Kennedy when he ran for president. People said oh, gosh, Ronald Reagan, he's been an actor who's been divorced, you can't elect him. Those things, I think, get swept away as people get to know the individual, understand their character, their vision, their values, and I think that's true regardless of a person's faith if they are a faithful person.
- WALLACE: You know, it obviously is a very personal area, but I do want to pursue it a little bit, because, as you pointed out, in 1960, John Kennedy had to go before a group of ministers and talk about the fact that he wasn't going to take orders from the pope.
So let me ask you about the specific concerns that evangelicals have. They say that you believe in books of scripture that are outside the Bible, that the founder of the Mormon church, Joseph Smith, said that his was the only true faith.
So let me just ask you a couple of specific questions. Do you believe in the Book of Mormons and do you follow the tenets of Smith's religion?
- ROMNEY: You know, I'm never going to get into a discussion about my personal beliefs and about particular doctrines of my church, and so forth. I'm very proud of my church. It was the church of my father, and his father, and his father before him.
But what I can say is this. And I go back to a speech that Abraham Lincoln made when he was 28 years old, the Lyceum Address, when he said that America has a political religion and that people who are elected to office subscribe to this political religion, which is to place the oath of office, an oath to abide by a nation of laws and the Constitution, above all others.
And there's no question that as I take the oath of office as governor, and have, that I make that my primary responsibility. And you know, I don't think getting into any particular religion makes any sense for somebody who's serving the public.
- 1st Debate
- What do you say to bishops who deny Communion to elected officials who support abortion rights?
- Do you accept Huckabee's statement that he wasn't talking about you?
- Mike Allen
- Why are key tenets of your faith still misunderstood?
- How is your church so successful in getting its young people to follow its teachings?
- Brian Lamb
- Who was Brigham Young?
- Well, if you go back -- and I found the name Pratt in your background who was some circuitous route related to Joseph Smith who was one of the founders of Mormonism.
- Are you prepared to deal with attacks on your religion?
- Do you have an evangelical problem?
- Has there been a mood change in the country about the importance of talking about religion?
- One place that I found that you almost died (His Mission)
- Wolf Blitzer
- How do you deal with the fact that you are a Mormon?
- Robert B Bluey
- Are you prepared to deal with what is bound to be attacks from the media and opponents about your religious faith?
- Wolf Blitzer
- Will evangelicals support a Mormon?
- Hugh Hewitt
- Does the country know enough about radical islam?
- Do you stand by your use of the word Islamic-facism?
- How many times are you going to have to ask and answer these questions?
- Jay Leno
- Is their enough diversity within the Mormon Church?
- Katherine Jean Lopez
- Will an exposé on Mormon Christmas celebrations hurt you in the primaries?
- George Stephanopoulos
- How does your faith inform your politics?
- Chris Wallace
- Are you a cultist?
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