According to presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, “the American people want to see a person of faith lead the nation, and I don’t think the American people care very deeply about which brand of faith that is.”  I think that brand of faith should be political faith.

    Romney’s campaign has raised numerous questions about the significance of his Mormon faith for public office. Some observers wonder if non-Mormons, especially evangelical Christians, will not vote for a Mormon candidate because of their doubts about Mormonism as a religion. For example, ABC reporter George Stephanopoulos recently asked Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist, whether Huckabee and Baptists believe Mormonism is a cult.  Other commentators ask if Romney would be beholden to the living prophets of his church, in the same way that an earlier generation of Americans feared that John Kennedy would take orders from the pope. Would President Romney take direction from the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? A third concern involves the substance of Romney’s policies. Would he urge Congress and the American people to enact the tenets of his faith into the laws of the United States? On that subject, the record already reflects that Governor Romney allowed alcohol sales on Sunday and expanded the state lottery even though Mormons are not supposed to drink or gamble. This same issue has also led to some debate about exactly what Mormons believe about abortion and stem cell research, other topics on which the governor has a public record.

    When asked by one interviewer how he would address questions about his religious faith during the presidential campaign, the governor replied:
 
    I think the American people want to see a person of faith lead the nation, and I don’t think the American people care very deeply about which brand     of faith that is.
    There’s not very much that’s well known about my church because it’s not broadly based throughout the nation with large numbers of people who     are adherents. When anything is unknown, people are going to be a little skeptical. But I think, again, as individuals look at my life and my family’s     life, they’ll recognize that my values are quintessential American values; that my religious beliefs are consistent with the religious beliefs of other         Judeo-Christian faiths, such as a belief in the divinity of God and the need to need to provide service to others, the preeminence of the family unit.     These types of elements are what America looks for in a leader. (Robert B. Bluey, “Q&A: Mitt Romney Discusses Iraq War, Reagan’s Influence and Gay     Marriage,” January 1, 2007, www.humanevents.com)

    Romney’s comments suggest two approaches to relating faith to public policy: first, that a Mormon president is acceptable because Mormonism shares common elements with other religious traditions; and second, that Romney will govern according to quintessential American values that are not based on his or any other religious tradition. We can label a candidate from the first school a person of religious faith and the second an individual of political faith.

    The first approach is unsatisfactory. It is philosophically and historically difficult for even learned scholars to identify exactly what qualifies as a religion and what values the world’s religions share or oppose; presidential candidates should be spared the theological controversy that attends such discussions. In a debate set on religious terms, Romney would be repeatedly subjected to questions about the tenets of Mormonism, expected to defend or reject Mormon teachings, and eventually challenged whether Mormonism is really a cult that stands outside of mainstream religious values. During such a campaign, religious voters might expect that the candidate would eventually adopt their religious values instead of his own, because their religious views were more authentic, more common or more American. Indeed, such questions are already being asked today in some circles, namely whether the Mormon Romney can pick up the evangelical vote by moving closer to the tenets of their faith and away from his own.

    John Kennedy anticipated this problem in his presidential campaign by expressing his belief in an America “where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind.” He recognized that campaigns and votes based on blocs of religious belief divide rather than unite, and that political faith—government based on common American values shared by persons of all faiths or no faith at all—protected his practice of Catholicism against critics who derided his religious faith and spread stereotypes about Catholic politicians.

    Recently Governor Romney stated: “I’m not running as pastor-in-chief. I’m running for commander-in-chief.”  I hope this means that he is also a candidate of political faith, and that he has faith in an America where there is no Mormon vote, no anti-Mormon vote, no bloc voting of any kind.