Interfaith Alliance chief urges Mitt Romney to give a 'JFK speech'
"There is a lot of misunderstanding, there are myths, there are misperceptions about the Mormon faith," the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, pastor of a Baptist church in Louisiana, said during a teleconference on the role of religion in the 2008 presidential election.
The Rev. Gaddy said Romney likely will have to give a speech similar to one given to Southern Baptist leaders in 1960 by then-Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy to address concerns raised about the control the Catholic Church might hold over him.
"I have a sense that as the race goes on, and particularly if Mitt Romney gets the Republican nomination, that he's going to be forced to do a statement such as John F. Kennedy did in Houston saying precisely what role religion plays in his life and how it would impact his presidency," the Rev. Gaddy told reporters on the conference call.
That doesn't mean, though, that the host of the "State of Belief" program on the liberal "Air America" network believes the discussion should focus on the merits of membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Romney isn't the first Mormon to run for president — Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch made an unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination in 2000, and so did Romney's father in 1968, the late Michigan governor George Romney, as well as LDS Church founder Joseph Smith.
But Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, is widely seen as a top-tier candidate for the Republican nomination, even leading polls in the early primary voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
His high profile in the race for the White House has attracted attacks on Mormonism from evangelical Christian conservatives, liberal pundits and others, including workers from rival Republican campaigns.
Romney told the Deseret Morning News in August that he wouldn't be a "shrinking violet" when it comes to defending his faith, but he wasn't ready to commit to giving a so-called "JFK speech" about Mormonism.
A spokeswoman for the Romney campaign, Gail Gitcho, said Wednesday that "Gov. Romney has previously indicated that he was considering a speech dealing with faith and values. No decision has been made, and it remains under consideration by the governor."
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