Tom Fudge: Last week, presidential candidate Mitt Romney delivered a speech to address perceived concerns about his faith in Mormonism. His speech was quickly compared to the one John F. Kennedy delivered, when he was a presidential candidate in 1960. In Kennedy's case, the subject was his Roman Catholicism. Kennedy, of course, would soon become this country's first ever Catholic president.
Romney's speech had its own twists and turns, and it had a particular purpose. The people he was trying to reach, primarily, were Christian evangelicals in the state of Iowa, some of whom see Mormonism as a cult. But both Kennedy and Romney were addressing an audience who saw his particular brand of religion as being unconventional and, somehow, un-American.
The United States is a country that has elevated freedom of religion to the highest possible legal status. It's enshrined in our Constitution's Bill of Rights. Yet, religious faith and religious teachings influence all of us in some way. And it's logical for a voter to want to know what a candidate's thoughts on religion are. This may be especially true today, since many issues are subject to the religious beliefs of judges, lawmakers and school board members. You can include, on the list, abortion, birth control, prayer in school, and the teaching of sex education or the theory of evolution.
Guests
- Jan Shipps, professor emeritus of religious studies and history at Indiana University and Purdue in Indianapolis. She is author of the book Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition .
- John Evans, professor of sociology at UC San Diego.
