The Secular Coalition for America Responds to Gov. Romney’s Speech, "Faith in America"

Washington, DC - On December 6, Governor Mitt Romney, Republican presidential Candidate, delivered a speech designed to calm Americans' concerns about his Mormon religion. Reacting to that speech, Lori Lipman Brown, Director of the Secular Coalition, said:

Romney's candidacy exposes the sad truth that there is, in fact, a religious test for those seeking the presidency in America today. Romney enabled that religious test merely by delivering a speech in which his chief message was that he is a man of faith.

Gov. Romney’s candidacy exposes the sad truth that there is, in fact, a religious test for those seeking the Presidency in America today. He refused to discuss his Mormon beliefs yesterday, saying that to "describe or explain his church's distinctive doctrines...would enable the very religious test the founders prohibited in the Constitution." But in fact he enabled that religious test merely by delivering a speech in which his chief message was that he is a man of faith.

Gov. Romney repeatedly misrepresented the Founders' view of the role of religion in our government, and in so doing further marginalized not only the tens of millions of Americans without a god belief, but also those who cherish our unique form of government -- one which, by its secular tradition, protects all Americans, be they Mormons or atheists.

Gov. Romney says that "Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom." But people who live under theocratic regimes would surely disagree. The Islamic regimes that are of such concern to candidate Romney are evidence that religion can thrive in the absence of freedom, and that freedom cannot flourish when religion is imposed on governance.

Gov. Romney said yesterday that taking the presidential oath of office would be his "highest promise to God." But a president takes an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States; it is a promise to all the people of this nation, not to God, and it must not be subverted. The Constitution and its protections include all Americans, including those who do not share Gov. Romney's god-belief.

Gov. Romney said, "I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office and the sovereign authority of the law." We agree. However, this candidate has indicated that he would impose his theology on everything from state-sanctioned civil marriage licenses to the status of newly fertilized human eggs. Again and again he promises to bear the standard for the religious right, a minority who holds excessive power in today's America.

Gov. Romney stated, "Let me assure you that no authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions. Their authority is theirs, within the province of church affairs, and it ends where the affairs of the nation begin." This is a statement we would like to hear from every candidate for president. However, it is inconsistent with his statements claiming that a specific theology (not an agreed-upon doctrine of all religions and certainly not inclusive of nonreligious Americans) shall rule in areas of individual Americans' private lives -- from decisions regarding life and death to marriage and family. We support keeping a president's theology from dictating civil law, but this candidate takes positions which prove to be theocratic in nature and belie his statements to the contrary.

Quite predictably, in his speech Gov. Romney held up the straw man of a movement to "remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God, and ... intent on establishing a new religion in America -- the religion of secularism." Removing a government endorsement of religion does NOT endorse the lack of religion; it leaves the government neutral on issues outside of its domain. The Secular Coalition for America and those we represent are committed only to preserving a secular government. Only a government that is neutral with regard to religion can serve all Americans -- religious and nonreligious alike.

Gov. Romney also revealed his own religious bigotry when he asserted that moral values come only when one follows a religion, that he was taught to "honor God and love my neighbor" as if the two were inseparable, and touts his family's involvement in civil rights and compassionate care. But Gov. Romney needs to know that, like so many secular Americans, I too watched my notheistic parents march for civil rights, that I too delivered "compassionate care" to others (including working directly with homeless families on a volunteer basis). I want Gov. Romney to know that I and other nonbelievers are no less moral -- and no less deserving of equal treatment and representation in the United States of America -- than are religious Americans.

The Secular Coalition for America is dismayed by the bias against nontheists evident in Gov. Romney's "Faith in America" speech. At best, Romney's view of society makes tens of millions of nonreligious Americans invisible; at worst, it demonizes them simply for exercising the very freedom of conscience Romney demands for himself. As president Romney would serve Christians and Jews, Mormons and Catholics, Wiccans and Muslims, atheists and agnostics -- all Americans and all protected by the same secular Constitution. But as a presidential hopeful, Gov. Romney has sadly traded the sacred space of American pluralism for a church revival tent.

The Secular Coalition for America is the national lobby for atheists, humanists, freethinkers and other nonthseistic Americans. From our office in the nation's capital, our full-time lobbyist and support staff engage public policy makers and the media to increase the visibility and respectability of nontheistic viewpoints and to protect and strengthen the secular character of our government as the best guarantee of freedom for all. Our Congressional scorecards show which elected officials in Washington are fighting to protect that secular heritage. Information is at www.secular.org.

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