Romney’s Religion Speech – A Solid “A” to Read and a “B-” to Watch

Mitt Romney gave his big religious speech today and, on the whole, I thought it was a pretty good speech.

There weren’t any real surprises in it and, contra Mona Charen, I thought it was fairly bland and delivered with not any particular emotion. Perhaps I’m reading Romney different than Charen does, but I just don’t get any real passion from him. It seemed that he wasn’t much more than a guy with good delivery reading a speech that someone else wrote for him. The speech itself was very good, but it didn’t really give me a chill or make me smile or give me anything to think about. Did he deliver the speech “from his heart”? Well, I really don’t know. I’m sure he firmly believes everything he said and that he wasn’t dissembling or equivocating. But the speech didn’t really seem to be fully “his”.

That really is my one big quibble about the speech. It felt as if you could have put it in the hands of pretty much any Republican candidate or a couple or three of the Democrats’ and it would have been equally appropriate. Romney said at the beginning of the speech that it would “offer perspectives on how my own faith would inform my Presidency, if I were elected” but it didn’t. It was inspired, but not individual. It delivered pretty much the same thoughts about religion in America that have been said since Alexis de Tocqueville and it didn’t do so in a way that anyone’s really going to remember. It could have been an important moment in the Presidential race, but Romney seemed to just let it fall flat. The speech will certainly help him, but not nearly as much as it could have.

A couple good excerpts and reactions from around the blogosphere after the jump.

I thought this part of the speech was particularly strong.

Americans acknowledge that liberty is a gift of God, not an indulgence of government. No people in the history of the world have sacrificed as much for liberty. The lives of hundreds of thousands of America’s sons and daughters were laid down during the last century to preserve freedom, for us and for freedom loving people throughout the world. America took nothing from that Century’s terrible wars — no land from Germany or Japan or Korea; no treasure; no oath of fealty. America’s resolve in the defense of liberty has been tested time and again. It has not been found wanting, nor must it ever be. America must never falter in holding high the banner of freedom.

These American values, this great moral heritage, is shared and lived in my religion as it is in yours. I was taught in my home to honor God and love my neighbor. I saw my father march with Martin Luther King. I saw my parents provide compassionate care to others, in personal ways to people nearby, and in just as consequential ways in leading national volunteer movements. I am moved by the Lord’s words: ‘For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me…’

My faith is grounded on these truths. You can witness them in Ann and my marriage and in our family. We are a long way from perfect and we have surely stumbled along the way, but our aspirations, our values, are the self-same as those from the other faiths that stand upon this common foundation. And these convictions will indeed inform my presidency.

That ought to silence his critics. It won’t, but it should.

This, also, is a section that should be quoted widely. I’m not sure it will, but it does encapsulate the war we’re fighting right now about as well as it can be.

I’m not sure that we fully appreciate the profound implications of our tradition of religious liberty. I have visited many of the magnificent cathedrals in Europe. They are so inspired … so grand … so empty. Raised up over generations, long ago, so many of the cathedrals now stand as the postcard backdrop to societies just too busy or too ‘enlightened’ to venture inside and kneel in prayer. The establishment of state religions in Europe did no favor to Europe’s churches. And though you will find many people of strong faith there, the churches themselves seem to be withering away.

Infinitely worse is the other extreme, the creed of conversion by conquest: violent Jihad, murder as martyrdom… killing Christians, Jews, and Muslims with equal indifference. These radical Islamists do their preaching not by reason or example, but in the coercion of minds and the shedding of blood. We face no greater danger today than theocratic tyranny, and the boundless suffering these states and groups could inflict if given the chance.

The diversity of our cultural expression, and the vibrancy of our religious dialogue, has kept America in the forefront of civilized nations even as others regard religious freedom as something to be destroyed.

In such a world, we can be deeply thankful that we live in a land where reason and religion are friends and allies in the cause of liberty, joined against the evils and dangers of the day. And you can be certain of this: Any believer in religious freedom, any person who has knelt in prayer to the Almighty, has a friend and ally in me. And so it is for hundreds of millions of our countrymen: we do not insist on a single strain of religion — rather, we welcome our nation’s symphony of faith.

That is the essence of the war the Islamists have brought to us. We fight to preserve and widen the freedom of people, here and elsewhere, to worship the religion of their choice with the full and enthusiastic support of a freely-chosen government. The Islamists seek to forced everyone into submission to Islam and they do not care how much suffering they inflict to do so. Our Presidential candidates can not say this often enough nor can they emphasize the difference between us and the Islamists strongly enough.

Ed Morrssey liked the speech and how Romney delivered it, though he thought it could have delivered more. Michelle Malkin thought that it was a “good day” if for no other reason than the speech put the matter of tolerance right back in the hands of the professional tolerance-lecturers. Sister Toldjah says that it’s a speech that has to be made, considering that Romney’s beliefs have been causing some concern. Michael van der Galien thought the speech was “great” and “awesome” and his live-blogging comments are well worth reading. Mary Katharine Ham liked the speech also, but felt about it much as I do.

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Category: Fighting the Islamists, Gimme that Old Time Religion, The 2008 Horse Race