Romney uses gay issue to marshall support
MITT Romney sought to win over evangelical voters in a speech at a conservative Christian university in which he declared his opposition to gay marriage but barely mentioned the Mormon faith that has shaped his life.
Romney spoke on Saturday on commencement day at Liberty University, which was founded in 1971 by the late Reverend Jerry Falwell, a prominent conservative evangelical leader.
Liberty University has become a destination for Republican politicians looking to speak to the religious right.
Romney’s campaign team – planning the speech long before gay marriage became a central issue – viewed it as an opportunity to address the kind of socially conservative audience that had been wary of him during the prolonged Republican primary fight.
For Romney, the challenge is twofold. His past policy positions, including support for abortion rights, don’t sit well.
But his personal faith is also an issue because many evangelicals don’t consider Mormons to be fellow Christians.
Evangelicals are a critical segment of the Republican base; many of those voters backed his Republican rivals such as former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum in the prolonged primary.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee had one sustained applause line in a 20-minute speech delivered days after President Barack Obama became the first US president to embrace gay marriage.
“Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman,” Romney said to a cheering crowd of students who have to follow a strict code of conduct that considers sex out of wedlock and homosexuality to be sins.
Romney barely touched on hotbutton social issues, instead offering a broad-based defence of values such as family and hard work.
He discussed his own family and offered a defence of Christianity, saying “there is no greater force for good in the nation than Christian conscience in action”.
Still, he was inclusive: “Men and women of every faith, and good people with none at all, sincerely strive to do right and lead a purpose-driven life,” Romney told graduates.
On Saturday, Obama did seek to revisit the issue of marriage.
Instead, he repeated his call for congressional lawmakers to take up a “to-do list” of tax breaks, mortgage relief and other initiatives not gay he insisted would create jobs and help middle-class families struggling in the sluggish economy.
Having spent part of the week on the West Coast raising money for his reelection effort, Obama appeared in the Rose Garden of the White House to honour award-winning law enforcement officers.
It was Obama’s first joint appearance with Vice-president Joe Biden after Biden, according to aides, apologised to the president for pushing gay marriage to the forefront of the presidential campaign and inadvertently pressuring Obama to declare his support for same-sex unions.
Obama and Biden smiles at the ceremony.
Introducing Obama, Biden credited the president’s commitment to law enforcement and the two quickly embraced before Obama spoke.
When he locks in the Republican presidential nomination, Romney will make history as the first Mormon nominee from a major party. His faith is central to him and to his family.
When he returned from missionary work in France, he attended Brigham Young University, a Mormon school, and married his wife, Ann, who had converted to Mormonism.
As they built a life in Boston, Romney took on a significant leadership role in the church, serving as a lay pastor, fighting to build a temple in town and counselling families.
But he’s mostly avoided talking about it on the campaign trail, largely avoiding religious forums and events throughout the primary season.
Despite the concern, surveys have shown for months now that whatever reservations Republican evangelicals have about Romney’s faith, they are likely to back him in a general election.
Obama’s endorsement of samesex marriage is likely to further coalesce support for Romney among Republican social conservatives.
Chancellor Jerry Falwell Junior said the school’s invitation to him should not be considered an endorsement. Christians should vote for the candidate who shared their political positions “not the candidate who shares his or her faith or theology”. — Sapa-ap
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