Romney tries to reassure evangelical voters

LYNCHBURG, Virginia (AP) — Mitt Romney sought to win over evangelical voters Saturday 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 Saturday on commencement day at Liberty University, which was founded in 1971 by the late Rev. 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 like former Pennsylvania Sen. 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 U.S. 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 hot-button social issues, instead offering a broad-based defense of values like family and hard work. He discussed his own family and offered a defense of Christianity, saying that "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 gathered in the football stadium on Liberty University's campus in the Virginia mountains.

On Saturday, Obama was not seeking to revisit the issue of gay marriage. In his weekly radio and Internet address, the president didn't mention his history-making endorsement. Instead, he repeated his call for congressional lawmakers to take up a "to-do list" of tax breaks, mortgage relief and other initiatives that he insists will 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 re-election effort, Obama appeared in the Rose Garden of the White House to honor award-winning law enforcement officers.

It was Obama's first joint appearance with Vice President Joe Biden after Biden, according to aides, apologized 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 were all smiles as they walked to the sun-splashed ceremony together. 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 himself as the first Mormon nominee from a major party. His faith is central to him and to his family — he spent two years in France as a missionary. When he returned home, 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 counseling families in need.

But he's mostly avoided talking about it on the campaign trail, largely avoiding religious forums and events throughout the primary season.

And at arguably the most religious venue he's addressed during the campaign — since announcing his bid, Romney hasn't made a public appearance in a church of any kind — he continued to keep his own faith in the background.

"This isn't a speech about Mormonism," senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told reporters Friday on a conference call. Fehrnstrom pointed to the speech Romney gave in Texas in 2007 outlining his faith and defending religious freedom — the last time the former Massachusetts governor has addressed his faith in any detail.

Still, it was clear the campaign was keenly aware of the overtones. Romney was introduced by Mark DeMoss, an evangelical who has repeatedly defended Romney's faith on the campaign trail. "I suspect I won't agree with Mitt Romney on everything, but I will tell you this: I trust him. I trust him to do the right thing," said DeMoss, who went on with a lengthy testament to Romney's values.

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 same-sex marriage is likely to further coalesce support for Romney among Republican social conservatives.

As governor of Massachusetts, Romney championed a state constitutional amendment to bar gay marriage. He says he supports a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

Still, Romney has a history of supporting certain gay rights. He is in favor of allowing states to give same-sex couples certain domestic partnership benefits, including adoption.

Romney's views on gay marriage and other social issues are shaped by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mormon doctrine defines marriage as between a man and a woman and considers sexual activity outside of marriage a sin.

Romney's selection as commencement speaker was an issue for some students who graduated from Liberty this weekend. When the school announced Romney as commencement speaker, hundreds of angry comments were posted on Liberty's Facebook page by people who said they were students or alumni, objecting to giving a Mormon a platform. The school responded by affirming its welcome to Romney.

"There was some concern in my family, yes," because of Romney's Mormonism, said Robert Maginnis, a retired Army colonel whose nephew is a member of the 2012 class.

A spokesman for Liberty, Johnnie Moore, said that Romney was not the first Mormon to speak at a university commencement.

Ahead of Romney's remarks, University Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said the school's invitation to him should not be considered an endorsement. He noted that his father, the school's founder, said that Christians should vote for the candidate who shares their political positions "not the candidate that shares his or her faith or theology."