College Station, TX - Speaking at The George Bush Presidential Library,
Governor Romney addressed the American people about his views on
religious liberty, our country grand tradition of religious tolerance
and how faith would inform his Presidency.
Governor Romney's "Faith In America" Address (As Prepared For Delivery):
"Thank you, Mr. President, for your kind introduction.
"It is an honor to be here today. This is an inspiring place because of
you and the First Lady and because of the film exhibited across the way
in the Presidential library. For those who have not seen it, it shows
the President as a young pilot, shot down during the Second World War,
being rescued from his life-raft by the crew of an American submarine.
It is a moving reminder that when America has faced challenge and peril,
Americans rise to the occasion, willing to risk their very lives to
defend freedom and preserve our nation. We are in your debt. Thank
you, Mr. President.
"Mr. President, your generation rose to the occasion, first to defeat
Fascism and then to vanquish the Soviet Union. You left us, your
children, a free and strong America. It is why we call yours the
greatest generation. It is now my generation's turn. How we respond to
today's challenges will define our generation. And it will determine
what kind of America we will leave our children, and theirs.
"America faces a new generation of challenges. Radical violent Islam
seeks to destroy us. An emerging China endeavors to surpass our
economic leadership. And we are troubled at home by government
overspending, overuse of foreign oil, and the breakdown of the family.
"Over the last year, we have embarked on a national debate on how best
to preserve American leadership. Today, I wish to address a topic which
I believe is fundamental to America's greatness: our religious liberty.
I will also offer perspectives on how my own faith would inform my
Presidency, if I were elected.
"There are some who may feel that religion is not a matter to be
seriously considered in the context of the weighty threats that face us.
If so, they are at odds with the nation's founders, for they, when our
nation faced its greatest peril, sought the blessings of the Creator.
And further, they discovered the essential connection between the
survival of a free land and the protection of religious freedom. In
John Adams' words: 'We have no government armed with power capable of
contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion... Our
constitution was made for a moral and religious people.'