Romney Defends Faith Speech

Dec. 10, 2007— -- Less than one week after delivering arguably the most important speech of his presidential campaign, Mitt Romney remains confident the country is ready to elect a Mormon president.

"We never selected our president based on which church he went to. That would be a very sad day if we were ever to do so," Romney told ABC News' Charles Gibson.

Last Thursday, the former Massachusetts governor sought to address voters' concerns about his faith.

"If I am fortunate to become your president, I will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause and no one interest. A president must serve only the common cause of the people of the United States," Romney told the crowd at the George H.W. Bush Library at Texas A&M University.

Romney insisted Monday that the speech was an opportunity, not a burden.

"I think a lot of people in this country don't know very much about my faith," he later told Gibson. "I did not see a crying need to give a speech on faith. Instead, I saw that by virtue of having a relatively unknown faith, a lot of people were interested … and wanted to know if I was going to give a Kennedy type speech."

In their one-on-one interview, Gibson asked Romney about his reaction to religious leaders and voters who perceive Mormonism as a "cult."

"You get used to that, and people of different churches are certainly allowed to campaign for their own beliefs," Romney told ABC News.

"But when it comes to selecting a person who is going to be a president or a senator or a governor, surely the differences between competing faiths have to be put aside in recognition that the nation is a nation of diverse beliefs, where people come not to represent their church or their faith but to represent their nation."

Gibson pointed out that Romney used the word "Mormon" only once in his speech.

"There was no particular conscious choice to that," Romney said. "The official name of my church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That's quite a mouthful and not terribly familiar with the people."