COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney vowed on Thursday the Mormon church would not run the White House if he is elected, as he sought to reassure Americans wary of his religion.
Attempting to halt a slide in the polls in Iowa, where former Arkansas Gov. and Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee has surged into the lead is many polls, Romney made an impassioned appeal to Americans to look beyond his religion and honour the U.S. tradition of religious tolerance.
"Let me assure you that no authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions. Their authority is theirs, within the province of church affairs, and it ends where the affairs of the nation begin," Romney said.
He spoke at the presidential library of former President George H.W. Bush in College Station, a setting chosen in part because it is not far from Houston, where Democratic candidate John Kennedy addressed Americans about his Catholic religion in 1960 and went on to win the presidency that year.
Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts who would be the first Mormon president of the United States as Kennedy was the first Catholic president, cast himself in Kennedy's mold.
"Like him, I am an American running for president. I do not define my candidacy by my religion. A person should not be elected because of his faith nor should he be rejected because of his faith," Romney said.
Some Americans view Mormons with scepticism and the church has spent decades trying to counter criticism that it is a cult and a threat to Christianity.
The church maintains that God speaks through living apostles and prophets such as the church's current president, Gordon Hinckley. Mormons reject the unified Trinity and teach that God has a body of flesh.
Romney, who had been pressed by Southern Baptist leaders to make the speech, sought to reassure Christian evangelicals about his faith, saying he believes Jesus Christ is the son of God and saviour of mankind.
He acknowledged that some differences exist.
"My church's beliefs about Christ may not all be the same as those of other faiths," Romney said. "Each religion has its own unique doctrines and history."
