Earlier today, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney delivered the commencement address at Liberty University, the conservative Christian university founded by evangelist Jerry Falwell.
Business Insider has both video excerpts and a transcript of the full text of the talk. Romney said in part:
Christianity is not the faith of the complacent, the comfortable or of the timid. It demands and creates heroic souls.... Central to America’s rise to global leadership is our Judeo-Christian tradition, with its vision of the goodness and possibilities of every life.
The American culture promotes personal responsibility, the dignity of work, the value of education, the merit of service, devotion to a purpose greater than self, and, at the foundation, the pre-eminence of the family.... As fundamental as these principles are, they may become topics of democratic debate. So it is today with the enduring institution of marriage. Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman.
The protection of religious freedom has also become a matter of debate. It strikes me as odd that the free exercise of religious faith is sometimes treated as a problem, something America is stuck with instead of blessed with. Perhaps religious conscience upsets the designs of those who feel that the highest wisdom and authority comes from government.
