Mitt Romney is the first member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (L.D.S.) to be nominated by one of the two major parties as a candidate for the U.S. presidency. The Church’s adherents are nicknamed Mormons, because their founding “prophet,” Joseph Smith Jr., published the Book of Mormon in 1830 as God’s new revelation, a volume of “Holy Scripture,” equal to the Bible in importance. Today the L.D.S. Church has more than 14 million members in 138 countries, and 15 members of the U.S. Congress are Mormons.

Due to Romney’s well-publicized loyalty to Mormonism—from 1981 to 1986 he was bishop of his congregation in Boston, and from 1986 to 1994 he was “stake president” for the Boston area, overseeing a dozen “wards,” or congregations, with a total of 4,000 members—many have questioned whether his policies and decisions as president would be influenced by the dictates of the L.D.S. Church, headquartered in Salt Lake City. The question is not unreasonable: both in the distant past and in recent times the Church has tried to influence the political decisions of American Mormons holding public office. The Church is rigidly hierarchical, governed by 15 “apostles,” 12 of whom form “the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.” The “living prophet,” who is also the Church president, and his two counselors, constitute “the First Presidency.” Devout Mormons raise their hands several times a year to “sustain” these men as “prophets, seers, and revelators” whose instructions are “God’s word” to Mormons.

Nonetheless, since the early 1990s, Romney and his supporters have wanted Americans to see his situation through a different lens, that of the objections raised in 1960 to electing a Roman Catholic as president. John F. Kennedy confronted those doubts in a September 1960 address, “On Church and State,” given in front of the Protestant evangelical ministers of Houston, Texas. After announcing that “I am a Catholic,” J.F.K. told his skeptical listeners, “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute—where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be a Catholic) how to act . . . where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source. . . . I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President, who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters—and the church does not speak for me.” It was a tough audience for this message, but the evangelicals gave J.F.K. a rousing ovation.

During his 1994 effort to unseat Massachusetts senator Edward M. Kennedy, Mitt Romney tersely quoted J.F.K.: “I do not speak for my church on public matters and the church does not speak for me.” And in May 2006, with Romney eyeing a bid for the presidency, U.S. News & World Report enthused that the candidate “plans to copy, almost exactly, JFK’s winning approach. Romney says he’ll give a similar address, in which he will pledge allegiance to the Constitution, not the Mormon Church.” However, the conservative weekly had to wait 19 months before it could proclaim that “his long-awaited religion speech impresses even the critics.”

In fact, U.S. News & World Report had conducted an interview with a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, which seemed to prod Romney into making the long-promised speech. Its reporter asked M. Russell Ballard, “Has Mitt Romney sought any suggestions from you, or have you advised him in any way to talk about the church? Have you urged him to give the ‘Kennedy speech’ and talk more directly about his faith?” Apostle Ballard’s reply: “No and no. There’s a real brick wall between the campaign and the church. He’s going to have to make that decision about the ‘Kennedy speech’ all by himself.”