In 2007, Mitt Romney, facing a surging Huckabee campaign in an Iowa caucus that was supposed to launch him to the nomination, delivered a speech about the role of faith in public life. As eloquent as the speech, entitled “Faith in America,” may have been, it did little to bolster his Iowa campaign. He lost badly, in large part because of Huckabee’s evangelical supporters.
Last Saturday, Mitt Romney returned to the heart of evangelical America. In accepting the invitation to address the graduates at Liberty University, Romney surely could not have predicted that the commencement would occur during a week in which President Obama embraced same-sex marriage. Yet Romney chose, rightly, not to ignore what had occurred, and ended up delivering one of the most effective speeches of his political career. In understanding why this is so, it is instructive to study the writings of the Orthodox Jewish Talmudist and philosopher Joseph Soloveitchik.
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