WASHINGTON Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Saturday denounced "poisonous language" against faiths as he grappled with a flare-up over religion sparked by a prominent supporter of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, his rival. Perry steered well clear of that simmering issue and pushed another hot button instead: Social Security.
Romney, in remarks to the Values Voter Summit, a gathering of cultural conservatives in Washington, did not directly confront the words of a prominent Perry supporter who called Romney's Mormon faith a "cult." Indeed, Romney criticized another speaker at the meeting, radio host Bryan Fischer, known for anti-Mormon and anti-Muslim rhetoric, who followed him on stage.
But his cautionary words served as notice that attacks on faiths should, in his view, be off the table. He appealed to the social conservatives to support a presidential candidate who has the best record on the economy.
Until now, Romney's Mormon faith and Perry's evangelical Christianity were secondary to a GOP primary focused on who can best fix the country's economy. Questions about his faith plagued Romney's 2008 presidential run, but he had been able to keep them at bay so far this time.
That changed when Robert Jeffress, the lead pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas who introduced Perry to cultural conservatives, called Mormonism a cult and said Romney is "not a Christian," forcing Perry to distance himself and Romney to respond.
The back-and-forth suggests the primary race - with a field finally settled and just three months before voting begins - has moved into a more aggressive phase. And it illustrates that Perry's very public religiosity and long history with evangelical Christian leaders won't remain on the sidelines of the presidential race.
No mention of faith
Perry, campaigning Saturday in Iowa's staunchly conservative northwest, barely touched on religion. In stops at Sioux City and Orange City, he never mentioned Mormonism, Romney by name, or even Christianity.
Asked by Republican Steven Bernston what books have most influenced him, Perry mentioned only one: the work of conservative economist Friedrich Hayek. Bernston, a corn and beans farmer from Paullina, later said he was surprised Perry didn't at least mention the Bible.
Perry waded back into Social Security instead, a tricky issue for him after he roundly criticized the popular entitlement in his book and his Republican rivals piled on against him.
Responding to a question in Sioux City, he said "it makes sense" to increase the eligibility age for benefits and it may be time to reduce those benefits for the wealthy, a process known as means-testing.
In each of three Iowa campaign stops over two days, Perry took about a half-dozen questions from voters, and none from reporters.
A call for decency
On Saturday, Romney answered Jeffress' charge: He praised former Reagan official Bill Bennett, who spoke ahead of Romney at the conference. "You did Rick Perry no good, sir, in what you had to say," Bennett said, denouncing Jeffress for "bigotry" against Mormons.
Bennett called for unity among conservatives as they choose a nominee for president in 2012.
Romney echoed that call.
"We should remember that decency and civility are values, too," Romney said. "Poisonous language doesn't advance our cause. It's never softened a single heart nor changed a single mind."
