Mitt Romney will come to Texas tomorrow to deliver a speech on the topic I have suggested for months he should address. And he will mess it up.
It will be delivered smoothly, as every Romney speech is. He will make the points he wishes to make, and they will be made eloquently. But they will do him no good because he has no intention of doing what is necessary to minimize the problem his faith poses among the voter pool he is trying to attract.

The Mitt Romney of a few months ago would grow testy at the mention of his Mormonism, waving off questioners with curt suggestions that they do some online research.

Reports of tomorrow’s speech make it seem as though he now wants to address issues many have suggested he needs to confront, but a deeper examination of his campaign’s speech preview indicates it will do nothing of the kind.

“This speech is an opportunity for Gov. Romney to share his views on religious liberty, the grand tradition tolerance has played in the progress in our nation,” Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said.

Lovely concepts. And completely irrelevant to the challenge Mr. Romney faces.

No one will argue that religious liberty is a wonderful thing. And if Mr. Romney even mentions tolerance, it will be perceived – correctly – that he is scolding anyone who has questions about his membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

But questions remain, and there is only one way to address them. Mr. Romney must work to comfort Republican voters whose differences with LDS belief are an obstacle to voting for him.

This is not done by telling people that Mormonism is really just another form of mainstream Christianity. Thoughtful people can argue all day about whether Mormonism belongs under the Christian umbrella, but the fact is that crafting an entire text to supplement the Bible, based on Jesus’ visit to America 200 years ago, complete with wholesale revisions in mankind’s status in the afterlife, will naturally raise the eyebrows of those who believe the Bible is the only faith document followers of Jesus need.

And it’s not just a matter of faith-based miracles. For example, I believe Jesus actually rose from the dead so our sins can be forgiven. That’s a huge logical leap, but it is an article of faith.

It is pointless to argue with anyone about the portions of his faith that involve the miracles that give that faith its validity.

But part of Mormon belief involves an entire civilization existing in what is now America some centuries before Christ’s birth and some centuries after.

This society, using a hybrid Hebrew/Egyptian tongue and employing agricultural and metallurgical technologies that objective historians simply find no evidence to support, either existed or it did not.

A voter e-mailed me a few months ago, with vast admiration for Mr. Romney on the issues, but asking: If he’ll believe this, what else will he believe?

This is not unfair. The question for Mr. Romney is how to address it. It is not with familiar platitudes about religious liberty or lectures on tolerance.

It is to say this: “I know there are many Christian voters who are considering my candidacy who have questions or concerns about my faith. There is nothing I can do or say to make my faith familiar to you if it is unfamiliar, or seem rational if it seems irrational.

“All I would do is remind you that millions of Americans vote in every election for people who have vastly different religious beliefs. Christians vote for Jews and vice versa, and they disagree over whether Jesus is the son of God! I believe he is, by the way.

“And, finally, I would swear to you, on the Bible that we both revere, that I will not be getting secret orders from Utah on how to run the country. There is nothing in my faith that will lead me astray from precisely the reliable conservative course that you are looking for in your president.”

There you go, Governor. No charge.

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