Religion reporter Julia Duin reports in today's editions of The Washington Times:

Observers of presidential hopeful Mitt Romney have been awaiting "the speech" -- the one that's going to settle once and for all his intent that his Mormon beliefs would not interfere with his leading the country.

The situation has been compared with that of John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic president, who on Sept. 12, 1960, wowed the Greater Houston Ministerial Association with an assurance that Rome would not dictate his actions.

American voters expect their presidential candidates to be God-fearing, church-going paragons who can explain, without a hint of self-consciousness, how their faith informs their lives, their thoughts and their politics.

But we want only Romney to tell us how his particular brand of religiosity won't influence his presidential decision-making, while we give a free pass to the other mainline Protestant candidates, who, for example, could find some difficulties in reconciling the New Testament's dictum to "turn the other cheek" with delivering an appropriate response to a terrorist attack.

-- Carleton Bryant, assistant managing editor, The Washington Times