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>>Jim Henson: So, Tom, thanks for being here.
From the response to Mitt Romney's Mormonism
to Rick Santorum's comment on JFK's Houston speech
and several other ways, religion has been quite a presence in the
2012 election cycle so far. How has that struck you?
>>Tom Tweed: I think it's really important to note
that from Governer Perry's initial comments about the race,
in which he was complaining about Obama's war on religion,
to Rick Santorum's shift to talk about social issues, it's really been important.
And especially his comments about the 1960s speech by JFK.
Because for a lot of scholars, that's a really important event in the
history of America's thinking about the relationship between church and state.
And a lot of the issues have to do, on the one hand,
with disagreements about church and state
and, on the other, a deeper kind of theological problem.
The first issue really with church-state issues
has to do with difference between those, like Santorum,
who believe that what we really need is freedom for religion
and those like Kennedy, who are arguing for freedom from religion.
>>Jim Henson: Does it strike you as more divisive now than it's been in the past?
I mean, there's always been a certain sort of tension between those things.
Do you think that's really broken more into the open,
or is that something we've seen before?
>>Tom Tweed: Religion has come up in lots of elections,
and foreign visitors often comment about how religious America looks
and its politics, it's certainly true in '60. It was true in 1976.
I think what's really interesting about this particular case
is there's two sets of issues, not just the church-state issues,
but a deeper conflict about the extent of nature of evil in America.
And there's a fundamental divide that, I think,
folks on both sides don't really listen to carefully enough.
Namely a difference in how does evil manifest itself and how serious it is.
On the one hand, you've got those who think
that evil is satanic forces, demonic forces in the world.
And Rick Santorum has said things in public
about the Democrats have not taken evil seriously enough.
On the other hand, for Obama and some kinds of Protestants of his ilk,
evil really is a kind of social force.
It's poor education. It's poverty or something else.
And if you think those two different ways about the origins of evil,
you have very different solutions, and some of the passion
and the intransigence in the election conversation, so far and I think to come,
is about the differences between two fundamental conflicting notions
of what's wrong with America and the world today.
>>Jim Henson: It's striking how, as much as we talk about what are the issues
or how serious elections are, to see that we can be having an election
in which evil and the nature of evil is actually an issue.
>>Tom Tweed: I think it's absolutely true
and that's part of the descent, what liberals fail to get.
And even as much as Evangelicals and others are trying to make that case,
including Catholics like Santorum, is that they don't take seriously enough
the conservative view about when life begins,
about what the nature of the problems are and
social problems and programs can't really solve those problems.
It's deeper, more fundamental. It goes to one extreme in some movements,
like the "Left Behind" series that suggest that Obama is the Anti-Christ,
nothing short of the demonic force that will play
an important role in the end of history.
>>Jim Henson: So this taps into much deeper, even cultural currents.
>>Tom Tweed: Much deeper cultural currents and long-standing religious divides.
I think what's different, and most disappointing to me,
is that no one's really listening to their opponents seriously or respectfully.
>>Jim Henson: Do you expect to see this continue into the general election?
>>Tom Tweed: I think it's inevitable.
Whether we get a Mormon Republican candidate, one of the two Catholics or
Ron Paul, who of course defines himself as an Evangelical,
but takes a Kennedy-like position on the relationship between church and state.
Religion's going to emerge as an important issue.
Especially if the conversation shifts from the economy into the social issues.
>>Jim Henson: And should Romney be the candidate, do you think
it's inevitable that the issue of his Mormon faith emerges in some way?
>>Tom Tweed: I can't imagine how it could not emerge.
I'm not sure that President Obama's staff will bring it up,
but I can imagine that Evangelicals, who are a little bit hesitant about his
Mormon faith, and reporters generally won't bring it up in some fundamental way.
It happened with Kennedy, the first Catholic, in 1960
and my hunch is that Romney is going to have to give
a Houston-like speech to be elected President.
>>Jim Henson: Tom, thanks very much.
>>Tom Tweed: Great.
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