If George Washington would have met Mitt Romney, he would have laughed him away from politics. The Founding Fathers for the most part believed that the church should be separated from the state, but not good ol' Mitt. His speech on religion showed how welcomes many different types of beliefs, but not those that do not believe or ascribe to organized religion.
From TPM Election Central:
A spokesman for the Mitt Romney campaign is thus far refusing to say whether Romney sees any positive role in America for atheists and other non-believers, after Election Central inquired about the topic yesterday
It's a sign that Romney may be seeking to submerge evangelical distaste for Mormonism by uniting the two groups together in a wider culture war. Romney's speech has come under some criticism, even from conservatives like David Brooks and Ramesh Ponnuru, for positively mentioning many prominent religions but failing to include anything positive about atheists and agnostics.
Indeed, the only mentions of non-believers were very much negative. "It is as if they're intent on establishing a new religion in America – the religion of secularism. They're wrong," Romney said, being met by applause from the audience.
Seriously, you might want to keep those kinds of ideas underneath the surface. There are certainly plenty of Americans who think on a similar wavelength, but would rarely dare to espouse it publicly. Romney goes nuclear on religion, instead of respecting the divide between church and state he has went above and beyond the other Republican candidates who merely touch the subject lightly.
Secularism is not a religion, it is the antithesis of religion. You can get Bill O'Reilly to nod along with that speech but forget about those that can think with their heads out of the ground.
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