March 14, 2008

Religion in Public and Private

To the Editor:

At first I disliked the title of Seth Perry's "Romney's Religious Dilemma" (The Chronicle Review, February 22) because I saw the choice facing Mitt Romney as not so much a religious dilemma but more a public-relations one. Then I realized that Perry had gotten it right.

The word "religion" in its broadest sense includes any of the beliefs one has about the world, how one lives one's life, and how one behaves. Looking at the term in this way, everybody's got a