Appearing on CNN Sunday, both Republican presidential candidates Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann repeatedly dodged questions on whether fellow candidate Mitt Romney was a Christian.
Dallas pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress, who at Friday's Values Voter Summit, has said that Romney is not qualified to be president because "Mormonism is a cult."
CNN's Candy Crowley asked Cain and Bachmann if they agreed that Romney was not a Christian.
"I'm not running for theologian in chief," Cain declared. "I'm a lifelong Christian. And what that means is that one of my guiding principles for decisions I make is I start with 'do the right thing.' I'm not getting into that controversy."
"But it will still beg the question that you dodged a direct question: Is Mitt Romney not a Christian?" Crowley asked.
"He's a Mormon, that much I know," Cain replied. "I am not going to do an analysis of Mormonism versus Christianity for the sake of answering that. I'm not getting into that..."
"Even knowing that it will looking like you are dodging it?" Crowley wondered.
"If that's what it looks like, I'm dodging it because it's not going to help us boost this economy and you know it," Cain said, adding that someone's religion was a "valid concern" when selecting a president.
Crowley later posed the same question to Bachmann.
"We have religious tolerance," the Minnesota Republican explained. "We understand that people have different views on their faith, and I have a very sincerely held view on faith and I think we just leave it at that."
"You know that by not answering the direct question -- 'Do you think you think that Mitt Romney is a Christian?' -- you leave open the possibility that people are going to say you dodged a direct question?" Crowley noted.
"No, I think what the real focus is here, again, that on religious tolerance," Bachmann argued. "That's really what this is about."
Watch this video from CNN's State of the Union, broadcast Oct. 9, 2011.
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