USA Today: Will Mormon faith hurt Romney's run?

Will Mormon faith hurt bid for White House?
Mitt Romney says his religion isn't a factor, but some voters say it is

By Jill Lawrence
USA TODAY

SALT LAKE CITY — It's easy to find Mormons who have run into misconceptions about their faith. Take Jeff Hartley, executive director of the Republican Party in Utah, a state that's 70% Mormon. "I only have one mom. I only have one wife," he says. "That's not the understanding that a lot of people have."

The emergence of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a Mormon waging a strong campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, spotlights a religion often viewed as odd despite its rapid growth and attempts to go mainstream. Hartley and others say they welcome the scrutiny. For Romney, set to announce his candidacy today, it may be less than a blessing.

In a diverse 2008 presidential field that includes a woman and an African-American on the Democratic side, polls show being Mormon is a handicap. In a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, 72% say they would vote for a qualified nominee who is Mormon. That compares with 94% for a black nominee and 88% for a female nominee.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy gave a major speech to ease fears about his Catholicism. Joe Lieberman shed light on Orthodox Judaism in 2000 during his vice presidential campaign.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), the official name of the Mormon church, has an unusual theology and a past scarred by racism and polygamy. A national political race that conveys its focus on family life and traditional values could improve its image.

"The more people learn about the Mormon faith and culture, the more comfortable they will be," Hartley says. He and others say the same is true for Romney. "A lot of concerns are dispelled once people actually get to know him and his capabilities," says LaVarr Webb, a Mormon and GOP consultant here who plans to donate money to Romney.

There are nearly 6 million Mormons in the USA. Among them are politicians such as Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader; Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, who ran for president in 1999; and Romney's late father, George, a Michigan governor and 1968 presidential candidate.

With his Harvard degrees, his success in business, politics, fundraising and as CEO of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Romney draws a new level of attention to his faith. "It's a floodlight," says political scientist David Magleby, a Mormon and a dean at Brigham Young University in Provo.

Mormons got a taste of intense publicity during the Olympics. "We had literally hundreds of sports reporters writing about theology," LDS spokesman Michael Otterson says wryly. The coverage brought some changes in perception, he says, but they were incremental. "You don't change riveted prejudices overnight," he says.

Romney says it is not his job as a presidential candidate to educate people about his church. "I'm running for a secular position," he said in an interview. "I subscribe to what Abraham Lincoln called America's political religion. The Constitution and the rule of law are the highest promises I would make in taking the oath of office."

Willard Mitt Romney grew up in a Mormon family in Michigan. He met his future girlfriend and wife, Ann Davies, in elementary school.

At 19, after a year at Stanford, Romney began the mission required of Mormon men. He was sent to France to help manage church affairs, work with young people and try to win converts. "It's a very Catholic country, and successes are few and far between," he says, "but I made a number of very good friends."

Romney did have some success at home. While he was gone, Ann started college at church-run BYU. She was "officially Episcopalian," Romney says, but wanted to learn about his church and ended up joining it. On his return from France, Romney enrolled at BYU.

The pair married in 1969, when he was 21 and she was 19, and had five sons over the next dozen years. Ann Romney serves on community service boards, including the New England chapter of the MS Society. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999.

The ex-governor says questions about his faith are fair to ask. Some queries he answers directly. "I don't drink alcohol, I don't smoke, I don't drink coffee or tea. I also do a tithe," he says, meaning he donates 10% of his income to the church. All are church requirements.

Romney responds more generally when asked if he has participated in an endowment ceremony, in which men and women take vows of secrecy about temple rites and of obedience to the Lord, and begin the daily practice of wearing a sacred "temple garment" resembling abbreviated long underwear.

"I do attend the temple of my church … and people can learn about that by contacting the church," he says, adding: "I'm sure on the Internet you can find every single aspect of what's entailed."

Lieberman's vice presidential campaign amounted to a "national seminar" on orthodox Judaism, says Alan Wolfe, a religion and politics expert at Boston College. People asked questions, such as whether Lieberman could work on the Jewish Sabbath, and learned from his answers. "Whether we can have the same discussion about Mormonism, I don't know," Wolfe says. "It's going to be harder because it is a more controversial religion."

Conservative Hugh Hewitt, a law professor and talk-show host, says one big speech won't be enough. "Mitt Romney has a Mormon problem, as does the rest of the country. It's much bigger than I thought, and it's going to require a lot of conversation and focused study," says Hewitt, author of A Mormon in the White House?: 10 Things Every Conservative Should Know about Mitt Romney, due in March.

Joseph Smith, an unschooled diviner in western New York, founded the LDS church in 1830. He said the angel Moroni had directed him to two golden plates engraved with scripture and Christian history. The text he dictated became the Book of Mormon.

Romney describes LDS as similar to other U.S. churches: "My church teaches first and foremost that there's a God who is our heavenly father, that all the children of the world are his, that humanity is one great family, that we have a duty to serve one another and that we should try and live better lives."

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