Romney's Religious Riddle

Mitt Romney wants you to look at him and think: strong leader, successful businessman, good father, faithful husband.

He does not want you to look at him and think: Mormon.

He is a Mormon, and he is proud of it. He says his faith has shaped his life and his values. But he doesn't want religion to be the prism through which people view him.

"The people I speak with in crowds overwhelmingly tell me they want a person of faith to lead the country," he told me earlier this year. "They don't care what brand of faith that is, so long as we share values."

It may be Americans truly don't care what brand of faith their presidents are, but they sure seem to choose from a highly limited range: the conventional branches of Protestantism and, once, a Catholic.

And the polls are pretty chilling. Consider this from Gallup: "Gallup polls found 37 percent of churchgoing Protestants saying they would not vote for a qualified Mormon candidate for president. Churchgoing Protestants did not show similar opposition to voting for either a Catholic or a Jewish presidential candidate."

Also, a recent Newsweek poll found that 28 percent of Americans would not vote for a Mormon for president.

Romney staffers tell me these polls are not relevant because they ask voters an abstract question about whether they would vote for "a Mormon" instead of asking something like: "Would you vote for a former governor with a proven record of leadership and accomplishment who happens to be a Mormon?"

And much of the problem may be, as some in the Romney campaign say, that most Americans simply don't know anything about Mormonism.

Shortly before Romney announced for president, USA Today ran an article saying Mormonism was a religion "that has an unusual theology and a past scarred by racism and polygamy."

Recently, The New York Times wrote, "Among the major differences with traditional Christianity: Mormons do not believe in the concept of the unified Trinity; the Book of Mormon is considered to be sacred text, alongside the Bible; and Mormons believe that God has a physical body and human beings can eventually become like God."

It is no secret that Romney's opponents feel that even if he gets off to a good start in Iowa, New Hampshire and Michigan, they will stop him in South Carolina, where they think evangelical Christians will refuse to vote for a Mormon.

Romney benefited this week from the endorsement of Bob Jones III, chancellor of the fundamentalist Christian Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., but it was an endorsement that contained a downside as well as an upside.

"As a Christian, I am completely opposed to the doctrines of Mormonism," Jones told a reporter for the Greenville News.

"But I'm not voting for a preacher. I'm voting for a president."

While some of Romney's advisers feel the press has an unhealthy and biased obsession with Romney's religion, Romney spokesman Kevin Madden told me, "I think it is a natural inquiry, whether it comes from voters or from reporters.

There is a unique angle to the governor, and his faith is something not a lot of people know about. Tagg Romney (one of Romney's five sons) said it best: 'There are really no unfair questions; that is up to the voters.'"

But should Romney help the voters along by giving a speech on the subject of his religion, like John F. Kennedy famously did in 1960 about his Catholicism?

This is being hotly debated within the Romney campaign. Some see it as an opportunity, while others feel it will merely increase the media's obsession (and alert even more people to the fact that Romney is a Mormon).

"The governor has said repeatedly that he is contemplating such a speech," Madden said, "but he has not made a decision whether definitely to do it or what to say. It will much more likely be a personal decision than a political one. We await the governor's personal guidance."

Another Romney staffer told me he has a speech already written.

It goes: "I am 60 years old. For my entire life, I have been a Mormon and an American. I have never felt any conflict."

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