Romney Comes to Jesus

Mitt Romney, the candidate I've backed throughout this presidential campaign season, gave his much-anticipated "religion" speech today in Texas, complete with introduction by Bush 41 (it was at his library). I have heard excerpts, and have read the transcript. I was very impressed with it; I thought the speech was well-written and tried to point out the fact that we elect presidents based on their stated policies and personal values, not necessarily on their religious beliefs. A transcript of the speech is here.

Trying to recruit some more support for Romney, I sent out a link to the transcript to my dad, who follows politics; my best friend, a former Catholic-turned-Lutheran; and a friend/former co-worker who is an evangelical Christian. My pitch was that the speech was great and should convince them that it's okay to vote for a Mormon for president.

My dad was impressed and said it looked like Romney was really going to get the nomination at this point (I'm hopeful but not convinced). Other conservative voices we both respect agreed that Romney hit it out of the park: Charles Krauthammer; Pat Buchanan; Michael Medved, to name just a few.

My one buddy who responded so far, the Lutheran, who has been very hostile to the Romney candidacy from the beginning specifically because of his Mormonism, was totally unimpressed and made the same comment he always has: He's a member of a cult that believes some wacked-out things and he has no business being president. Words to that effect, anyway.

Then on my way home I listened to Frank Pastore, a local evangelical talk-show host here in L.A. as he dissected the speech. I also read comments on Michelle Malkin's blog and found a link there to my favorite Catholic apologist, Jimmy Akin, who also commented on it on his own blog. The two apologists, Akin and Pastore, predictably had serious issues with several things Mitt said in the speech. Jimmy sounds like he wouldn't vote for Mitt if it came down to it because he feels, as does my Lutheran friend, that some items of Mormon doctrine are troublesome enough to warrant serious concern about a candidate. For example, the Mormon church is less aggressive on abortion than Christian churches are; is this a problem?

Frank's issues were more along the lines of "he said this, but that's misleading because his church actually believes this..." Frank's point was that a Christian can feel fine about voting for Romney, and that he himself will vote for Romney if he becomes the GOP's nominee. However, he is worried about the mainstreaming of Mormonism and of people believing what they are told by the media: that Mormonism is just another Christian denomination. This is patently untrue. Mormonism, just for starters, is polytheistic; is not trinitarian; and believes that Jesus was a created being and a polygamist.

I respect Frank and Jimmy's perspectives on this issue because it's important for Christians to truly understand what Mormonism preaches, and to remember that it is vastly different from what Christianity teaches, at least in terms of questions like "Who is God," "Who was Jesus," and "How can I be saved / go to Heaven?" However, when the subject is a presidential race, questions like these are inappropriate.

We only have to understand the candidate's faith insofar as it affects how they perform in office. For example, it might be fair to ask a Mormon his position on the definition of marriage, given all the troubles the LDS church has had since its inception with polygamy. Having a president who supported redefining marriage in any way, including to define it from a polygamist view, would be a real problem for me and other Christians. We might also ask whether race might play a role in selecting cabinet members, since the Mormons denied many rights to blacks until fairly recently. These types of questions are relevant because they address how a candidate's faith might affect his performance as president of a secular government.

Mormonism is not a Christian denomination, despite what Mormons claim. But does this disqualify Mitt Romney from being president? No. To vote against a candidate simply because of his religion is bigoted. One must evaluate the candidate and his values and ideas, and these are largely informed by his faith, so to that extent it is fair to evaluate. Mitt has been making this point for months, and made it clear again in his speech, along with many other comments about how much he respects other faiths (including Islam). Christians who don't have as open a mind as Romney does should take a lesson from him and consider supporting him for president.