It seems like we’ve reached that time of Republican primary season where someone brings up the ‘M word.’ At a Christian conservative campaign event on Friday, a Texan pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress, attacked GOP primary candidate Mitt Romney’s religious beliefs, stating that he viewed Mormonism as “a theological cult.” Dr. Jeffress was providing an introduction to Romney’s competitor, Rick Perry, who took the stage immediately following Dr. Jeffress’s remarks.
This is not to inculcate Perry, however indirectly, as an accomplice in Dr. Jeffress’s bigotry; to his credit, Perry has quickly distanced himself from Jeffress’s inflammatory remarks and has gone on the record denouncing the assertion that Mormonism is a cult. What this statement is reflective of, however, is a deep-seated prejudice that threatens to undermine the campaign of one of the GOP’s leading presidential candidates.
It is unclear why Mitt Romney’s religion plays such a central role in his public image – it seems almost impossible to conceive of him without the suffix, “who is a Mormon.” This conception of Romney the Mormon is not one that is propagated only by religious bigots; respectable mainstream news sources are equally culpable. In June, Newsweek released an issue with Romney on the cover, with the headline “The Mormon Moment.”
Just exactly why America needs to experience a “Mormon moment” to accept Romney as a viable candidate is beyond imagination. Yet there is categorical evidence suggesting that this is exactly what America needs – a Pew Research poll conducted in June found that one in four voters said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who subscribed to the Mormon faith. According to a study conducted during the 2008 presidential election, Mormonism found itself the target of worse discrimination than black candidates (like Barack Obama) or female candidates (like Hillary Rodham Clinton).
It is unclear exactly where this perverse attitude towards a religious minority comes from. While the Latter Day Saint movement does have a number of peculiar practices, so do many other religions, including the various denominations of Christianity. Those Mormon practices that are often targeted by religious bigots are out-dated, and in many cases, are expressly forbidden by the faith itself. For example, polygamy is no longer practiced by adherents of the Mormon faith, despite popular media portrayals such as HBO’s TV show Big Love. These so-called fundamentalist Mormons have in fact been excommunicated from the LDS Church for over a century.
Misconceptions about the LDS movement aside, it seems that middle America still has a long way to go before it can treat a Mormon candidate for the presidency in the exact same way they would treat anyone else. I would much rather say that this was because of Romney’s fairly liberal record on social policy, something that is bound to be a stumbling block to hard right voters. Yet it seems, sadly, that his faith is the number one issue that could hinder his progress on the campaign trail.
Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech encapsulated, in many ways, the issue of Obama’s race, and his campaign, in many ways, transcended his (mixed) black heritage. While I don’t completely buy the way some analysts have rendered Obama as a post-racial president, I can certainly see how in many ways, his ethnic ancestry has been surpassed by other distinguishing factors. For Romney, transcending his religion seems unlikely or impossible, perhaps because he lacks the raw charisma of Obama; the ability to electrify an audience from his position at the podium. Romney cuts a much more stately figure, with a more functional approach to oration that lacks Obama’s transfix and exhilarate.
For the record, I believe Romney is the strongest candidate in the GOP primary race. Despite his record on social policy and his religious conviction, Romney has a record of strong financial management and a differentiated approach to political issues. He does not practice the identikit approach to conservatism (small government, anti-social welfare, budget surplus) and he has a record of turning around struggling enterprises from his time in private equity. His approach might be what America needs, if they need a conservative-tinged change in the office of the presidency.
If Romney loses, it will not be because he supported a health care bill when he was governor of Massachusetts. It will not be because he increased taxes in order to bring the Massachusetts government back into a balanced fiscal position. It will not be because he was pro-choice for most of his life, until he changed his mind just more than five years ago. It will be because he is a Mormon – and that is a crying shame.
Shawn Rajanayagam ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science and American studies.
