"Mo-Mo's" don't meet "Evangelical" muster!
Evangelicals uneasy with Romney's faith
The candidate's Mormonism worries a key GOP voting bloc.
By Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writer
June 16, 2007


'Am I concerned about his faith? Yes. But would it stop me from voting for him? No.'
— — Tim Fowler, Pastor

'Why am I not cleared to go into your church? What is there to hide? I won't vote for Romney.'
— — Patrick Garren Business owner
Mitt Romney

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ROCK HILL, S.C. — Here's the problem with electing a Mormon president, as Jason Thurman sees it: "I don't believe he would be guided by God."

Thurman, 26, is tidying the annotated Bibles in the Shepherd's Fold bookstore. Over by the rack of Christian CDs, his co-worker Marty Thomas raises a similar concern.

"When it comes right down to it," says Thomas, 40, "a Mormon's strength is human. A Christian person's strength is superhuman. I want [a president] who has that extra on his side."

In his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — a lifelong Mormon — has often reminded voters that he's running for commander in chief, not pastor in chief. What's important, Romney says, is that he has strong faith; the details are irrelevant.

But a sharp concern about the Mormon Church shows up in poll after national poll. About one in three voters would be less likely to support a Mormon candidate. The faith draws among the most unfavorable ratings of any religion. Doubts run especially deep among evangelicals, who may account for as many as half the votes cast in Republican primaries in the South.

Some evangelicals can articulate specific Mormon beliefs that disturb them — for instance, the teaching that only married couples can achieve the most exalted realms of heaven.

Many others want to give Romney a chance; they like his conservative politics. Yet they feel uneasy about turning over the country to a man who has a radically different — and in their view, heretical — understanding of God.

This is not an arcane theological dispute; to some born-again Christians, it's at the very core of presidential leadership. If Romney does not understand what they take to be God's true nature, can he still receive divine guidance? If he doesn't accept the Trinity as they conceptualize it, can he still be filled with the strength of the Holy Spirit?

Some evangelicals answer "yes" to such questions: "Just because he's Mormon doesn't mean God can't bless the country through him," says Carissa James, 36, a pastor's wife in this suburban community of 50,000.

But in the back room of Shepherd's Fold Books, owner Thomas L. Wilson Jr. is not so sure. Dapper in a crisp bow tie, Wilson, 82, expresses "a lot of reservations" about a Mormon president. His concerns are not about Romney's policies or his character. They're far more fundamental: "I wonder who he figures his savior is."

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims 13 million members worldwide, including nearly 5.8 million in the United States. Its roots stretch to 1820, when a teenager named Joseph Smith knelt in the woods of upstate New York. A pillar of light suddenly appeared above his head, Smith later wrote. Two figures descended: God and Jesus.

They told the boy to join no religion, for all were false, and to await word of the truth.

Over the next seven years, Smith said, he was visited by an angel named Moroni, son of Mormon, who guided him to buried gold plates inscribed in a mysterious language. Moroni gave Smith "seer stones" to translate the text, which told of Christ appearing in the Americas a few months after his resurrection.

Smith published his translation in 1830. Members of his church consider the Book of Mormon a holy text, a revelation from God, on par with the Bible. That alone is heretical to Christians of most denominations.

Smith laid out other novel theologies as well: Mormons hold that God is made of flesh and bone. He's all-powerful and all-knowing, but not mysterious; he has a physical body just like man's, and he's even married to a Heavenly Mother. And man can become God-like after death, a concept called ultimate deification.

Mormons also believe God communicates with modern prophets — such as the president of their church. In 1978, for instance, the Mormon president announced God had directed him to open the church to full participation by blacks, though the Book of Mormon describes dark skin as a divine mark of disfavor. Mormons fully accept the New Testament account of Christ's life and resurrection, which in their view makes them Christian. But they don't accept the doctrine of the Trinity — Father, Son and Holy Ghost as one entity. Instead, they view God and Jesus as separate beings, both of flesh and blood. Given these beliefs, traditional Christians tend to view Mormonism as a cult. That perception is reinforced by the church's secrecy, which officials say is necessary to protect their sacred ceremonies.

Outsiders cannot enter a Mormon temple after it's been dedicated. Even practicing Latter-day Saints must have a recommendation from their bishop to attend temple weddings and other rituals.

(In the most controversial of those rites, known as baptism by proxy, Mormons scour historical records for names, then induct the dead — by the millions — into the faith, to give them a chance at salvation.)

This secrecy disturbs Patrick Garren, 38, a business owner here who belongs to a laid-back evangelical church favored by the Harley crowd.

"Why am I not cleared to go into your church? What is there to hide?" Garren says.



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