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Monday, November 27, 2006
Mitt Romney, and whether a Mormon can win the hearts of Southern Baptists, Methodists
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Time magazine has a piece this week on the ‘08 presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney, the Massachusetts governor who is tailor-made to fit the Southern, evangelical base of the Republican party.
Except for the fact that he’s a Mormon. A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, if you will.
“Because Mormons acknowledge works of Scripture that are not in the Bible, believe that their prophets have received revelations directly from God and teach that God has a physical body, Evangelicals consider them heretics. The Southern Baptist Convention lists the LDS church under Cults and Sects, along with Scientology,” the Times article says.
That said, a prominent figure in Atlanta area church circles has stepped up to help bridge the gap between Romney and the GOP’s evangelical base.
Mark DeMoss is a Duluth-based public relations consultant who specializes in Christian ministries. Clients include both Billy Graham and his son, Franklin.
DeMoss recently set up a three-hour meeting at Romney’s home with make-or-break figures of the Religious Right. “I invited about 45 or so, and about 15 chose to attend,” he said.
Who showed? Here’s a partial list:
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission - perhaps the most influential religious lobbyist in the country;
Franklin Graham;
Jerry Falwell, once leader of the now-defunct Moral Majority;
Gary Bauer, the former GOP presidential candidate and leader of the group, American Values;
Jay Sekulow of Alpharetta, leader of the American Center for Law and Justice;
Richard Lee, pastor of First Redeemer Baptist Church of Cumming, Ga.;
Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America;
Paula White, co-pastor of the massive Church Without Walls in Tampa, Fla.;
and Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition.
No, Ralph Reed was not there.
DeMoss is acting in an unpaid capacity, and plans to keep it that way. He first met Romney in September. The group meeting in Boston followed on Oct. 26.
Following are excerpts from a telephone conversation we had with DeMoss, who was in Orlando on Monday:
— “The response was pretty interesting, because I knew there were some very strong feelings doctrinally about Mormonism. As it turned out, it appeared not to be a big issue.”
— “There were only two sets of questions specifically about faith. One person asked [Romney] his personal believe about Jesus and who Jesus was, whether he died and rose again.
“And then somebody else asked [Romney] about salvation - basically how he believed somebody would go to heaven.
“Other than those two questions, the entire discussion for nearly three hours focused on the issues of today, like abortion and stem cell research and the federal marriage amendment and what kind of judges he would appoint. Like you would ask any other candidate.”
— “The question everybody wants to ask is,‘Could I support a Mormon.’ To draw a conclusion about anybody, candidate or otherwise, solely based on their religion, isn’t fair to the person or the religion. It’s an incomplete analysis. We ought to take into consideration the whole of somebody’s life.
“It’s not whether I could vote for a Mormon, it’s whether I could vote for this Mormon.”
— On the fact that a Romney candidacy would require Southern pastors to distinguish between theology and politics: “Almost any evangelical pastor would have a difficult time letting Mitt Romney speak in their pulpit. But on the other hand, on issues evangelicals care a whole lot about, Romney’s been somewhat of a standard bearer,” DeMoss said.
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