Romney's Mormon Moment

Mitt Romney's two presidential bids (2008 and now in 2012) have brought religion to the forefront of political campaigns, specifically Mormonism and its relationship with Christianity and religious Republican voters. Despite the constitutional clause that there is "no religious test for president", religion has often played a role in attributing values to presidential candidates, and JFK remains a religious anomaly in the sea of Protestant presidents since the founding fathers. Performing a LexisNexis search for "Romney" and "Mormonism" from 2006 to the present, there were over 100 articles in domestic and international newspapers that discussed Romney's Mormonism and its effect on his campaign. This post will go over preliminary insights into these articles and what they describe as the public opinion and current American environment towards Mormonism.

One of the key differences between the two campaigns is Romney's standings in the campaign. In 2008, he lost early in the primary campaign to Huckabee and McCain, trailing despite his delivery of his version of JFK's Catholicism speech. In the 2012 primary, Romney appears to still be the front-runner and has been considered Obama's imminent rival for much of the campaign. This change in success has been rationalized in multiple ways  in the newspaper articles. The dominating theme was that religious beliefs and differences are considered in the 2012 election to be less important considering the state of the economy. Romney's experience in business is trumpeted as his most important feature in many articles, which also outline his "electability" (based off of economic strength and popularity) as the best chance of defeating Obama. These articles describe the power of cohesion among Republicans to support Romney as the candidate most capable of defeating Obama despite of his religion.

Other underlying themes of Romney's success discuss the vetting of his religion in much detail in 2008, making its appearance in the 2012 elections as "old news", "non-original", and that voters had already made up their minds about Mormonism. Most articles cited percentages of voters (most often just of Republican voters) and from 2006 to the present, the numbers remain about the same with numbers from 15-25% of respondents saying that they would not vote for a Mormon for president. Although this will be a hard block of voters to overcome, Romney would, based on these numbers, still garner 75-85% of Republican support during the primary and the presidential campaign. These articles discuss the possibility that Romney's Mormonism was played out completely in the minds of voters in the 2008 election, freeing him from explaining or harping on it in the 2012 election, leaving him to focus on his economic strengths and Republican values. This is best explained through the often repeated example in 2012 coverage of Baptist minister Jeffress' introduction of Perry at the Values Summit, where he explicitly stated that Mormonism is not Christianity and that Republicans should vote for a true Christian candidate. This event (many, including candidates considered it a faux pas) only succeeded in receiving statements of support from all candidates for Romney's religion and giving Romney the opportunity to respond that statements such as these were nothing but "poisonous language". Thus, the issue came, was downplayed, and thereby ignored in discussion by the candidates.

When describing Mormonism, all articles participated in derogatory quoting of other religious groups, people, or assumed public opinion. These statements often used the word "cult" coupled with adjectives such as secretive, dangerous, and non-Christian. These three adjectives in particular will be examined with why and how public opinion considers these characteristics of Mormonism. "Secretive" appeared in multiple articles (many of them international) and was used to describe the relatively small proportion of Mormons in the United States (2% of population) and the absence of Mormonism from the public arena. The exception to this, of course, can be seen as the coming out party for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS, church of Mormonism), which was its support for Proposition 8. LDS donated millions of dollars to campaigning and encouraging people to vote for Proposition 8 and is given much of the credit for changing the vote to against gay marriage in a state as forward-minded as California (for a great explanation of LDS's role in Proposition 8, see 8: The Mormon Proposition, directed by Reed Cowan).

LDS's meddling in the Proposition 8 vote is part of the reason why articles refer to Mormonism as "dangerous". Through this strong and direct influence in politics, LDS defined itself as powerful in terms of money, manpower, and values and not afraid to interfere in policies that it finds in opposition to its teachings. This power can be seen as dangerous by those who are reluctant to have interest groups affect or dethrone individual opinion in the political arena and those who do not share the same values. Another justification for defining the cult as dangerous comes as a repeat of the JFK argument that as a Catholic he would be advised exclusively and directly by the Pope. LDS also has a strong hierarchy and the current leaders are considered much like the Pope to be a messenger of God, so the same reservations about the power structure apply to the speculation that Romney may be subservient to LDS leaders if president.

Every article that described Mormonism as "non-Christian" included a list or explanation of the differences between Mormonism and Christianity, often with quotations from voters or religious leaders highlighting the two religions as separate. From not worshiping the same God to previously practicing polygamy to its updated chapter of Jesus's visit to America, many evangelicals and baptists do not consider Mormons as following Christ and Christianity because they stray too far from the Bible and religious dogma.

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Interestingly, a handful of articles highlighted that Romney might benefit from discussing his religion more. Although Romney often discusses his "faith" and how it influences his values and decisions, he rarely refers to Mormonism or specifics about the faith. Some articles discussed this as a problem on two counts. First, Romney has been branded a flip-flopper in the two important religious policies (which one newspaper referred to as deal-breakers for evangelicals): gay marriage and abortion. Romney's past included governing Massachusetts on a platform of pro-choice and pro-gay marriage, but now he has changed these positions to align themselves more with mainstream religious convictions which he describes as religious changes. One newspaper noted, though, that these were completely political movements to curry favor with the religious right. Considering LDS's role in Proposition 8 and its firm opinions on anti-abortion, a few newspapers theorized that Romney may reduce his image as a flip-flopper by strengthening his connection to these Mormon values. Mormons, as many articles mentioned, share traditional Christian values as family, life, and a strong work ethic. Highlighting these as Mormon values that he too shares, Romney could hope to overcome his previous support for "non-traditional" family structures and pro-choice platform. Additionally, one paper (international) noted that Romney's personality has been "muffled" and that voters have a difficult time connecting with the candidate on a personal level. A solution to this may be discussing his religion and showing his values through the Mormon faith. Then, his true personality, connection to the religion can be expressed to the public.

I hope to expand on these overall notes from the newspaper to a submission to a panel on Romney's "Mormon Moment" to the NCA conference in November 2011.