The American Spectator

Political Hay

Prejudiced for Eternity

By Paul Chesser on 11.1.07 @ 12:08AM

This summer, as has been its custom in recent years, the megachurch (Southern Baptist, not Willow Creek) I attend brought in a series of guest speakers while the pastor caught a break.

One of the most compelling was James Walker, president of the Watchman Fellowship, which fancies itself a Christian discerner of new religious movements, cults, the occult, and New Age-ism. On the Sunday he visited my church, Walker preached about the folly of Oprah Winfrey-ism, exposing her New Age beliefs and showing a clip from her program in which a Christian confronted her (and her panelists) with Bible truths.

While Oprah wields enviable influence throughout the country, Walker has also seen a noticeable uptick in inquiries to Watchman about a certain presidential candidate's faith. The curiosity is over the Mormonism of Republican Mitt Romney, and let's just say Walker -- himself a former Latter-Day Saint church member -- is concerned.

So what's the worry -- that his religion taints his stance on political issues?

"There are a lot of things I find in common with him," Walker said with sincerity.

Is it that their beliefs are a little, uh, wacky?

"An atheist could make the same case about a Christian," Walker responded, obviously thinking about seas parting and Lazarus rising.

So what's the problem, then?

"My main concern with a Romney presidency is the hundreds of thousands of new converts that would be brought into the Mormon church," he said.

While Walker gives pause, others in the conservative movement -- even Christians like talk show host Hugh Hewitt, who wrote a whole book backing Romney, and Bob Jones III -- have supported him. They argue for his morally upstanding lifestyle and principled stances that place him in the social conservative fold, despite his theological aberrations.

The former Massachusetts governor himself was dismissive of the potential influence he would have upon the growth of Mormonism should he be elected. From Hewitt's book, A Mormon in the White House:

Does Romney think he will be held up as a role model of Mormonism, part and parcel of the missionaries' pitch in the remote regions of the world?

"That would kill us," he said with a laugh. "It's hard for me to know what the impact of that would be. I think certainly that's not the reason I'm considering a run and I think it overstates dramatically the impact of the faith of a particular president."

He laughed again. "I haven't actually looked. My guess is that if you looked at the conversions here in Massachusetts, you wouldn't see any change between before and after I became governor, and I don't think Democrats are flocking to the Mormon church because Harry Reid is the majority leader...."

"It certainly hasn't worked that way in Massachusetts," he said, with a final laugh at the idea....

It's easy for Romney to dismiss his religious impact in the Bay State as irrelevant, but seriously, when was the last time you heard that any governor generated passion and conversions because of his faith?

"Massachusetts is Massachusetts," Walker said. "It's a little bit different when you look at the country as a whole."

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Harry Reid, Religion