Google “Romney’s Mormon problem” and you’ll receive thousands of
references to what the conventional wisdom says is the Republican
presidential candidate’s greatest liability among his party’s
largest voting bloc, religious conservatives.
In the eyes of many Christians, Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith
is incompatible with Christian theology.
Ironically, however, Romney can reassure skeptical
Christian conservatives by stressing his Mormon values. That’s
because Mormonism is strongly associated with conservative
positions on social issues such as abortion and marriage — the
very issues that are the greatest source of doubt about Romney
among religious conservatives.
As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints, Romney has been downplaying his faith for most of his
public life. Romney’s 2007 “Faith in America” speech was meant to
alleviate concerns that his religion would influence his
governing.
Clearly, though, much of the public still associates the
former Massachusetts governor primarily with his faith.
When the Washington Post and Pew Research Center
recently asked a random sample of more than 1,000 Americans what
one word they associate with Romney, “Mormon” was cited more than
three times as often as any other.
Romney’s faith resurfaced as a campaign issue in October
when an evangelical pastor supporting Texas Governor Rick Perry
declared Mormonism a cult and Romney “a non-Christian.”
But religious conservatives’ real problem with Romney is
not his faith. (In fact, polls suggest Democrats are more likely
than Republicans to view Mormonism negatively.) Rather, it’s his
shifting positions on marriage and the sanctity of human
life.
As a candidate for the U.S. Senate in liberal
Massachusetts, Romney tried to position himself to the left of his
opponent, the same-sex marriage and abortion-rights champion Edward
Kennedy.
Romney supported gay adoption and civil unions for gay
couples. He told the Log Cabin Republicans, “As we seek to
establish full equality for America’s gay and lesbian citizens, I
will provide more effective leadership than my
opponent.”
Romney now says he opposes same-sex marriage and in August
signed a comprehensive pledge to defend traditional marriage. But
Romney supports allowing gay couples to form “partnership
agreements.”
Romney’s abortion position has been similarly elastic. He
took a pro-abortion-rights position while running against
Kennedy.
Campaigning for governor in 2002, he stated, “[A]s
governor of the commonwealth, I will protect a woman’s right to
choose under the laws of the country and the commonwealth. That’s
the same position I’ve had for many years.” He even attended a
fundraising event for the Massachusetts affiliate of the bane of
the pro-life movement, Planned Parenthood, to which Romney’s wife
made a $150 contribution.
Romney says he had a pro-life epiphany while peering
through a microscope at embryonic stem cells in 2004. He compiled a
mixed record on abortion as governor.
Romney vetoed taxpayer funding for human embryonic stem
cell research. He also vetoed a bill that would have made emergency
contraception available at pharmacies without a prescription and
required emergency room doctors to dispense it to rape
victims.
But Romneycare, Massachusetts’ health care insurance
reform law passed in 2006, allows women to obtain elective
abortions for a $50 co-pay.
Romney now calls himself “firmly pro-life” and has
referred to his past support for Roe as his life’s
“defining mistake.” He insists he would be “delighted” to sign a
federal ban on abortion if Roe were overturned. Yet Romney
remains the least conservative Republican presidential
candidate.
Romney can assuage skepticism about his social
conservatism by stressing his Mormon values.
Mormons are renowned for being family-oriented,
civic-minded and models of self-restraint. According to a 2010
Gallup survey, America’s six million Mormons also compose the
country’s most conservative voting bloc.
Fifty-nine percent of Mormons self-identify as
conservative, and only 8% as liberal. The next most conservative
religious group is Protestants/other Christians, 46% of whom
self-identify as conservative and 16% as liberal.
Mormons also have the highest share who self-identify as
“very conservative,” at 16%, and the lowest as “very liberal,” at
1%.
A 2009 Pew poll found that Mormons are more likely than
any other religion to take a pro-life position on abortion. Seventy
percent of Mormons believe abortion should be illegal in most or
all circumstances, compared with 42% of the general
population.
Finally, a 2009 Pew poll found that 68% of Mormons believe
Hollywood threatens their values, compared to 53% of evangelicals
and 42% of the general population.
Mormons have been politically active in legislative
efforts to protect traditional marriage. Their support (in the form
of millions of dollars in donations and countless volunteers) was
probably decisive in passing California’s marriage protection
amendment in 2008.
Romney has recently started to talk about his faith and
values, and to juxtapose them with those of his latest rival,
former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
In a November debate, Romney mentioned that he’s been a
member of the same church for his entire life and married to the
same woman for 42 years. The Romney campaign makes those same
points in an Iowa mailer that touts Romney’s social conservatism.
“Mitt Romney lives his values,” the ad tells Iowa’s socially
conservative caucus-goers.
It’s not only in his marriage and family life (he has five
sons) that Romney lives his values. As a Mormon lay leader, Romney
did pastoral work that included counseling fellow Mormons on
everything from marriage, adoption, and addiction to how to grieve
the death of a loved one. As a bishop, Romney even counseled a
woman not to abort her child.
These are stories that would humanize Romney and endear
him to voters, including conservatives. He shouldn’t be afraid to
mention them just because they involve actions he took as a
representative of his church.
In the eyes of many religious conservatives, Gov. Romney’s
problem is not that he is, if you will, too Mormon, but rather that
he has not been Mormon enough — that he hasn’t always been true to
traditional Mormon support for the sanctity of life and traditional
marriage.
But Romney can turn his “Mormon problem” into an advantage
by stressing the values and policy positions that derive from his
faith.
