A conservative Christian caucus gave GOP presidential long shot Rick Santorum a last-ditch boost from a Texas ranch yesterday, bestowing its blessing upon the former Pennsylvania senator in an attempt to galvanize the God-fearing vote against front-runner Mitt Romney.
About 150 social conservatives anointed Santorum as their man on the ballot, voting to back him over Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry — and, in doing so, to try and derail Romney after his back-to-back wins in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
Their vote came as little surprise to Romney’s brethren at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints temple in Belmont, where the presidential hopeful once served as a church leader. Those who have prayed with him there say they’ve long had to cope with — but still don’t understand — the refusal, by and large, of Evangelicals to accept Mormons as Christians.
“I tell you, it’s the craziest thing I’ve seen in my life,” Clayton Christensen, a high councilor, said of Evangelical hand-wringing over the prospect of a Mormon commander in chief. “Here’s the litmus test, ladies and gentlemen. Christ said: ‘By this shall all men know ye are my disciples: If ye have love unto one another.’ By that litmus test, which is the litmus test that Christ lays out, there is no Christian church more Christian than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.”
But a slim majority of Evangelicals see things differently, according to recent polling by the Pew Research Foundation. A November poll showed that 53 percent of white Evangelical Protestants believe Mormons are not Christians; about 12 percent weren’t sure.
Conversely, in a Pew poll released this week, 46 percent of Mormons say there is broad discrimination against them in the United States, and about 68 percent said they do not see themselves as part of the American mainstream.
But more than half — 56 percent — said they believe Americans are ready to elect a Mormon president.
For voters on the fence over Romney’s faith, longtime Mormon leader Grant Bennett urges considering the Kennedy presidency, when Protestants worried the pope would have a hot line to the White House and a servant in the Oval Office.
“We’re simply seeing a replay of the very same dynamics. The idea that Mormon leadership would attempt to dictate or even opine on a critical topic is really very foreign,” he said.
“Over time, what they’ll find, if Mitt Romney or any other Mormon is elected president, they’ll find, as it relates to core values, that we have a great deal in common with Evangelicals and Catholics and fundamental, mainstream Christianity.”
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view/20220115mormon_question_lingers_for_mitt/
