A test of faith in politics

Heather Johnson is increasingly asked this question: "Are you a Mormon too?"

Until recently, the Chatham County resident's religion rarely came up. That's probably going to change during the next 21 months.

Johnson is an enthusiastic supporter of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for president. She's even started a Web site and blog -- Moms4Mitt.com -- and is armed with a 600-address-plus e-mail list she uses almost daily.

Romney is the conservative candidate from central casting. He has picture-perfect good looks. He saved the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. He defended red-state values as governor in the bluest of blue states. His most notable accomplishment was a bona-fide political miracle -- he helped pushed through health care reform in the Bay State.

So what's not to like?

Mitt Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He's a Mormon and so is Johnson. Americans are a religiously tolerant bunch, but we're not prejudice-free, especially in presidential politics. With Romney in mind, during the past year pollsters have inserted Mormon-related questions in surveys. The results are anything but heartening to Romney supporters.

In June, 35 percent of respondents to an L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll reported that they could not vote for a Mormon presidential candidate. Now for the bad news. A December Newsweek poll had 48 percent of those surveyed concluding America is not ready to elect a Mormon as president. In September, two out of three respondents told Gallup the same thing.

Romney is experienced and versed in answering the Mormon question. He told Judy Woodruff on "The Charlie Rose Show" that, as a Christian, he chooses to concentrate on his faith's common Judeo-Christian values. When Woodruff brought up Mormonism's uncommon beliefs, such as Christ's return to Missouri and the belief that God has a physical body, Romney replied he's only an LDS member. Questions about Mormon theology are best left to the theologians.

Glibly, he added that he thinks the most unusual belief of his church is that a great flood engulfed the Earth, but not before a man built an ark and populated it with two of each species and saved the world.

That polished answer may be good enough in Massachusetts and for Woodruff, but I doubt it's going to play well west of the Mississippi. I don't know of a more unconventional Christian religion. And growing up in the West, where the LDS church is more prevalent than here, I've witnessed the vicious distortion of the faith's basic tenets for theological, and in the case of Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham's short-circuited term, political gain.

Mecham, a Mormon, was impeached in 1988 for charges on which he was later acquitted in criminal court. During the controversy his religion was attacked. I won't repeat the accusations, but they were akin to accusing Catholics like me of cannibalism for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. They were that vitriolic.

Some of the most bigoted attacks came from fellow Christians, not a stretch since some evangelical preachers aren't shy about calling the LDS church a cult. I fear the reoccurrence of this intolerance when Romney becomes a serious contender.

"I'm not going to deny the problem," Nancy French told me from her rural Tennessee home. She's founder of Evangelicals for Mitt, which is not associated with the Romney campaign.

"Look, there are many things about Mormonism that I vehemently disagree with, but as I tell fellow evangelicals, we're voting for a commander in chief, not a pastor in chief."

Back in Chatham County, Johnson is realistic about the questions she'll probably face as Romney's candidacy strengthens. She knows many will be based on practices -- such as polygamy -- that were rejected by LDS leaders decades ago. The optimist in her views the questions as fresh opportunities to educate about her faith.

French is more pragmatic. Evangelicals are searching for a new conservative champion, she said. Values, not church attendance, matter most in politics.

She reminded me that if evangelicals could overwhelmingly support Ronald Reagan, a divorced Hollywood actor, for the White House, backing Romney, a once-married Mormon from Massachusetts, will be a piece of cake.