Mitt Romney's childhood narrative is not unlike that of any typical devout Mormon follower. Romney was born in 1947 to a devout Mormon family in Detroit. Like his forefathers, he spent time as a Mormon missionary, dedicating nearly 30 months of his life to preaching Mormon beliefs in Paris. He was so successful that he was soon promoted to co-president of the mission, overseeing 175 followers. Romney even transferred from Stanford to the renowned Morman University of Brigham Young and graduated at the top of his class. Throughout his life, Romney has tithed millions of dollars to charity, predominately charities sponsored by the LDS.
However, despite the prevalence of religion throughout Romney's childhood and his continued observance in adulthood, Romney's campaign platform is completely secular. For example, on Romney's campaign website his faith is not mentioned at all. Furthermore, in an interview on Fox News Radio, his response to the question of whether or not religion will play a key role in the 2012 election is simply that he has already “put the issue to bed” and that he a “conservative business man” who can turn the economy around.
Romney’s answer to this question is representation of the political calculations made by him and his campaign staff. Though Romney says his religion is no longer an issue, a June Gallup poll revealed that 22% of people would refuse to vote for a Mormon presidential candidate. Clearly he and his campaign staff agree that even though American’s preach freedom and religious tolerance, in practice, one’s religion can be a major campaign liability. In order to win the republican presidential nomination, Romney must run as a secular conservative business man.
The reason Romney’s religious appearance remains crucial is that a key voting bloc of the Republican Party, evangelical Christians, has the power to determine which presidential candidate receives the nomination. In order to avoid alienating these constituents, Romney must continue to distance himself from the LDS.
This is an interesting digest, but it makes me wonder - at least idly - whether Romney is necessarily taking the right course of action when he tries to downplay his religion.
ReplyDeleteThe Religious Right may well be on a downward slope from its absolute peak of ascendancy a few years back, but nevertheless it is difficult for a candidate to do badly in the Republican Primary based on being a Christian. As such, I sometimes think that perhaps Romney would do better to emphasize Mormonism's identity as a Christian sect, rather than buy into the curious cultural notion that they are completely separate.
Now, don't get me wrong: the fact that Romney doesn't wear his insane religious drivel on his sleeve, unlike Bachmann or Perry, brings me a certain level of relief (even if I think he's delusional at best in his absolute championing of the free market as the solution to everything). But if I were to be on his campaign team, I think I would caution his current stance toward his religion.
Whether one likes it or not (and for the record, I fall into the latter category), Christian language and imagery still plays VERY well to the Republican base that it is so essential for Romney to capture. It may not be the primary issue in play here, as he notes in the linked interview, but it's hard to imagine Romney both winning the primary AND emerging as a candidate who can go toe-to-toe with Obama without energizing them.
And emphasizing that he is a good Christian family man, even if his particular sect of Christianity isn't well-understood, may be his only (or at least his best) path toward doing that.
Thank you for your time.
- Kevin Chafe
When you look at each of the overtly religious candidates in the 2012 election, most American's stray away from Romney because of the stigma his religious beliefs have. I think its fair to say that Romney's actions do not match up with his words....what a surprise in politics, right?
ReplyDeleteMadison, you mentioned how Romney's website doesn't mention his faith and that is platform is secular. This is interesting to contrast against Bachmann or Perry who are running on a strictly religious platform who mention their faith out loud whenever they can. Even though conservative evangelicals have a particular reputation in America, especially in politics, do you find it surprising to see evangelicals able to take on an overt religious platform (with support) while Romney, a Mormon, has to tread lightly?
I think this whole situation really brings up a better issue which is that American's are not educated about Mormonism. While I have friends who are practicing Mormons, and one who just married her college boyfriend at BYU, the religious beliefs change from person to person. A religion is not one size fits all, and while I may not agree with the majority of Mormon teachings, the religious has modernized more in recent years. I'm not trying to be an advocate for Mormonism but I think the stigma people have is so skewed that Romney may not even have a chance to enter the election unscathed.
I am interested in Mitt Romney's perplexity when it comes to the way he handles questions about his religion. Romney is definitely trying to hold strong to his religious beliefs while appealing to America. I definitely understand why Romney keeps changing his approach to the subject. After all, his religious beliefs could be the deciding factor for him to win the Presidential election. However, this is a difficult task for a Mormon running for President. What do you think is the best way for him to deal with this situation? The obvious answer seems to be that he needs to separate his religious views with his political views. However, people know that this is very tough to do.
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