Last modified: Sunday, June 10, 2007 12:09 AM EDT Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Romney's religion BY GLORIA LaBOUNTY SUN CHRONICLE STAFF As Mitt Romney strives to become the leader of the pack of 10 Republican presidential candidates, his face and his faith seem to be everywhere. In the past month, the former Massachusetts governor has been on the cover of Time magazine, featured on "60 Minutes" and the "Tonight Show", included in a two-part PBS series called "The Mormons" and analyzed in countless news articles. The attention at times is more about his religious views than his political ones, mainly because of concerns about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "This is the first time since the candidacy of John Kennedy, a Catholic, that a viable candidate running for president is a member of a non-mainstream faith," said Mark Small, who is affiliated with the Mormon chapel in Foxboro and currently serves as bishop in the area. "I think people don't understand enough about the beliefs of the LDS Church, and worry unnecessarily about how a candidate who is a Mormon would govern," he said. Based on national polls, there seems to be plenty of uncertainty among voters, but also plenty of openness. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center showed that 30 percent of respondents said they were less likely to vote for a Mormon, yet 64 percent said it would not matter. But the polls overall are not favorable to Romney, so far. He is running a distant third or even fourth in the Republican race, and that includes polls targeted specifically to Republican Protestants, evangelicals and Catholics. But he has recently been leading in New Hampshire and Iowa. Evangelical Christians, who account for about a fourth of the electorate, have some of the greatest concerns about Mormons, and Romney has been wooing them for months. Last fall, he met with evangelical leaders, including the late Jerry Falwell, who said earlier this year that if Romney is pro-life and pro-family, he should not have a problem getting the support of evangelicals. Pat Robertson recently invited Romney to give the commencement address at his Regent University, and James Dobson, the head of Focus on the Family, initially expressed doubts about Romney's religion, but recently met with him and later praised Romney for his family-centered views. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention was quoted as saying that Romney can overcome misgivings about his faith if he can convince voters they are choosing a president, not a theologian. Chris Doughty, a Wrentham resident and member of the LDS chapel in Franklin, said he has no problem with the focus on his faith in the campaign. Studying a candidate's complete background is healthy in a democratic process, he said. "It's appropriate to have a dialogue about his religion," Doughty said. He also said the spotlight will be good for Mormonism. "I am very proud of our church," he said. But what Doughty hopes is that the church will be presented accurately in the media. "What makes us cringe is when we see wrong information," he said. Small's impression of the recent PBS documentary was that it was neither balanced nor completely accurate. "Too much time was given to people who had an ax to grind with the Church, and too little was said about all the good Church members do collectively and as individuals for people around the world," Small said. "Serving and caring for all of God's children is central to our faith." Mormons, themselves, are trying to better acquaint the public about their faith. When the religion blog "On Faith," jointly sponsored by the Washington Post and Newsweek, recently made Mormonism the subject of its weekly question, hundreds of church members responded to the postings of panelists. Julian Zelizer, professor of history at Boston University and a frequent commentator on contemporary politics, said the attention being paid to Romney's church is not surprising, considering the role religion now plays in national politics. "We are in an era when religion matters," he said. That has been the case since the 1980s, with the rise of the conservative Christian movement and the focus on religious values, Zelizer said. Since then, he said, religion has become a significant issue for candidates, and for many voters. Yet Romney is the only candidate whose faith is under such scrutiny. One reason for that, Zelizer said, is that Mormonism is a newer religion that people are less familiar with, and that adds a dimension of curiosity, skepticism and doubt. Established in 1830 based on revelations to its founder, Joseph Smith, the LDS church now has almost 13 million members worldwide, including about 5.5 million in this country. Despite the size and continued growth of the church, some Christian groups still view it as a cult based on heresy, and reject the notion that Smith rescued Christianity from apostasy and restored it to truth, and that the books containing his revelations are part of scripture along with the Bible. John Jefferson Davis, a professor of theology and Christian ethics at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, an evangelical college in South Hamilton, said many evangelicals would not see the LDS church as Christian in the historical sense because of the unorthodox way Mormons view God, Jesus Christ, salvation and the trinity. Doughty takes issue with the notion that his church is not Christian. "You can't be in our building five minutes without knowing that we are people with Jesus at the center," he said. "Christ is the center of our church and the center of our name." Some Christians are uncomfortable with former Mormon practices, such as polygamy, which was banned by the LDS church in 1890, and the prohibition against black male members being ordained into the lay priesthood, which was lifted in 1978. Those issues are of lesser concern to Davis. "All religions have a dark history," he said. In his "60 Minutes" interview, Romney agreed with the objections to plural marriage, which was practiced by his great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather, and said he can understand why people would be troubled by that part of the church's past. What many conservative Christians see instead is Romney's pro-life and pro-family stance, Davis said, and the key will be the weight they give to his religion over other factors such as foreign policy, the economy, domestic issues and character. "Religion will not necessarily be a show-stopper for many religious people," he said, but added that "for some, it is a deal breaker." That especially could be the case for those whose religion is at the core of all they do, he said. David said his personal view as a Protestant evangelical is that he wants someone with the skills to do the job, regardless of their religious affiliation. "In my view, an atheist could be an outstanding president," Davis said. The bottom line, he said, is each voter's criteria in choosing a candidate, and each one's decision on whether or not religion should trump everything else, or if competency should be the deciding factor. Romney is hardly the first Mormon to seek prominent office. Several members of Congress belong to the LDS church, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat. What may plague Romney more than his Mormonism is his switch on social issues. While running for governor in Massachusetts in 2002, he presented himself as a moderate and supported abortion choice and gay rights, but now he is taking staunch conservative stands, and opposes both abortion and same-sex marriage. His campaign says the switch is not flip-flop, but the result of a thoughtful moral process. Some political observers are also keeping an eye on the changes in the evangelical movement, itself, and on the increasing focus by some evangelical leaders on issues such as poverty, AIDS, Darfur and global warming that may come to the forefront during the campaign. Yet evangelicals overall remain socially conservative, and that creates ties with Mormons. Whitney Johnson, director of public affairs for the LDS church in the Boston area, said although her church has doctrinal differences with other Christian faiths, "there is so much more that binds us." As an example, she notes how in Massachusetts, Mormons worked side by side with other faith groups for passage of the constitutional amendment on marriage that would define it as a union between a man and a woman. She supports Romney and hopes he wins, but she said for her, the faith of a candidate is not an issue. When she was living in New York City and working on Wall Street, she voted for Rudy Giuliani, a candidate she admired for his leadership, but was not as comfortable with on social issues. Zelizer of Boston University predicts that Romney will get a high percentage of the Mormon vote, but also will lose other voters because of his faith. "Clearly, people will vote for or against him on this issue," he said. Small agrees that some Mormons will probably vote for Romney because he belongs to the church. But he said the LDS Church itself has a policy of political neutrality and does not endorse candidates, no matter who they are. In the end, Romney's candidacy may be good for the LDS Church, Small said, because it will lead to better understanding. It also could forge new relationships. Zelizer said if Romney is ultimately successful and revives the Republican party, many evangelicals may decide they can live with his Mormonism. "Stranger bedfellows have been seen in politics," he said. GLORIA LaBOUNTY can be reached at 508-236-0333 or at glabounty@thesunchronicle.com.