{"id":83,"date":"2007-08-02T17:11:31","date_gmt":"2007-08-02T17:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2007\/08\/romneys-faith-faces-uphill-fig.php"},"modified":"2007-08-02T17:11:31","modified_gmt":"2007-08-02T17:11:31","slug":"romneys-faith-faces-uphill-fig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/08\/romneys-faith-faces-uphill-fig","title":{"rendered":"Romney’s Faith Faces Uphill Fight in South Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"

RNS
\nBy Alexandra Steigrad
\nWashingon — Can a Mormon win the White House? It’s a question on
\nthe minds of many voters watching former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney
\n— not to mention Romney’s campaign itself.
\nBut for the Romney camp, the more immediate question is whether
\nRomney can conquer the South, a region where evangelicals are not only
\npolitical kingmakers, but also deeply skeptical about the Mormon faith.
\nRomney’s first test comes in South Carolina, the veritable buckle of
\nthe Bible Belt, which holds a Democratic primary on Jan. 29 and a
\nRepublican primary on Feb. 2.
\nIt’s a state that was pivotal to President Bush’s win in 2000, when
\nhe appealed directly to Christian conservatives and Sen. John McCain
\nlost, in part by campaigning directly against them.
\nIt’s also a barometer to gauge the mood of voters across the South,
\nand Romney knows it. He has made over 20 stops in the state since
\nFebruary, and is “planning on spending a lot more time down there,”
\naccording to Will Holley, Romney’s South Carolina communications
\ndirector.
\nAdvisers say if Romney hopes to be a serious contender in the South,
\nhe needs to appeal directly to conservative Christians, who make up
\nabout one-quarter of the nation’s voters and about one-third of South
\nCarolina voters.
\nAnd while he needs to tackle the questions about his faith head-on,
\npolitical observers say Romney shouldn’t try to gloss over the
\ndifferences.
\n“Trying to sell Mormonism as an acceptable orthodox Christian faith
\nis a huge mistake. It’s not going to work with evangelicals,” said
\nRichard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and
\nReligious Liberty Commission.
\n“Most southern voters want to know what the religious perspectives
\nof the candidates are, and it’s important to them. It’s not
\ndeterminative, but it’s important,” he said.
\nRegardless, Claire Austin, senior consultant for Romney’s Alabama
\ncampaign, said she tells the former governor: “You talk to people, and
\nyou relate to people and you let them know you believe in Jesus Christ
\nas your savior and that you have a very strong faith and moral compass.”
\nOne of Romney’s biggest challenges may be overcoming the belief
\namong many conservative Christians that Mormons are not actually
\nChristians. For Ronnie Acker, the public affairs director for a regional
\ngroup of Mormon churches located near Birmingham, Ala., the answer is
\nobvious.
\n“A lot of people will say that we are not a Christian church, but
\nfirst you have to look at the name of the church: The Church of Jesus
\nChrist of Latter-day Saints. We use the King James Version of the Bible,
\nthe Old and the New Testament.”
\nBut not everyone agrees.
\nMany evangelicals, Land said, do not consider Mormonism to be a
\nconventional Christian faith. Evangelicals “do not believe that Mormon
\nteachings fall within the guidelines of the apostolic creeds, the
\nteachings concerning the Trinity, for instance,” he said.
\nIf Romney tries to play up the Mormon-as-Christian angle, Land said,
\nRomney won’t buy any votes. Land advised that Romney would be better off
\nnot addressing the Christian question, but instead focusing on his
\nsocial policies on abortion and same-sex marriage, for example, which
\nare in line with southern values.
\n“There is no issue that matters more to most evangelicals than the
\nissue of the life of the unborn,” said Land, who believes that Romney’s
\nanti-abortion stance is an asset — even if the former governor had at
\none time declared himself as pro-abortion rights.
\nBased on polls released July 30 from the New Hampshire-based
\nAmerican Research Group, Romney trailed other leading candidates, at 7
\npercent, in South Carolina. In Alabama, which holds a GOP primary (with
\n17 other states) on Feb. 5, Romney trailed other major candidates, at 12
\npercent, in a University of South Alabama\/Mobile Register poll last
\nspring.
\nMeanwhile, the American Research Group poll shows Romney in a
\nneck-and-neck race with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in Iowa,
\nboth with about 21 percent. The poll also shows Romney tied with
\nGiuliani (about 26 percent) in New Hampshire.
\nAside from highlighting Romney’s record, Land urged Romney to tackle
\nthe Mormon question like John F. Kennedy did when he was speaking about
\nhis Catholicism during his successful presidential run in 1960.
\nJust as Kennedy assured Americans that he wasn’t the Catholic
\ncandidate for president, but instead the Democratic candidate, Romney
\nneeds to tell the nation he isn’t the Mormon candidate, but the
\nRepublican candidate, Land said.
\nJohn Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public
\nLife and an expert on religion and politics, said there still is a
\nchance that southern evangelical will vote for Romney.
\n“Romney faces a challenge in the South,” he said. “Whether he can
\novercome it remains to be seen. It’s still very early.”
\nCopyright 2007 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of
\nthis transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written
\npermission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RNS By Alexandra Steigrad Washingon — Can a Mormon win the White House? It’s a question on the minds of many voters watching former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — not to mention Romney’s campaign itself. But for the Romney camp, the more immediate question is whether Romney can conquer the South, a region where evangelicals…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRomney's Faith Faces Uphill Fight in South Carolina<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/08\/romneys-faith-faces-uphill-fig\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Romney's Faith Faces Uphill Fight in South Carolina\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"RNS By Alexandra Steigrad Washingon — Can a Mormon win the White House? 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