The Values Voter Summit in Washington this weekend left no doubt about it: The Mormon issue is back.
A Texas pastor?s inflammatory remarks here ? calling Mormonism a ?cult? ? thrust Mitt Romney?s faith into the center of a 2012 campaign overwhelmingly focused on the economy. It was a transparent attempt by Baptist minister Robert Jeffress, a Rick Perry supporter, to drive a wedge between Romney and evangelical voters.?
Continue ReadingThe attack amounted to a test for Romney, forcing him to respond to a rhetorical assault on his faith that flouted the standard rules of American political debate.
Rather than answering Jeffress directly, Romney came to the summit on Saturday and rebuked another hardline social conservative: Bryan Fischer, a controversial official at the American Family Association who has disparaged Mormonism, as well as homosexuality, Islam and more.
?We should remember that decency and civility are values too,? Romney said Saturday. ?One of the speakers who will follow me today has crossed that line, I think. Poisonous language doesn?t advance our cause.?
It was a careful response that allowed Romney to criticize a detractor of his faith without inviting a lengthy public conversation about Mormonism.
The response also hewed close to the role he?s tried to craft for himself in the GOP primary, as the grown-up who will talk to the extreme wings of his party, but not work overtime to appease them.
It?s unclear whether that will be enough to win over many social conservatives, who harbor deep distrust of Romney for his history of changing positions on abortion and gay rights.
But Romney supporters say there?s little point in trying to sway voters who may have ruled out the Republican for his Mormon religion ? a group that may or may not be large enough to pose a serious political obstacle to the former Massachusetts governor.
?For social and religious conservatives who really care primarily about values, I think they?ll be very happy with Mitt Romney,? said evangelical public relations executive Mark DeMoss, a Romney supporter. ?For those few who are bent on drawing theological boundaries, it?ll be different.?
DeMoss warned that Jeffress was going down a ?dangerous path? by trying to stir up religious divisions.?
?I would remind fellow evangelicals: Our track record is not spotless in public life. Mark Sanford in South Carolina, John Ensign in Nevada ? those were evangelicals,? he said. ?Electing an evangelical, I think, has historically proven not to be the answer to all the world?s problems.?
Romney?s attitude is different this time around than it was in his last presidential bid, when he campaigned as an orthodox social conservative and gave a speech at Texas A&M attempting to quiet concerns about his faith.
He?s struggled again to win over Christian conservatives. But fortunately for Romney, there?s not another candidate in the race who has become a Mike Huckabee-style focal point for disaffected evangelicals.
Nor is there a candidate who will make provocative comments about Mormonism, as Huckabee did when he asked The New York Times: ?Don?t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers??
Far from adding fuel to the fire Jeffress started, a number of evangelical leaders at the conference this weekend came to the defense of Romney and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer told POLITICO the Jeffress comments were ?unfortunate? and said conservatives of different faiths should prepare to ?make common cause? against President Barack Obama.
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