The Wall Street Journal-20080214-What-s the Proper Role of Religion in Evaluating Candidates-
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What's the Proper Role of Religion in Evaluating Candidates?
Full Text (813 words)Conservative Latter-day Saints, like me, have felt a close kinship to most other people who espouse traditional values and who center their lives in faith and family. Since the days of Ronald Reagan, the Republican Party has seemed like a natural home for many of us. That has all changed as vocal elements of the party made it clear that they will accept our reliable Republican votes, but that we needn't apply for leadership roles ("Tabernacle on Trial: Mormons Dismayed By Harsh Spotlight," page one, Feb. 8).
Is there a conservative political party in this country that wants my vote? I want a color-blind, tolerant, inclusive party that will work for conservative principles. However, they can't pay clergymen to preach venom-filled sermons that breed hatred, misunderstanding and distrust for me and my fellow believers or anyone else. The party I want would rise up in indignation at the kind of thinly veiled bigotry that has characterized the Republican primary campaign.
If simple decency doesn't work, maybe an appeal to electoral calculations can get someone's attention. Just imagine the next 20 years of presidential elections with Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada and California dependably in the Democrat column.
R. Clark Shurtz
Sandy, Utah
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I object to your characterization that I "wrote that a Mormon presidency would threaten Christian faiths." I do not believe that. What I did write on several occasions is that Gov. Romney is a very attractive candidate but we should not underestimate the number of people who would not vote for a Mormon for president. Nor, I wrote, should we arrogantly dismiss these people as bigots. My point was and is that for many of these people the religious factor trumps the political. I did not agree with them in the instance of the Romney candidacy, but theirs is a defensible position that should not be caricatured as an irrational prejudice, which is what, unfortunately, your story does.
The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus
Editor in Chief
First Things
New York
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It is regrettable that religious bigotry seems to have played a part in the Republican primary. Mr. Romney's religion was never an issue in liberal Massachusetts, either in his gubernatorial campaign or during his service as our governor. Ironically, it was only when he abruptly began to pander to the strident and intolerant extreme right wing of the Republican Party that his faith became an issue.
Robert J. Galvin
Boston
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A major reason I wouldn't vote for Mr. Romney is, indeed, his belief in the Book of Mormon, just as I wouldn't vote for Mike Huckabee because of his evangelical beliefs, or for a fundamentalist Muslim. All of these people have highly irrational (one might say delusional) and often dangerous ideas that shape their views on morality and the nature of the world and could adversely influence their ability to lead a nation. To vote against someone simply because they are a woman or an African-American is wrong. However, religious tolerance surely doesn't extend to the voting booth, where hopefully a bias in favor of rationality prevails.
H. Jeffrey Lawrence
Oakland, Calif.
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As a non-Mormon living in the heart of Zion, I am dismayed that so many of my fellow Americans can reject the fundamental principle of religious freedom, block the full bloom of opportunity to Mr. Romney and effectively deny his supporters a political voice. The consequence is a religious test for high office. Mr. Huckabee has given at least tacit acceptance to this religious bigotry. If this is the face of conservatism, I must be something else.
Scot Wallace
Salt Lake City
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Comparing the 21% of respondents who were "very uncomfortable" with a Mormon presidential candidate with the 20% who felt the same way about an evangelical candidate, I wonder if the story really is more about religion in politics than about the Latter-day Saints.
Gordon F. Holbein, Ph.D.
Lexington, Ky.
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Mr. Romney is highly respected for his excellent leadership in business, but the "Southern question" for him is similar to the "national question" for John McCain: Though you are a Republican, can you show us that you will lead our country from a more conservative moral foundation once we elect you as president? If Mr. Romney provides the correct answer to that question, he will have a greater guarantee of winning more Southern states should he run in 2012.
Matthew Rouse
Northport, Ala.
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Mr. Romney's campaign had many problems that had nothing to do with his religion. However, those of us who questioned his credentials because of his faith didn't do so from bigotry. We did it because he belongs to an organization that turns its back on science, history and common sense. We did it because someone whose world view is based on willful ignorance, self-delusion and the repression of women doesn't deserve to be our president.
Declan I. MacGregor
Phoenix
