Pressure on Romney to firmly address Mormon faith

By Jason Szep

BOSTON (Reuters) - As he seeks to become the first Mormon U.S. president, Republican Mitt Romney faces a dilemma in courting conservative Christians who often dismiss his religion as a cult but now could decide his political fate.

Should he address his religion head-on in a speech, as John F. Kennedy did in 1960 to Texas Baptists while campaigning to become the first Roman Catholic U.S. president?

Or should he resist debate over a religion that evangelicals, who are key to winning the Republican primaries, often view with suspicion?

"It's a delicate balance, but I don't think the strategy of ignoring this is going to work," said Boston University professor Julian Zelizer. "At the moment he seems not to accept it as a legitimate issue and hopes that it goes away."

The Harvard-educated former Massachusetts governor has cast himself as a more conservative alternative to favorites John McCain, an Arizona senator, and Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor.

That pitch is complicated by his inconsistency on social issues such as gay rights and abortion rights, which he once supported but now opposes, and misconceptions about Mormonism and its history of racism and polygamy.

The issue popped up most recently in Florida, a powerful state in the Republican nominating process where a heckler at a retirement community attacked his faith. "Sir, you are a pretender. You do not know the Lord," the man said.

Romney, a polished communicator and a former bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, replied: "One of the great things about this great land is that we have people of different faiths and different persuasions.

"And I'm convinced that the nation does need ... to have people of different faiths but we need to have a person of faith lead the country."

'RELIGIOUS VIEWS'

Damon Linker, a former professor at the Mormon-sponsored Brigham Young University in Utah and author of "Theocons: Secular America Under Siege," said Romney's response in Florida is exactly why he needs to address the issue.

"The religious right wants a candidate's religious views to be at the center of their identity and political agenda. If you are going to do that, then the candidate's religious views have to be open for scrutiny," he said.

The Salt Lake City, Utah-based church is one of the world's fastest-growing and affluent religions.

It bans alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee, maintains that there is no eternal hell, the dead can be baptized and God speaks through living apostles and prophets such as the church's current president, Gordon Hinckley.

"What would it mean to have a Mormon as president who would believe that in an office building in downtown Salt Lake City there is a man who is the living mouthpiece of God on earth who speaks with the authority of God?" Linker asked.