In campaign detour, Romney mourns Mormon leader

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (Reuters) - White House hopeful Mitt Romney left the campaign trail on Saturday for the funeral of the Mormon church leader but shrugged off criticism of his faith among evangelical Christians.

Three days before "Super Tuesday" voting, the man who would be the first Mormon president if nominated by Republicans and elected in November, said he thought the candidates' philosophy and experience would rate higher with voters than religion.

Tuesday's Republican voting in 21 states, the biggest single day in the contests to choose Republican and Democratic candidates, could be the crucial showdown between Romney and Republican front-runner Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are battling on the Democratic side.

"We've had the discussion about faith now long enough that people have settled one way or another," Romney told reporters on a flight from Salt Lake City to Minneapolis after the funeral of Mormon leader Gordon Hinckley.

"Most people have moved on to my other weaknesses," he said. Asked what those were, he said, "Numerous."

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and venture capitalist, is fighting to stay in the race against McCain, in what he has billed as a battle for the "heart and soul" of the Republican Party.

"I just don't think that religion is going to play a differentiating role at this stage. I know it will be an issue for some people, I just don't think for very many," Romney said.

WOOING CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS

With rival White House hopeful Mike Huckabee, a Baptist preacher, trailing a distant third in national polls, picking up support from conservative Christians could be critical to Romney's success -- but that will involve allaying concerns among some over his Mormonism.

Founded in 1830, the once-isolated group based in Salt Lake City is one of the fastest-growing and most affluent religions, with an estimated $25 billion in assets in 1999 and more than $5 billion in annual income. More than half its 12.9 million members live outside the United States.

The church bans alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee. It maintains there is no eternal hell, the dead can be baptized and that God speaks through living apostles and prophets such as Hinckley, who died last Sunday at the age of 97.

Hinckley had been the 15th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, since March 1995.

Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's traveling press secretary, said Romney had spent the morning doing interviews with TV stations in Super Tuesday states such as Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee and Georgia, but he had no public events scheduled in Utah. An evening rally was scheduled in Minneapolis.

Fehrnstrom brushed off questions about the sensitivity of drawing attention to Romney's faith. The church has spent decades trying to counter criticism it is a cult and a threat to Christianity.

"The governor is proud of his faith," Fehrnstrom said.

Romney noted the funeral was attended by other Mormon politicians, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt, representing U.S. President George W. Bush.

In December, Romney gave a speech seeking to reassure voters who were wary of his religion, and vowed the Mormon church would not run the White House if he were elected.

In that speech, Romney cast himself in the role of the late President John Kennedy, who addressed Americans about his Roman Catholic religion in 1960 and went on to win the presidency.

(Additional reporting by James Nelson; Editing by Peter Cooney

(For more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at http:/blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)