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CARROLL — State Rep. Rod Roberts, a Carroll Republican and evangelical Christian, says Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith could be an emerging issue among the former Massachusetts governor’s GOP opponents in the Iowa caucuses.
“I tend to think that could be somewhat of a sleeper,” said Roberts, director of new church development for Christian Churches/Churches of Christ in Iowa.
He added, “Perhaps it is not as obvious now as it will be.”
Roberts, who said he’s leaning toward supporting U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for the presidency, said it is entirely appropriate to press Romney on his faith. Roberts answered many questions about his own faith when he first ran as an evangelical in traditionally Catholic Carroll County.
“People should be able to ask any question,” Roberts said.
The Mormon Church is Christian but isn’t Protestant or Catholic.
Roberts, an ordained pastor, said he has examined the beliefs of the Mormon Church and suspects people from mainline and evangelical Protestant churches and Catholics may have issues with the evolving nature of The Book of Mormon.
“They believe in a doctrine called progressive revelation,” Roberts said. “Take The Book of Mormon. How many times has it been revised? That to me is a convenient out for it doesn’t matter what was said back then.”
Many conservative Christians in the Iowa GOP, if they study the Mormon faith, may see elements that run afoul of their deeply held beliefs about the literal and unchanging nature of The Bible.
“Mormons believe that they are the fully realized strain of Christianity—hence the ‘latter-day saints,’” writes Amy Sullivan in the September 2005 issue of The Washington Monthly. “They acknowledge extra-biblical works of scripture (such as the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants), follow a series of prophets who claim to have received divine revelations, and teach that God inhabits an actual physical body. This is all blasphemy to evangelicals; they argue that “the Bible explicitly warns against adding to or detracting from its teaching” and refer to the revelations as ‘realistic deception[s] by the Devil himself.’”
Roberts’ friend, State Sen. Steve Kettering, R-Lake View, takes a different view of the Romney Mormon issue.
In fact, Kettering, who was raised as a Methodist with some Christian Science influence, said he is leaning toward supporting Romney.
“If I was forced to make a decision I would go with Romney,” Kettering said.
Kettering, a long-time banker, said he is more of a free-market conservative than one focused on social issues.
When asked if the Protestants and Catholics in his district might find parts of the Mormon faith “creepy” Kettering said: “I think from a faith standpoint it is. But you’re not electing a pastor. You’re electing a president.”
That said, if Republican voters read about Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith they could encounter some beliefs and history that some Protestants and Catholics would consider heretical. For example, Smith postured as a prophet and said he had “golden tablets” with lessons from Jesus that Smith believed were taught during Christ’s visit to America following the Resurrection. Smith also said “corrupt priests” committed errors in the Bible, and he had the audacity to rewrite The Bible Himself — not millenniums past but in the relatively recent 19th Century. How will conservatives who get into a lather about “liberal” judges interpreting the Constitution feel about a man, Romney, who follows a man, Smith, who revised the Bible?
Actually that's not a big political deal today, says one key western Iowa Republican who see the caucuses turning on immigration more than a theological back and forth.
Down in southwest Iowa, State Sen. Jeff Angelo, R-Creston, an evangelical Christian, already has endorsed former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the presidential race.
Angelo doesn’t see Romney’s Mormon faith as playing a large role with other Christian conservatives.
“I’m not sure it has that much of an impact,” Angelo said.
He thinks any effort by other candidates to raise the Mormon issue will backfire.
“People are going to say, ‘I don’t know how that affects how Romney is going to fight the war on terrorism,’” Angelo said.
Angelo said Romney’s movement on issues like abortion and gay rights, where he has held various positions through the years and depending on his political ambition at the time, will have more of an impact with the values voters find so crucial in the Iowa caucuses.
Romney and other candidates can win points by giving the right answers for the base on illegal immigration — a topic that is more front and center in the minds of many Iowans than a candidate’s Mormon faith.
“Illegal immigration is very big on the social conservative right,” Angelo said.
In the end, would Angelo, a politician who lists Christian movies on his Web site and is deeply devout, accept a Mormon at the top of the GOP ticket?
"Yeah, actually I would," Angelo said.
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