Romney, Santorum, and God

by Steve Erickson
The American Prospect

In February 1849, Brigham Young, the man who unified the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, declared that the black man’s color is the mark of Cain—the manifestation of the first capital crime, Cain’s murder of his brother. These days Mormon revisionism doesn’t so much contest as ignore Young’s decree, implying that it’s urban legend. What the Church can’t dispute is that until three decades ago, African Americans were prohibited from playing any role in the Church, and the extent to which they’ve done so since is minimal. Governor Mitt Romney, a lifelong practicing Mormon, never has been keen to discuss this, and one of the ironies of the last few weeks is that he might not have to, if his candidacy continues to deteriorate courtesy of former senator and Catholic firebrand Rick Santorum.

In this campaign so far, commentators have been waiting with some dread for Romney’s Mormonism to become an issue. Codified by the First Amendment, our politics hold that as the government neither sanctions nor judges people’s faith, nor do we as individuals; and liberals in particular—no fans of Romney’s presidential aspirations—argue that his Mormonism is off limits in assessing his candidacy. They have raised in whispers and warnings the prospect of religion entering the campaign in the same way that race does, or gender—as another source of, or excuse for, prejudice at its ugliest. Reverend Franklin Graham’s observations last week about who is sufficiently and incontestably Christian have only confirmed for many what happens when religion becomes part of the electoral conversation, and in recent American political history the election of John Kennedy, who famously addressed Protestant ministers in Houston during the fall campaign of 1960 on the matter of his Catholicism, is deemed a landmark moment when religious bigotry finally was faced head-on and overcome.
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