Romney Faces Sticky Questions about LDS “Doctrines” on Race

At a Monday Town Hall meeting in Howard, Wisconsin, Mitt Romney tried out new tactical skills as he fielded the kinds of sticky questions about LDS doctrine Mormons are bracing for this campaign season.

A Ron Paul supporter in the audience, reading from typed notes, quizzed Romney on whether or not he subscribed to a verse of LDS scripture that correlated phenotypic and spiritual darkness and whether or not he opposed interracial marriage, as did LDS Church leaders down through Spencer Kimball (who died at the age of 90 in 1985).

Predictably, Romney got a bit prickly. But he also applied what appeared to be a new rhetorical strategy, telling the Paul supporter that he would not discuss the “doctrines of my religion” but that he would discuss the “practices of my faith,” and then using the moment to pivot to a discussion of his service as a lay pastoral leader.

For Romney, “doctrines” versus “practices” is a perfectly workable distinction, one that reflects the pragmatic core of modern Mormonism as well as the rather fluid and uneven state of its theology.
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