The Weekly Commuter

Great post by Timothy Egan of The New York Times pinpointing exactly why Mitt Romney’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination failed:

Anti-Mormon bias on the part of evangelical Christians, who believe the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to be a cult. In the eyes of these evangelicals Mormonism isn’t even a religion, let alone the one true.

No surprise that Huckabee cleaned up in the Deep South. Evangelical Christians there would rather vote for a mule than a Mormon.

Referencing the much-ballyhooed speech Romney gave last December, Egan writes, “If [Romney] had been honest on [the issue of his religion], addressing it head on, perhaps his fate would have been different.”

Mr. Egan needs to keep in mind though that as an upstanding member of the LDS Church it was impossible for Mitt Romney to speak publicly about his religion. Public discussion of the tenets of Mormonism is just not something Latter-Day Saints are allowed to do. Their leaders seriously frown upon such discourse.

When the playwright and filmmaker Neil LaBute had “Bash: Latter-Day Plays” produced and performed in 1999, he was not only disfellowshipped but also approached by members of his church who told him not to write anything involving Mormons again. An impossibility for Mr. LaBute, certainly, whose work has nevertheless, with the exception of “Bash,” steered clear of using the words ‘Mormon’ or ‘Latter-Day Saint’ or ‘Mormonism’ while at the same time embodying many of the themes consistent with the oldest home-grown American religion.

To tell the world what Mormons believe would have put Romney at odds with his church leaders, his childhood, all the memories, good and bad, he had of growing up and staying true to his family, his people. In essence he would have been ratting out those he cared about most: Saints the world over.

And now he’s out, and will we ever see a Mormon in the White House? Someday, perhaps, someday.