The Mormon Moment — Postponed

In the last few months, considerable attention has been devoted to Mitt Romney’s tax returns and his former company’s “job-creating performance,” but there has been insufficient discussion about what arguably has had the greatest role in shaping who he is and how he views the world: his Mormon religion.

Despite his reluctance to address the subject directly, public interest in Mormonism remains at historic levels. His “Mormon Moment” is laden with obligation: never in the history of the United States has an ordained minister been a major party’s candidate for the presidency. The Mormon Church has a lay priesthood, and by virtue of his ordination to the offices of Bishop and Stake President, Romney has occupied ecclesiastical positions equivalent to those within the Roman Catholic Church of Priest and Bishop. Were a Catholic Bishop to run for the presidency, there would doubtless be a demand that he address aspects of his religion in far greater detail than would be required of candidates never ordained to the ministry — and thus Gov. Romney’s obligation.

But it is also a moment of opportunity: Ever since Joseph Smith founded Mormonism in 1830, no other American religion has aroused so much fear and hatred; none has been the object of so much misinformation, falsehood — and persecution. The hearings on the seating of Utah Senator and Mormon Apostle Reed Smoot a century ago gained Mormonism the dubious distinction of being the only religion ever to be put on trial by the United States Congress.

In ever-shifting stereotypes, Mormons have been cast as polygamists or pioneer heroes, as subversives or super-patriots; but the images have always been thin, selective and without complexity. Few know what the Mormons really are — or even what they claim to be — and yet Americans have never been more curious, never more open to a deeper understanding of this (in Mormons’ own term) “peculiar” religion. Comprising only 2 percent of the population of the United States, mostly in western states, they are disproportionately represented in the United States Congress (3 percent), and particularly in the Senate (5 percent), where Harry Reid, the Majority Leader, is the highest-ranking Mormon ever to serve in the Federal Government. Well-known, respected Mormons are found throughout the worlds of entertainment, academia, athletics and especially business. Yet other aspects of contemporary Mormonism invite misunderstanding and suspicion, particularly the exclusion of non-Mormons from all operating Mormon temples, and the common misconception that Mormons still practice polygamy.
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