New York, USA - As Mitt Romney scours the South for endorsements from evangelical leaders, he is getting some unusual advice on how to explain his Mormon faith: Don't try to be one of us.
``I told him, you cannot equate Mormonism with Christianity; you cannot say, `I am a Christian just like you,''' said Representative Bob Inglis of South Carolina, which is scheduled to hold the first primary among the Southern states. ``If he does that, every Baptist preacher in the South is going to have to go to the pulpit on Sunday and explain the differences.''
This advice, which reflects the views of many Southern Baptists and other evangelicals, makes Romney's co-religionists bristle. ``The fact that we are Christians is non-negotiable,'' said Kim Farah, a spokeswoman for the Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
In seeking the Republican nomination, Romney, 60, has to court the church-going voters who make up almost 30 percent of the party's electorate. Evangelical leaders are urging him to explain his faith, much like John F. Kennedy addressed his Catholicism before the Greater Houston Ministerial Meeting during his 1960 presidential run. In many ways, Romney faces a tougher task than Kennedy did.
Church and State
Evangelical leaders say Romney, unlike Kennedy, won't be able to defuse the religion question by citing the First Amendment of the Constitution and advocating a rigid separation of church and state. Many Christian conservatives blame such a separation for a variety of social ills.
``We need more injection of an understanding of God in our political life,'' said Roy Moore, the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and a potential third-party, anti- abortion presidential candidate. ``I am looking for a candidate that understands that this nation is established on a particular God.''
Romney, who says he accepts Mormon doctrine ``true blue, through and through,'' must also contend with the way his religion is negatively depicted, from HBO's hit comedy ``Big Love,'' whose Mormon protagonist juggles three wives, to polygamy trials in Utah.
Married to the same woman for 38 years and a grandfather of 10, Romney presents himself as a model of Christian family values. Still, evangelicals say they remain skeptical for two reasons: a faith they consider a cult and a record as governor of Massachusetts that includes support for abortion and gay rights.
Kennedy Speech
Republican strategists argue that time is wasting for a Kennedyesque speech to explain the role religion will play in a Romney White House. Such an opportunity, they say, may have been squandered when he avoided the subject at a gathering of evangelical voters in Washington this month.
``It would have been infinitely better had he been able to go to the Values Voters Summit with the speech already given,'' said Ralph Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition.
Tom Minnery, the political director of Focus on the Family, an evangelical organization in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said Romney has ``allayed some fears'' about his religion by showing he didn't turn ``the governor's mansion in Massachusetts into a Mormon temple.''
Yet for conference-goers such as Noah Crowe, a Southern Baptist pastor from Robbinsville, North Carolina, there's nothing Romney can do to overcome their distrust of Mormonism. ``His faith is not the faith I believe in, teach and preach,'' said Crowe, who added that he studied Mormonism at his Bible college in a course called ``Cults and False Religions.''
Word of God
For evangelicals, many of whom believe the Bible is the literal word of God, the Mormons' founding text, the ``Book of Mormon,'' makes it impossible for them to be considered Christians, according to Fred Smith, associate professor of Theology at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
``We believe the Bible and the Bible alone is the final authority,'' Smith said.
The Mormon faith was established in 1827 by Joseph Smith Jr., who claimed to have discovered the Book of Mormon engraved on golden plates buried near his house in western New York. The text asserts that American Indians are descended from a lost tribe of Jews who arrived in the Americas around 600 B.C., and that the Garden of Eden was in Jackson County, Missouri.
Those beginnings sound ``farcical to most Americans,'' said Brett Clifton, a professor of public policy at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Romney's supporters argue that he doesn't need to address all of the tenets of Mormonism to make his case to evangelical voters. ``Talking about values is a winner, talking about theological stuff is a no-no,'' said Representative Tom Feeney of Florida, a Republican who backs Romney.
Richard Land, a leader of the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention, disagrees. Romney, he says, has a lot more explaining to do. ``When he goes around and says Jesus Christ is my Lord and savior, he ticks off at least half the evangelicals,'' Land said. ``He's picking a fight he's going to lose.''