Would Mormon church influence Romney if president?

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WASHINGTON, D.C. - As Republican front-runner Mitt Romney solidifies his lead as the party's presidential candidate, some concerns in evangelical and other circles are surfacing that, if elected, Romney might use his post to promote his Mormon faith and protect its interests.

Mormon lawmakers and scholars say there is nothing illegal, unethical or untoward about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints petitioning its government for help on certain matters, though they recognize that a Mormon in the White House would bring new levels of scrutiny from Republicans uneasy about the faith and Democrats concerned about its conservative political posture.

"In the event that Romney were elected president, both sides would be anxiously looking for any signs that he was promoting his faith or doing the bidding of the LDS hierarchy," said Grant Hardy, a history and religious studies professor at the University of North Carolina-Asheville.

Hardy, a member of the LDS Church, expects a Romney administration would be reluctant to nominate Mormons to top government positions.

And while most would expect him to work with prominent Mormons in Washington, such as Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, his interactions with Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is also Mormon, would likely draw extra attention.

Gay-rights activist Fred Karger, who is running a fring campaign for the GOP nomination, foresees the constitutional separation of church and state to be tested.

"I think it is a very serious problem that would arise if he is president," Karger said. "He has been an obedient, faithful Mormon his whole life; he won't just disregard it." Karger said.

Romney's campaign did not respond to a request for comment, but the former governor of Massachusetts talked about the intersection of his faith and politics in a 2007 interview with The Salt Lake Tribune.

"I don't try and distance myself in any way, shape or form from my faith, but my church doesn't dictate to me or anyone what political policies we should pursue," Romney said during his first run for the White House. "There has never been a time in my four years as governor, that anyone from my church called me or contacted me and asked me to take a position on an issue."

A Salt Lake Tribune national poll commissioned in mid-December 2011 showed 60 percent of likely voters would be comfortable voting for a Mormon presidential candidate, but 26 percent were uncomfortable to some degree and 14 percent said they didn't know. That percentage jumped to 76 percent as comfortable and only 14 percent as wary in the Republican Party.

The most common responses to why people were uncomfortable with a Mormon candidate were polygamy, concerns the faith isn't Christian and that its members were too conservative.

Count Karger among the 2 percent who said it was because they disagreed with the faith's views on homosexuality. He is using his presidential bid to question the role the LDS faith would have in a Romney presidency.

Romney backers strongly deny such accusations. Hatch says anyone questioning Romney in this regard should examine his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, where he enforced abortion laws and didn't stand in the way of any same-sex unions after the state Supreme Court deemed them legal.

"Anybody who thinks Mitt Romney is governed by church leaders is just plain wrong," said Hatch, who said LDS authorities don't pressure elected officials, including himself.

Former Utah GOP Sen. Bob Bennett, who is Mormon and a Romney supporter, said it shouldn't shock anyone that the LDS Church asks national politicians for help on occasion. Bennett predicted the LDS Church would be more hesitant to weigh in on a political issue if Romney were in the White House.

Hardy said he expects that gay rights and immigration are the two hot-button issues most likely to put Romney and the LDS Church in a bind.

Because of the LDS Church's involvement in the 2008 fight over California's Prop 8 same-sex marriage ban, Romney would be "constantly questioned" about his views on a variety of gay rights issues. Romney's views on this topic have stayed close to that of his faith.

On immigration, the LDS Church has called on the government to reduce the influx of undocumented immigrants but to treat those in the country with compassion, creating a legal framework that would allow them to get a job lawfully.

It's a position that both Bennett and Hatch noted is softer than the one staked out by Romney, who wants to require such immigrants to return to their home country and apply for legal status.

Romney, in his 2007 interview with The Tribune, cited one example of taking a position that ran contrary to that of the church: legislation that would allow the sale of alcohol on Sundays in Massachusetts.

"That isn't saying that I disagree with my church," he said. "I simply did what I thought was in the best interest of the state, which I was elected to serve."

(Contact Matt Canham at mcanham(at)sltrib.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)