ELLE READER POLITICS

What Would Mitt Do? HAS GONE FROM TOUTING GAY RIGHTS TO ADVOCATING A BAN ON GAY MARRIAGE, FROM PRO-CHOICE TO PRO-LIFE. SUCH CHANGES WOULD NORMALLY TURN OFF WRITER CANDICE RAINEY, BUT SHE’S FINDING HERSELF DRAWN TO HER FELLOW MORMON AS HE RUNS FOR PRESIDENT. THE QUESTION IS: HOW BIG IS HER LOVE? can’t believe I’m looking for Mitt Rom- dare ask Joe Lieberman if he wears a yar- alcohol, no premarital sex, but who also ney’s “garments.” It’s a Tuesday morn- mulke when the Senate is in session? But still feels attached to the faith. Think ing in Columbia, South Carolina, and here I am doing it myself…. I think I can Easter Catholic or Yom Kippur Jew. At as the Republican presidential hopeful make out an outline under his sleeve, but Thanksgiving dinner with my family struggles with a malfunctioning micro- then again, it could just be a T-shirt. (we’re all of the Jack breed), I’m the one phone, I’m studying his freshly pressed, I’m what you call a “Jack Mormon”: who “blesses the food” with a fairly stan- I diaphanous white shirt, searching for slang used in my native Salt Lake City to dard, though extemporaneous, Mormon- evidence of the church-sanctioned set of describe nonpracticing members of the minded prayer, meaning I start with underclothes Mormons wear to remind Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day “Dear Heavenly Father” and end with themselves of their personal commit- Saints. (Full disclosure—until I started “In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.” ment to God. As a Mormon (nonpractic- this story, I didn’t know that the term Then I reach for my wineglass. ing, albeit), I’ve been offended by the supposedly originated circa 1834, after It’s not that any of these restric- barrage of insensitive questions Rom- church members were expelled from tions on its own is necessarily onerous, ney has had to field about his faith, no Missouri’s Jackson County and fled to but together they define a lifestyle that more so than when, in 2005, an Atlantic the more friendly Clay County. The is too constricting for me. At heart, I just Monthly reporter asked him, “Do you LDS sympathizers were labeled “Jack” don’t believe denying my appetites will wear the temple garments?” How differ- Mormons.) Today, it generally charac- bring me closer to God. I stopped going ent is a Mormon donning garments from a terizes someone like me—who no longer to church in junior high school, mainly Muslim woman covering her head with a attends church and can’t abide by the because my parents never forced me

scarf? I thought then. Would any reporter LDS rules of no coffee, no swearing, no to attend and, as I got older, few of my Danny Wilcox Frazier/Redux

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v2pEL0208i037A-C.indd 1 12/10/07 1:35:29 PM friends were “good” Mormons. These of those duties, just as he was confirmed Adoption Agency, down the road from days, I don’t feel the need for organized at the appropriate time to the two levels the Christian , I religion in my life, but if I were to seek of ‘priesthood’ all Mormon men attain meet adoptive parents Tamar and Mari- out a place of worship I’d probably start if they keep the precepts of their faith.” us Pundys, who’ve just finished taking a with a Mormon church, though I’d have Most presidential candidates, espe- tour with Romney of the one-story red- to work through my discomfort with cially a Republican hoping to woo the brick building. They tell me they’re still the history of polygamy, as well as its Family Values –loving right, would not sure who they’ll vote for in the South present-day vestiges: the exclusion of parade this kind of flawless religious Carolina primary in January, but the women from key LDS leadership roles. report card. That is, if they were a Meth- Mormon factor is irrelevant. “There’s a I actually have a routine down to odist or a Baptist. In an election where characterization about people in the answer the inevitable question Salt Lake differences are a selling point and the South or religious people that they make City natives get when they dare stray anticipation for the first woman or choices based entirely on their religious beyond Utah’s borders: Are you Mormon? African-American president is crack- belief,” Marius says. His wife, Tamar, I start by saying that I’m nonpracticing, ling, Romney, or maybe more accurate- jumps in. “People think we’re not think- but, but, but I was baptized at age eight ly, his advisers, have arduously tried to ers and we’re very narrow-minded. and have extended family members who pull the spotlight away from the fact that That’s not necessarily the case.” are devout Mormons. In the eight years if elected, he’d be the first Mormon pres- Romney has managed to wrangle I’ve lived in New York, I’ve convinced ident. Instead, Romney focuses on his crucial endorsements from Christian myself that the reason I’m so careful to lay years toiling in the private sector, first at conservatives including Paul Weyrich out my LDS roots is that I want to defend, Bain & Company, a Boston manage- (the founding president of the Heritage or in some way protect, the faith in which ment-consulting firm, and then as cap- Foundation and a cofounder of the , the religious lobbying organi- THE MORMONISH ME WISHES ROMNEY zation once led by the late Reverend WOULDN’T BE SO DESPERATE TO ACCEPT Jerry Falwell ) and Bob Jones III, the grandson of the founder of the namesake EVANGELICALS’ TEPID SUPPORT. Christian college—a bit of a stunner, I feel I have a stake. Sometimes, however, tain of the spin-off private equity considering Jones once called Mormon- I find myself answering too quickly, as investment venture Bain Capital, which ism and Catholicism “cults which call if eager to assure my tonier citified coun- he ran for 15 years. themselves Christian.” And in a Hail terparts: Don’t worry, I’m not technically The Romney campaign’s reluctance Mary attempt to unite the Christian a Mormon. This, even though I find the to trumpet their man’s Mormon bona right to derail Rudolph W. Giuliani, common perception of Mormons— fides is a product of hard-line doctrinal Mark DeMoss, a publicist whose clients overly wholesome, Big Love polygamous, differences between evangelical Chris- include the Reverend Franklin Graham and, let’s face it, weird—ridiculous. tians and the LDS church (differences (son of Billy), in October penned a letter Romney—who, by the way, about which I was blissfully ignorant until to evangelical leaders urging them to received dual graduate degrees from Romney became a serious contender for support Romney. “I fully recognize Harvard Business School and Harvard the White House). The Book of Mormon, some evangelicals take issue with me for Law, made a killing in the consulting published in 1830, is one of many touchy supporting a Mormon for the office of industry, helped rescue the scandal- spots. LDS members consider it a supple- President, and I respect their concerns,” ridden 2002 Winter Olympics, and ment to the Bible, another testament of he wrote. “Indeed, I had to deal with the served as governor of the very blue state Jesus Christ, while evangelicals count the same concerns in my own heart before of from 2003 to 2007—is Bible as the only holy book and many offering to help Governor Romney. But I what you call a model Mormon. He don’t consider Mormons to be Christians concluded that I am more concerned served a mission (most LDS men do) (though Mormons themselves beg to dif- that a candidate shares my values than in France for two-and-a-half years at fer). “It leaves Latter Day Saints utterly he shares my theology.” 19; completed his undergrad degree at bewildered,” says church spokesman Hewitt, for one, argues that the Brigham Young University (the church- Michael Otterson, who met with the edi- Mormon issue is dissipating for many on owned university planted in Provo, torial boards of a half-dozen major media the religious right. “When Bob Jones Utah); and married Ann Romney, an outlets as part of a program to educate endorses you, you’ve made the in-roads LDS convert, in the Salt Lake Temple people about Mormonism in conjunction you need to make,” he says. Obviously, (proof in itself—only members in good with Romney’s run. “[Christ] is not only however, conservative Christians don’t standing get a “temple recommend” and incorporated in the name of our church, have much of a choice at this point, with are allowed to enter). In A Mormon in the but if you mixed with Mormons you’d Giuliani topping national polls (though White House?, writer and talk-show host know that the centrality of Christ in their former Arkansas governor and Baptist Hugh Hewitt highlights Romney’s ser- faith is simply not in dispute. There’s an minister Mike Huckabee is on the rise). vice as both a “bishop” in his local ward enormous amount of common ground, Throw your weight behind the church- in Belmont, Massachusetts, and later a and to dismiss us as non-Christians is going family man, even if it’s the wrong president in his “stake”—a collection of frankly not helpful.” church, or expect to be faced with a can- wards—in Boston. “The LDS Church Of course, while traipsing around didate who’s pro-choice (even if he’s not is a layman’s church, administered South Carolina, the evangelical heart- exactly broadcasting it via megaphone at every level except the very high- land that is holding one of the election’s these days) and has two ex-wives. est by… volunteers who keep their day earliest primaries, I’m expecting to Part of me, I guess the Mormonish jobs ,” Hewitt writes. “Mitt Romney has detect some of that religious prejudice. part, has wished Romney wouldn’t be so graduated through all the various levels Instead, at the Carolina Hope Christian desperate to accept evangelicals’ half-

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