Romney and Theocon Orthodoxy

Matt Brown points to this Terry Eastland piece on Mitt Romney and his Mormon background. I looked at this issue last month (it seems longer than a month ago), but it deserves a longer look. I don't think that his Mormon roots will be much of a problem with evangelical voters, even if Mormonism is theologically off the reservation.

How heterodox? Here's three for starters-they have a plethora of gods, think that humans can become gods in their own right, and deny the virgin birth; God came down and "did the wild thang" with Mary. It's heterodox enough that evangelicals don't consider Mormonism to be a Christian faith. Yes, some hard-core folks will read out the Catholics, too, but Mormonism gets the right foot of disfellowship (not the left foot; you can't kick them as far with the left) with gusto.

OK, now that I've trashed the Mormon faith, does that mean that a Mormon can't be a good president? Yes, of the United States, not of BYU. I don't see why not.

In all that heresy, is there something that would make a devout Mormon lead the country in an un-Christian manner? Yes, they might think their spiritual bosses in Salt Lake City have God on the hot-line, but how does that differ from Catholics who think B16's got God on direct-connect? Or how does it differ from the "Spirit-filled" folks who've democratized the hot-line?

Is there something that would make them part company with a Pentecostal or a Southern Baptist or a Benedictine Catholic (that sounds nicer than "conservative Catholic"; what sayeth the Transubstantiation Caucus of the Peanut Gallery) on political issues? I don't think so.

I'm just a knowledgeable evangelical layman on Mormon theology and a well-trained political scientist (I do have a BS in PoliSci and did a year of grad work in it as well), so I think I can posit that there's little in Mormon doctrine that would translate into policies that would differ significantly from standard theocon thought. Mormon politics might be less pro-Israel than your garden-variety premillennialist evangelical, but that's about the only thing that comes to mind.

It's basically going to boil down to Romney's conservative orthodoxy; not his Mormon orthodoxy. The key issue for the occupant of the White House is whether he takes orthodox stands on key issues dear to the theocons, like abortion, embryonic research, sex-education and additional homosexual rights.

At this point, it's his political orthodoxy that's in question. That, rather than his LDS faith, is what will derail a presidential bid.