Full Disclosure Required about Romney's Faith and Fincances

The pressure got turned up a notch for Mitt Romney to release his tax returns. Given how removed his financial situation is from that of most Americans, this seems a reasonable request. In any case and despite the candidate’s obvious reluctance, it is one that is likely to be fulfilled. There is another matter Romney is even more unwilling to discuss but which is guaranteed to cause an even bigger problem for Republicans if not brought out into the open at the earliest possible date: his faith. Just as Romney’s finances are foreign to most Americans, so is his LDS
religion. Full disclosure is required in each case.

I take it that unless we want to be accused of ascribing to a massive double standard that we can put aside the question of whether a candidate’s faith is a legitimate subject of inquiry. The obsessive coverage in 2008 of then candidate Obama’s relation with Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago has demonstrated that a potential president’s religious affiliation is a justified focus of press coverage. Indeed, the controversy surrounding the teachings of Reverend Wright provides a single standard that could be reasonably applied to any candidate’s religious affiliation: When a candidate’s faith, creed, or teaching veers wildly from mainstream religious thought, it deserves an added level of scrutiny.

If there is one defining trait of the three great world Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—it is that all are monotheistic. That is, they all believe there exists a single, all-powerful God. This contrasts with polytheism found in many ancient religions as well as
with the conception of divinity in Hinduism or Buddhism. By contrast, Mormonism
teaches that there are many Gods and that humans can become gods and
goddesses in the celestial kingdom. As it was famously put by Lorenzo
Snow, fifth president and prophet of the LDS Church, “As man is, God once was;
as God is, man may be.” When Bob Jones III declares, as he recently did on CNN, that “Mormonism is not Christianity,” he is not uttering hateful or even untrue words but stating what is theologically uncontroversial.

Given that over eighty percent of Americans identify themselves as Christian, this puts Romney’s religious views outside of mainstream American religious thought. Of course, this does not in a country that is founded on religious freedom disqualify Romney from the presidency. But it is more than likely that a full accounting of Romney’s faith will be even more essential than a full accounting of his finances if America is ever to become comfortable enough with the man to
elect him president.