[TheProdigalModern]

The Romney-Perry contretemps came after the Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor of a large Baptist church in Dallas, endorsed and introduced Perry, then later told reporters that evangelicals believed the Mormon faith -- which Romney and fellow GOP candidate Jon Huntsman practice -- was a "cult." Jeffress further predicted that if nominated by the Republicans, Romney could not beat President Barack Obama, because evangelicals would not support the former Massachusetts governor.

[snip]

But Jeffress's controversial endorsement competed with that headline. He told reporters that he believed Romney was a strong family man, but not a Christian, and therefore would have trouble with evangelical voters. Evangelicals vote heavily in states among the first where ballots for the Republican nomination are cast, including Iowa, South Carolina and Florida.

"There are a lot of Christian voters who don't want to appear bigoted, so what they say to pollsters is not necessarily what they will do in the privacy of the voting booth," Jeffress said. "I frankly agree if Gov. Romney is the nominee Barack Obama will be the new president of the United States."

Romney did not directly refer to the issue when he addressed the group Saturday. But he did praise former Education Secretary Bill Bennett, who referred to Jeffress by name and said: "Do not give voice to bigotry."

[snip]

Perry told reporters campaigning in Iowa after his Friday speech that he did not believe Mormonism was a cult.

Read the rest here: Religion enters the GOP race; Cain gains traction | The Town Talk | thetowntalk.com

[Epaphras]

I do think it's a liability for him, just as it would be hard (if not impossible) for an atheist or a Muslim to be elected president.

The guy does have a bit of a point, if you ask me: in 2008, the evangelical vote was split between Romney (moderate-conservative economy-minded evanglicals) and Huckabee (very conservative socially-minded evangelicals), which may be why McCain emerged. In this round, Huckabee is replaced by Perry, who may also score some points with economy-minded conservative evangelicals depending on how deep they are into the Tea Party agenda (limited government, etc.). The vote may be diluted and a not-strong-enough candidate would be settled on who would ultimately not beat Obama. Unlike in 2008, voters may be willing to overlook Romney's Mormonism if a Perry-Romney ticket (with Cain promised a post in the administration, such as Treasury or OMB director) is the strongest chance at beating Obama.

Personally, I think Perry is floundering and grasping at straws (the "base"), using mud-slinging to scare voters away from Romney, who is clearly the front-runner.

[TheProdigalModern]

Originally Posted by Epaphras

What would non-Mormon evangelicals do with a Perry-Romney ticket?

I suspect what they did with McCain-Palin: hold their nose as they pulled the lever. A Mormon is better than a Kenyan Socialist Muslim, no?

[ICallHimTurtle]

Grrr. It's equal, in that I know the religion of both. I want to know the candidate's of moral fiber, but I don't want to know about all the people who reject Christ because of a politicians misrepresentation.

Grr.

[TheProdigalModern]

Originally Posted by ICallHimTurtle

Grrr. It's equal, in that I know the religion of both. I want to know the candidate's of moral fiber, but I don't want to know about all the people who reject Christ because of a politicians misrepresentation.

Grr.

A have a friend who is a fairly party-line liberal, and she used to rant about GWB because she felt like he was a misrepresentation of Methodism and that people would reject Methodism because of him.

Not quite the same, I know, but funnier.

[ICallHimTurtle]

I still rant about Georgey-Porgey. If I weren't willing to take accountability for it, I'd say he was the reaso I was kicked out of college the first time around.

[Chrysostom]

I suspect that the strides taken by the LDS church in recent decades -- reaching out to evangelicals, establishing a world-class university, and generally broadening their horizons -- will begin to pay dividends soon. They're manifestly not of the insular cult class that many other splinter groups are and this will play out further in coming years. They're also manifestly not remotely within the bounds of historic Christian orthodoxy, but neither are Muslims or Hindus and they're not cults. And LDS preachers even sound as Christian as most evangelicals half the time.