Romney's faith could hurt an '08 run

Millions of Americans think John F. Kennedy put to rest the issue of religion in presidential politics when, in 1960, he became the first Roman Catholic to win the White House.

Another Massachusetts politician, Republican Gov. W. Mitt Romney, may find out that is not the case should he run for president in 2008, as many people believe he is angling to do.

Romney is a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormons. Its members, however, are not considered Christians by a number of other denominations, including the Southern Baptist Convention and the United Methodist Church, the largest Protestant denominations in America and two faiths whose membership is heavily concentrated in the South.

Given that the South has become a GOP stronghold in recent presidential races, some believe Romney's religion would emerge as an issue there should he seek to become the 44th president.

"I think it likely will matter," said Charles Reagan Wilson, director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. "I think he will have to be very savvy and skillful in talking with evangelicals, and I don't know what experience he has doing that."

Wilson, who has heard Baptist ministers denounce Mormonism from the pulpit, said the Latter-day Saints are viewed as "an odd religious phenomenon" by Southern evangelicals, most of whom are Republicans. Aggressive Mormon proselytizing has not helped the religion's image in the region, Wilson said.

"In the South we talk about religion, and so he's got to find a way to diffuse the issue of his religion," he said. "He's got to make morality the issue."

"I think he's got a hard row to hoe," Wilson said.

J. Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Southern Politics, Media and Public Life at the University of North Carolina, sees the situation differently. Guillory said the fact Romney is Mormon would not be as significant to voters as his positions on issues like abortion and school prayer, his church attendance, whether he is comfortable with his faith, and what sense voters get of his family life.

"It's how he deals with those that are more potent than he being a Mormon rather than a Methodist," Guillory said.

In many ways, Romney is in step with evangelicals. He is a dedicated family man who does not smoke or drink and who has been a church leader.