Talk about faith, scholar tells BYU

PROVO — Don't wait for someone else to start talking about Mormons and politics, Harvard law professor Noah Feldman says.

"If you wait, the discourse won't expand," he told BYU students Tuesday. "Then, what will happen is Mitt Romney or someone else will run ... and be in the same terribly awkward position, to be the spokesman for your religion. He didn't want to be, but he had no choice by then, because nobody else was really speaking in a very visible or significant way, or they weren't being given a chance to speak."

And there's no better place for that dialogue to begin than BYU, the legal scholar said at a question-and-answer session following a forum address about religion in the public sphere.

It is the second time Feldman — who wrote "What Is It About Mormonism?" for the New York Times Magazine in January 2008 — has been to BYU, he said. The first time was several years ago when he spoke at the J. Reuben Clark Law School while writing his book "Divided by God: America's Church-State Problem — and What We Should Do About It."

"It is only through, I believe, this sort of public debate and discussion that the complex process of recognizing that all people, regardless of their religious faith, ought to be able to participate fully in our American life (is achieved)," Feldman said. "I don't think this will happen overnight, and I don't think it will be easy, but I do know one thing: that it must start soon and that in all probability, it must start here."

Feldman told the Deseret News he was surprised at the harsh anti-Mormon sentiment expressed by many vocal evangelicals during Romney's 2008 presidential campaign.

"It's the kind of thing that one doesn't expect to see in the early 21st century," he said via telephone before his visit to Provo. "It's very striking. I found it disturbing."

But as Feldman explained, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints aren't the only people to face skepticism and criticism due to their religious beliefs. In the election of 1800, John Adams, with his Calvinistic roots, attacked challenger Thomas Jefferson and his alleged atheism.

"It was a serious fight," Feldman said in his forum address. "Jefferson was badly bloodied. From pulpits across New England, it was regularly said, 'Jefferson is unworthy to be president because of lack of religious belief.' "

In 1960, another Massachusetts challenger, John F. Kennedy, also faced serious scrutiny as voters worried that the Catholic Church, of which he was a member, would exert undue influence on his presidency, Feldman said.