Now what and then what: Romney advisor Mark DeMoss urges perspective at BYU forum

PROVO — Mark DeMoss, a Christian evangelical, prominent public relations consultant, and current adviser to Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, delivered the weekly BYU forum address today. He avoided politics, speaking movingly to an appreciative audience on religious tolerance and eternal perspective.

DeMoss decried those within any faith who behave uncivilly toward others, saying "It is never an option to claim Christ as my Savior and behave toward anyone in an uncivil manner."

Much of his address focused on wisdom.

“Wisdom does not favor intelligence, education, affluence, or sophistication,” he said. It comes from spending time around wise people, reading the textbook (he favors the Bible), and asking God. On the latter point, DeMoss cited a passage from the Book of James which most of his audience would find familiar.

DeMoss also urged patience and humility. One of his favorite sayings, he said, is that “when you find a turtle on a fence post, you can be sure it didn’t get there itself.”

DeMoss has an urgent sense of mortality, driven in part by his father’s early sudden death, and his brother’s death in a car accident a few years later. “I am never so lost in anything that I don’t hear the clock tick or have an eye on the calendar,” he said.

DeMoss said there are two questions that drive everything he does: “Now what?” and “Then what?”

“Our eternity and our life on earth depend totally on our answers,” he concluded.

Eric Schulzke writes on national politics for the Deseret News. He can be contacted at eschulzke@desnews.com.