Where is Mitt Romney’s Faith?

Our Take: As the first week of November draws closer, many still argue that Mitt Romney's Mormon faith is a hindrance to getting into the White House. In this article, John Dickerson examines how Romney's faith may in deed make him an especially effective president.

Romneys faith would inform a Romney presidency in two important ways: his decision making process and his capacity to show empathy for those who don't share his immediate experience. Both men described Mormon prayer not as a reason-free appeal for the divine thumbs-up or thumbs-down, but a process that calls a person to a special kind of rigor and engagement with lifes choices, before they ever seek Gods guidance.

The second aspect of Romney's faith that would inform his presidency is his time as a bishop in an LDS congregation in Massachusetts in the 1980s. In that role, the equivalent to a pastor, Romney counseled members of his ward about their most personal matters. "The fact that Mitt was a Mormon bishop in a ward that had one of every conceivable type of human, says Christensen, who has also served as a bishop. He personally ... met with them in their home and just had a very deep sense of what was going on in that family. That is another really important attribute. He feels it, whereas other people voted for legislation that took money from these people to give to those people. That's not an understanding of humanity."

Read more about Mitt Romney on The Slate.