Religion, Nationalism, and Terror

Huckabee winning support by highlighting Romney’s Mormonism, Salt Lake Tribune, December 12, 2007

WASHINGTON - Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee appears to be using Mitt Romneys Mormon faith as a wedge issue to attract evangelical voters in the early states, political scientists say, a move that in part seems to be helping Huckabee stay ahead in Iowa polls.

Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, aired a TV commercial in Iowa recently telling voters he is a “Christian leader,” a move that could be seen as a veiled hit on Romney, whose faith is viewed as heretical by some Protestant evangelicals. And Huckabee has so far refused to say whether he believes the LDS Church is a cult, as his Southern Baptist religion labels the church.

In Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, Huckabee goes even further when asked if he believes Mormons are cultists. While first saying he didn’t know much about Mormonism, Huckabee then asks the reporter in an “innocent voice”: “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?”

Some political observers say Huckabee, now the leading GOP candidate in Iowa polls, is raising the issues of Romneys faith as a campaign tactic.

I think he knows its clearly an issue with his base,” says Kelly Patterson, director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at the LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University. “Hes sending signals through his advertisements and his comments that his base will understand.