Huckabee Mum on Romney's Mormon Faith
Mike Huckabee was tight-lipped about his views on White House rival Mitt Romney's Mormon faith Tuesday when the media pressed him for opinions ahead of Romney's major speech on religion.
"I'm just not going to go off into evaluating other people's doctrines and faiths. I think that is absolutely not a role for a president," Republican presidential candidate Huckabee said in Iowa, according to The Associated Press.
Huckabee and Romney are statistically in a dead heat in Iowa - an important early voting state – a development some believe prompted the former Massachusetts governor to plan an address titled "Faith in America" on Thursday and calm fears of voters. Romney told a Boston radio station this week that the speech will be about the country's religious heritage and how his values and faith "will inform my thinking" if elected president, as reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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If elected, he would be the first Mormon president, although other Mormons have run for the office.
Many Christian evangelicals consider Mormonism a cult – an obstacle Romney will have to overcome to win the Republican nomination. Estimates show that anywhere from 30-50 percent of Republicans who attend the Iowa caucuses are Christian evangelicals, according to AP. Experts said Romney's decision to deliver the address shows the former Massachusetts governor recognizes Americans' concerns about his religion.
Suspicion of Mormonism has benefited Huckabee, who has made his Christian faith a main focus in his campaign and gained the endorsement of many prominent evangelical leaders, including the co-authors of the popular Left Behind series – Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye – as well as Jerry Falwell, Jr., the chancellor of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., and son of late evangelist and founder of the Moral Majority Dr. Jerry Falwell.
Huckabee - whose Southern Baptist denomination does not consider Mormonism a part of traditional orthodox Christianity – has avoided answering why some Christians view Mormonism as a cult.
"I don't think it's relevant to the presidency. I really don't," said the former Arkansas governor. "You know, I get all these questions about somebody else's religion. I only want to address the ones about my own. And I think some of those get a little bit almost, unfortunately, laborious because we ought to be talking about education and health care and energy independence and all these other things."
He added that what other candidates believe "is theirs to explain, not mine, and I'm not going to."
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the official name of the Mormon church, teaches that authentic Christianity disappeared a century after Jesus and was only restored by Joseph Smith in the 19th century. Smith, considered a prophet by Mormons, rewrote large segments of the Bible, which many Christians consider an act of heresy.
Mormons are taught that the early church became corrupt after the death of the apostles and became the "Church of the Devil." Mormon theology claims that they are "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth," as stated in the Doctrine and Covenants [1:30].
Thursday's speech will not be a primer on Mormon theology, Romney's campaign cautioned, according to the Boston Herald.
A recent Pew survey found that one in four respondents said they would be less likely to vote for a Mormon candidate for president. Also, slightly more people describe their impression of the Mormon religion with a negative word (27 percent) than a positive one (23 percent). The most common negative words were "polygamy" and "cult."
