In the days before the Values Voter Summit in Washington, aides to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney grew concerned about a speaker scheduled to appear shortly after Romney’s speech on Saturday morning. Before such events, campaign aides routinely check who will be speaking before and after Romney; it’s normal due diligence to know if there are any speakers who might be sources of controversy. In this case, campaign aides didn’t know who the after-Romney speaker, Bryan Fischer, was, but a quick Google search revealed that Fischer, an official at the American Family Association, had been quoted making a number of inflammatory statements about gays, Muslims, Mormons, and others. Another search of YouTube turned up videos of Fischer saying some of those things in front of a camera.
The red flags included quotes attributed to Fischer to the effect that gay sex is the equivalent of domestic terrorism; that homosexuals shared responsibility for the Holocaust; that the Bill of Rights should not apply to people of non-Christian faiths; and that Mormons are not Christians, and the next president must be a Christian.
On Friday, a concerned Romney adviser called Bill Bennett, the radio host and former Education Secretary who was scheduled to speak before Romney and Fischer. The aide wanted Bennett to know about Fischer ahead of time, and, as it turned out, Bennett hadn’t heard of Fischer, either. That left the question: should Bennett direct any remarks at Fischer or at the general issue of intolerance? Bennett called Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council and organizer of the Values Voter event. Perkins told Bennett that Fischer had denied making some of the remarks attributed to him, and that the inflammatory issues would not appear up in Fischer’s speech. Since the event was scheduled to start in hours, Bennett concluded that he didn’t have the time to sort it all out and decided not to mention Fischer.
Then came the much-publicized remarks of Texas pastor Robert Jeffress, who introduced Gov. Rick Perry at the Values Voter meeting on Friday. Speaking to reporters after his speech, Jeffress called Mormonism a “cult,” said Romney is not a Christian, and added that, “Every true, born-again follower of Christ ought to embrace a Christian over a non-Christian.” In other words, Christians shouldn’t vote for Romney.
That’s when what had begun as an issue of concern over a variety of intolerant remarks turned into a Mormon issue. Seeing Jeffress’ words, Bennett decided to include a passage in his speech addressing the question of bigotry and intolerance. Bennett quoted George Washington’s admonition to “despise all forms of racial and religious bigotry,” and then offered the crowd an admonition of his own:
Then it was Romney’s turn to speak. In a speech that did not touch specifically on religious issues, Romney offered another condemnation. Saying Americans “must continue to welcome faith into the public square and allow it to flourish,” Romney added:
Romney’s remarks left many in the crowd confused. Who was the speaker who would follow Romney? Some in the crowd didn’t know about the Jeffress matter, so they were totally bewildered. Others knew about Jeffress and wondered whether Jeffress would be speaking again. Only a few knew that Romney was talking about Bryan Fischer. And none knew that Romney would have included that line even if Robert Jeffress had never said a word about Mormonism.
Finally, it was Fischer’s turn to speak. After an extensive discussion of Islam, he made a number of comments that, while they did not mention Mormonism specifically, seemed to suggest that Americans should not elect a Mormon president. “The next president,” he said, “needs to be a man of sincere, authentic, genuine Christian faith.” “We need a president who believes in the same Creator in whom the founders believed…[the faith] revealed in the pages of the Old and New Testaments.” Fischer’s speech drew scattered applause, but the audience was not enthusiastic, as if some did not quite know what to make of it.
But Fischer was the speaker Romney had warned about. And despite the audience confusion, there was one person who knew very well whom Romney’s warning was directed toward. “He was talking about me,” Fischer told me backstage a few minutes after his speech. Fischer outlined his objections to Romney which, he said, “have nothing to do with his being a Mormon.” Fischer accused Romney of making gay marriage a reality in Massachusetts, and also of flip-flopping on the issue of abortion. “That’s a non-negotiable for social conservatives,” Fischer said. “Marriage and sanctity of life are bottom line for us, and he was on the wrong side of both of those issues. And it makes his conversion look like a matter of political convenience rather than political conviction.”
As for Mormonism, Fischer said, “There just isn’t any question that Mormonism is outside the mainstream of historical orthodox Christianity. That’s not a pejorative comment, that’s just an objective fact.” Fischer denied that his remarks could be interpreted as saying that a Mormon should not be president. “No, I’ve never said a Mormon should not be president,” he said.
Still, combined with the Jeffress controversy, Fischer’s remarks, along with statements from Bennett and Romney, made questions of religion, Mormonism, and intolerance part of the Values Voter story.
Despite all the controversy, Fischer appears to share one position with millions of Americans. Next November, when the general election ballot features President Obama versus a Republican, Fischer will vote for the Republican — even if it’s Mitt Romney.
In the backstage conversation, I asked Fischer if he would vote for Romney in an Obama vs. Romney election. “I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Fischer laughed. “But Gov. Romney is saying the right things. I believe that represents a conversion of convenience rather than conviction, but he is saying the right things. So if that is the choice, then we will communicate to Gov. Romney that we are going to insist that he do in office what he said he would do on the campaign trail.”
But how would Fischer himself vote? “I think the bottom line is that we have got to stop Barack Obama,” Fischer told me. “If we have another four years of this kind of leadership, there may not be an America left to save. So it’s kind of anybody but Barack Obama.”
So Fischer would vote for Romney? “I’m not going to stay home,” he said. “And I’m not going to vote for Barack Obama. I’m going to vote for the other guy.”
