Book Excerpt: Romney delves into tenets of Mormonism

Although Romney barely mentioned Mormonism in a major speech on religion last week, he delved into the tenets of his faith in an interview for the new book, “Meet the Next President.”

“Mormons don’t smoke and drink and don’t believe in sex outside of marriage — premarital sex or extra-marital sex — and that’s a little unusual today,” the Republican presidential candidate told The Examiner. “And then of course you have all the young missionaries going around wearing the suits and ties and little badges on bicycles. That’s not exactly a Prince — the artist formerly known as Prince — kind of image.”

He added: “The church told membership that tattoos are like graffiti on your body. I mean, the church is pretty conservative, if you will, when it comes to manners of fashion, and the like. It tells people to dress modestly and so forth; it tells girls not to date before they’re 16.”

Romney said he does not expect the unique attributes of Mormonism to affect his presidency.

“For the life of me, I can’t imagine a setting or an issue that I would approach or think about differently than would a good evangelical or a good Catholic or a good Presbyterian,” he said. “The distinctive qualities of my religion have very little, if anything, to do with public policy.”

“For instance, our church says that Mormons shouldn’t drink alcohol,” the former Massachusetts governor said. “But it’s not because alcohol is somehow evil. It’s more, you know, for my health and as a show of faith. As governor, I had no problem whatsoever signing laws allowing sales of alcohol on Sunday, although that didn’t use to be the law.”

In writing last week’s speech on religion, Romney heeded the advice of supporters who urged him not to wade too deeply into a theological discussion of Mormonism. They warned that it would be akin to a Catholic presidential candidate, such as Rudy Giuliani, trying to explain transubstantiation, the Catholic belief that bread and wine are transformed literally into the body and blood of Jesus at daily Mass.

“It’s a mistake for me to go through all of the teachings in my church and say: Do you believe this one? Do you believe that one? Do you believe that one?” Romney said. “It’s not so much because I’m afraid to say that I believe those things. It’s instead because I think I open the door to an area of inquiry that should not be part of a presidential election.”

Romney even hinted that religion might play a lesser role in his own presidency than it does in the presidency of George W. Bush, an openly devout evangelical Christian.

“There’s a perhaps apocryphal story, but widespread in my church, about the second president of my church, Brigham Young, at a time when a wagon train was crossing the North Platte River,” he said. “One of the wagons broke loose and started to float down the river. The team of oxen was unable to pull the wagon. And the driver of the wagon got on his knees and started to pray. And Brigham Young rode his horse out into the middle of the river and grabbed the guy and said: ‘This is no time for prayer.’ ”

Romney laughed at the story, but said it contained a lot of truth about Mormonism.

“In my faith, there is a very strong sense of ‘it’s up to you,’ ” he said. “God put us here, but he doesn’t run things like a puppeteer. And if I’m messing things up, I can’t go back and say, ‘OK, God, you take care of it.’ It’s on me.

“I think there is a sense of fatalism that some people carry, whether it’s religious or nonreligious, but that probably is not a productive thing,” he added. “I think you have to assume that everything’s in your hands and you hope that if you mess up that somehow, something good will come of it. But it’s going to be in your hands.”

Romney’s wife, Ann, once joked that among the top contenders for the GOP presidential nomination, only her husband, the Mormon, had limited himself to one wife. It was a sly reference to the fact that Rudy Giuliani has had three wives, while John McCain and Fred Thompson each have had two.

By contrast, if Romney is elected, during his first year in office, he will observe the 40th anniversary of his marriage to his high school sweetheart, who converted to Mormonism as a teenager. In 1969, Mitt and Ann were married in a civil ceremony in Michigan, then flew to Salt Lake City and were married again, or “sealed,” in the Mormon temple. Ann’s parents, as non-Mormons, were not allowed inside the temple.

In a not-so-veiled swipe at Giuliani and McCain, both of whom fell for younger women while still married, Romney told The Examiner that “people who commit adultery or other practices of that nature are carrying out absolutely heinous acts.”

Romney also opposes gay marriage more vigorously than any other top presidential candidate in either party. While he was governor, Massachusetts became the only state in the nation to allow gay couples to legally marry. Romney tried to overturn the law, but was stymied by the state’s liberal Supreme Court and overwhelmingly Democratic legislature. Unlike McCain and Giuliani, Romney favors a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

“I believe that traditional marriage between a man and a woman is the best course because I believe that on average, the children in a society will be more prepared for their lives if they have the benefit of a mom and a dad,” Romney said. “There are some great single moms and some great grandmas, and my guess is there are probably some great gay couples that are raising a child. But overall, as a society, we prefer a setting where there is a male and a female associated with the development of a child.”

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