Romney’s high-wire act on religion at the Republican convention

[cbayer]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/figuring-faith/post/romneys-high-wire-act-on-religion-at-the-republican-convention/2012/08/27/3e8a9012-f048-11e1-adc6-87dfa8eff430_blog.html

Posted at 09:48 AM ET, 08/27/2012
Romney’s high-wire act on religion at the Republican convention
By Robert P. Jones



On Thursday night, Mitt Romney will step out at the Republican National Convention to accept the nomination as the presidential candidate. The question, ahead of this important moment, is not whether but how he will talk about religion.

Certain theistic tropes are often part of political rhetoric: for example, Romney will almost certainly evoke some form of God-ordained American exceptionalism, whether general or via a biblical metaphor (such as America as a “city set on a hill”). This kind of language evokes the vocabulary and metaphors of shared beliefs, while sidestepping sectarian squabbles over contentious points of theology.

What Romney needs, in other words, is to craft a message around what has been called “civil religion.” However, Romney faces some unique challenges, both because of the minority status of his Mormon faith and because of the expectations of white evangelical Protestants, who promise, if things go well, to constitute more than one-third of his voter base in November.

It’s clear that Romney will need to talk about his faith this week. White evangelical Protestant voters nearly unanimously (93 percent) agree that it’s important for a presidential candidate to have strong religious beliefs, while almost 8-in-10 (78 percent) Republican voters and two-thirds (67 percent) of voters overall hold the same belief. For some of these voters, however, mere religiosity is not enough: over one-third (39 percent) of white evangelical Protestant voters and nearly 1-in-5 (19 percent) voters overall who say that it’s important for a presidential candidate to have strong religious beliefs also say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who had strong beliefs if those beliefs were very different from their own. Worryingly for Romney, two-thirds (68 percent) of white evangelical Protestants say that Romney’s Mormon faith is different from their own.

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[woodsprite]

1. Romney's nothing but a high-priced stereotypical 'used car salesman'

Disclaimer: In no way did I mean to disparage honest, hard-working used car salesmen.

It's a shame that the nickname "Slick Willy" brings thoughts of Clinton to the drooling Repub masses, because that should be Romney's nickname.

[MineralMan]

2. I think his religion will be mostly ignored at the Convention.

The evangelical groups who oppose the LDS church appear to have accepted that Romney will be the candidate, so they're just going to have to cope, and I think they recognize that. I expect mentions of God, but not much mention of denominations at the convention.

When even Jim Robinson at Free Republic has accepted the idea of voting for Romney, that discussion, I think is over. I saw a thread about that here last week sometime. The Mormon issue is done, as far as public discussion among Republicans go, I think. However, some will simply not vote for Romney over it, I'm sure. That's a good thing.

[pinto]

3. I think that's the elephant in the room, so to speak.

I think it'll be interesting if and how he addresses religion in general and Mormonism in particular. If he does, my guess is that he'll stay in character - purposely vague.

I'll skip most of the convention. We probably could all predict the scripts. No big surprise there. But I'll check out Mitt, even if it's just in passing.

[cbayer]

4. Agree. I think he's going to have to address this this week.

The polls have been all over the place, but I still think there is a significant number of evangelical republicans that will not vote for him.

I'll be watching as much as I can, because I love the political theater of it all.

And we are anchored perfectly for major networks!

[pinto]

5. Teaparty hijinks would be fun to watch...

[pinto]

6. LOL. I "misspoke". Watching it now ...