Growing up in a devout Latter-Day Saint (Mormon) family in a suburb of Salt Lake City, I knew my religion as well as my name. My mom played the organ in a Mormon temple, I was a Boy Scout, and there was rarely a Sunday when we would miss church. Praying at least three times daily and studying the Book of Mormon were as essential as brushing our teeth or making dinner.
For the first time in American history a Mormon is the presidential nominee for a major political party. And while the Romney campaign has swiftly dismissed questions about his religion as inappropriate and irrelevant, it may seem that much of the media have tiptoed around this topic and have discussed the LDS church in glossy, broad terms. But here's why Mr. Romney's religion is relevant: For Mormons, there really is no such thing as separation of church and state.
From as early as I can remember, I was taught in church that the framers of our Constitution were directly influenced by God to create a nation where Jesus Christ could come to Earth and his true gospel could be restored. Essentially, Mormons believe that the United States was chosen and created specifically by God as the Promised Land where Earth's one true religion -- Mormonism -- could finally be discovered and then flourish.
One doesn't need to look far to learn more about this version of American history. On the Mormon website DesertBook.com (a Mormon Literature bookstore), there are dozens of books about American history -- one of which cites "evidence of God's hand throughout the unique history of the United States." According to Mormon doctrine the Garden of Eden was in America (Missouri, to be specific), and Mormon founder Joseph Smith discovered sacred gold plates that would later be translated into the Book of Mormon, buried not far from his home in upstate New York in 1823.
The sometimes-blurry lines between the LDS church and politics can be illustrated by the 2008 passage of Proposition 8 in California, which amended the state's constitution to ban gay marriage. The First Presidency of the church issued a written statement asking members to do all they could "to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time to assure that marriage in California is legally defined as being between a man and a woman." Top Mormon officials also held a special, emergency satellite broadcast from Salt Lake City in which they warned, "You are a mighty army. You'll be responsible for holding true to the doctrines of the Church."
When LDS church leaders issue directives like this, their members listen and immediately mobilize. And when it involves a political agenda, their army is ready to roll. Despite a rather murky money trail, an estimated 50 percent of the money raised for Prop 8 came from Mormons, and a vast majority of door-to-door volunteers (an estimated 85 percent) were Mormon. A Mitt Romney PAC reportedly donated $10,000 to support the measure. MORE!
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