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                   Spotlight Focuses on Romney's Mormon Faith

   by Jerome Socolovsky

   At a Salt Lake City theme park that showcases the area's pioneer past,
   a mother and her daughters duck into a log cabin. Inside, park staff in
   19th century dress are talking about the hardships their ancestors
   faced on the frontier.

   Cheryl Quist brought her family to [1]This is the Place Heritage Park
   to learn their history, and she gets into a discussion about
   anti-Mormon prejudices. She says Mitt Romney's candidacy for president
   means Americans are finally learning "what our religion is really
   about."

   Mormons see themselves as fervently patriotic. The U.S. Constitution is
   sacred according to their beliefs. And their church, formally known as
   the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, emphasizes
   all-American values such as optimism and self-reliance.

   But unlike any other religion founded in this country, Mormonism has
   been met with hatred and persecution - from the murder of its prophet,
   Joseph Smith Jr. in 1844 - to the waves of attacks that drove his early
   disciples westward.

   Romney is the first Mormon to win a major party's nomination. But some
   Mormons say the candidate's hesitation to talk about his faith is
   rooted in the fear that it will be used against him.

   "Mormonism is an easy target because we have so many different ideas
   than the rest of mainstream Christianity," says Tom Kimball of
   Signature Books, a Salt Lake City publisher focused on scholarly books
   about Mormon history.

   Biblical story on American soil

   ''In the 1830s, after a series of visions, Joseph Smith said he was
   given a mission to restore the early Christian church. He preached a
   theology in which people could become exalted like God, and he
   published a scripture called the Book of Mormon.

   It tells that after his resurrection, Jesus made an appearance in the
   Americas to remnants of the lost tribes of Israel. Smith also placed
   the Garden of Eden in present-day Missouri.

   There is no historical evidence to back these claims, and the church's
   early history of polygamy - it was officially banned in 1890 - often
   inflamed its critics more than anything else.

   But Kimball says part of the new faith's appeal was that it brought the
   biblical story to American soil and made God approachable.

   "The cool thing about Mormonism," says Kimball, "is that it was a
   rational theology that you could put your arms around. And it was a
   hopeful and exciting theology... we could become exactly like our
   Father in heaven and live with him."

   Today, Mormonism is one of the world's fasted growing faiths with 14
   million adherents, including 6 million in the U.S.  But its theology is
   taken as heresy by some of the very people who have formed the voter
   base for the Republican Party - Evangelical Christians.

   Mormonism's Evangelical critics

   Rob Sivulka leads Courageous Christians United, a group that pickets
   Salt Lake City's Temple Square.  Seat of the Latter-day Saints' world
   headquarters, Temple Square is to Mormons more or less what Mecca is to
   Muslims or the Vatican to Roman Catholics.

   On a recent evening, as crowds were heading to a public rehearsal of
   the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Sivulka stood outside the gate and
   shouted: "Joseph Smith lied when he said you'll all grow up to become
   gods!"
   Sivulka's primary aim is to convert Mormons, who themselves spend two
   years of their life proselytizing around the globe. But he says he also
   needs to protect Christians from Mormon missionaries who say theirs is
   the true faith.

   "I'm concerned about my own Christian brothers and sisters that are
   getting hoodwinked into joining what I would call a cult," Sivulka
   said. "It's something that appears to be very Christian, but turns out
   to be a pseudo-Christian group."

   LDS church leaders reject this. They say Mormons are Christians because
   they regard the Bible as scripture and believe in Jesus Christ as their
   Lord and Savior. And they say their beliefs about the nature of God and
   man are rooted in the Bible.

   But polls in recent years have ranked Mormonism about equal with Islam
   as the faiths least liked by Americans.

   Sivulka concedes that despite his polemics, he generally agrees with
   Mormons' views on abortion, same-sex marriage and other social values
   issues. So, he says, he will vote for Romney in November.
   Mormon temples around the world
   ''
   Why Mormons smile a lot

   And lately, the Republican nominee has started to give glimpses of his
   faith, allowing some reporters into his church several weeks ago. In
   the early 1980s, Romney became a member of the faith's unpaid clergy,
   and was later appointed "stake president," or leader of Boston-area
   congregations.

   His image as a caring father and husband, which his campaign has
   promoted, has a lot to do with the traditional Mormon family lifestyle.

   In a suburban home near Salt Lake City, Tami and Tom Larsen gather
   their children in their living room on Monday evenings for prayer,
   gospel and games. It is part of a tradition known as Family Home
   Evening, a time set aside each week to spend time together.

   "We believe in eternal families," says Tami Larson, adding that
   Mormonism is a faith that makes its adherents happy. In fact, its path
   to salvation is also known as the "Plan of Happiness." And non-Mormons
   often wonder why Mormons always seem cheerful and smiling.

   "I think that the best revenge has always been to be happy," says
   Kimball, the book publicist. "And as Mormons were persecuted and pushed
   out of their cities and homes back east, they tried to come here and
   carve a community - a modern community - out of this desert, in the
   middle of nowhere."

   At his office in one of the oldest houses still standing in Salt Lake
   City, Kimball says happiness - and success - were ways "to show the
   world that, 'Hey, here we are, we're God's people.'"
     __________________________________________________________________

   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/romneys-mormonism-enters-public-spotl
   ight/1498598.html

References

   1. http://www.thisistheplace.org/
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/romneys-mormonism-enters-public-spotlight/1498598.html