“As a student of American religious history, I find the third “M,” Mormonism, the most puzzling,” writes Balmer. “Just as Romney referred to Massachusetts as ‘my state,’ he referred to Mormonism—whenever he couldn’t find a way to avoid it altogether—as ‘my church.’ The political calculus here, it seems, was that Mormonism is toxic to the average American voter.”
Balmer continues, “If, at some time over his nearly decade-long pursuit of the presidency, he had said something like, ‘Yes, I’m a Mormon. My family has been Mormon for generations. It’s how I understand my place in the world and my responsibility to others,’ he would have gone a long way toward defusing the issue.”
Read the full opinion piece, published 12/5/12 on Religion & Politics.