Although many evangelicals were not quite ready for a Mormon presidential candidate this election season, others were quick to join Mormons’ efforts to pass California’s ballot proposition banning same-sex marriage.
Evangelicals were the largest group of Americans who expressed reservations about voting for a Mormon candidate in surveys conducted last year. But leaders of the successful Proposition 8 campaign said that evangelicals, Mormons, and Roman Catholics cooperated more extensively than ever before to rally California to ban gay marriage.
“I think this is the ironic part, because everybody seems very content to work together on these issues of common values,” said Mark DeMoss, an evangelical publicist and early supporter of Mitt Romney. “But the moment a Mormon man presented himself as a candidate for President, people said, ‘That’s a line we as evangelicals can’t cross.’ ”
Romney probably would have a better chance if Mormons didn’t obsess over the theological implications of his getting elected. If he ever wins Mormons will say that it’s an illustration of the truth of the church and the Book of Mormon, and use it to bolster the faith of membership. So defeating Romney is a way for evangelicals to deprive Mormons of another faith-promoting device.