Before I print the text of the letter I have written to Mitt Romney, I want to lay out the situation. The problem is that conservatives want to support a conservative presidential nominee. But they are distrustful of someone who practices a religion which has in the past claimed that all other religions are wrong, and whose faithful adherents make secret vows.
So here is my letter:
An Open Letter To Mr. Mitt Romney: The Elephant in the Elephant Room
Dear Mr. Romney,
First of all, let me congratulate your successes as your party’s nominee for the Presidency of the United States.
You may not remember me—but perhaps you will. I was a freshman and wrote for Brigham Young University’s award-winning weekly publication, Monday Magazine, during your senior year at BYU. I don’t think we met, but perhaps you as a fellow student read what I wrote then.
I’m hoping you will consider what I’m writing now. We have gone very different paths—you in politics and continuing in the Mormon Church; I as a professional writer and an ex-Mormon. But I don’t want to stir up trouble for you regarding religion. I have no interest in discussing doctrine. No who’s right and who’s wrong.
I’m hoping you will listen to a suggestion I have that will allay the fears a lot of people have concerning the possibility of a Mormon president. There are many, many conservatives who will vote for you if you will do one single thing.
Here’s the elephant in the elephant room. It’s the question about whether your religion will affect—or even trump—the way you run the most powerful and good country in the world.
It’s the vow you took in LDS temples, the one where you promised to “consecrate your time, talents and everything which the Lord has blessed you, or with which he may bless you, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” I know it was secret and sacred for you to make that oath, but any Mormon, ex-Mormon, or anyone at all with an Internet connection knows the oaths you took ( https://latayne.com/mitts-mormonism ).
Do you want conservatives to get behind you? I think there’s something you could do that would preserve your conscience, allow you to maintain your religious beliefs, and allow conservatives of every religious bent to put aside their fears and vote for you.
Make a statement. I know you said something four years ago, but it wasn’t strong enough. Say how important your religion is to you, and acknowledge that you took vows to support your church. Then find a way – you choose the wording—to tell people that during the four or eight years you are president, you will continue your loyalties to your ancestral faith but that you will always consider your duties as president as sacred. Promise you will always put the United States of America first in your life, for those years. Tell us that you will be a President first and a Mormon second during those years, no matter what.
I left your religion because I couldn’t agree with it. But I can agree with a President who will swear to put the interests of the United States and its citizens above an earthly church organization.
Yours sincerely,
Latayne C. Scott
