SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A new national magazine article is now suggesting the LDS Church would try to influence the policies of Mitt Romney.
In a web article published Monday, Vanity Fair Magazine questions how independent Mitt Romney would be from his Mormon faith.
The graphic accompanying the article shows a half dollar coin.
On one side of the coin is a likeness of Mitt Romney with the fake motto,
“A white guy you can trust.”
The other side of the graphic coin shows the LDS Temple and the slogan,
"Ordaining blacks since 1978."
The article goes on to claim that Mitt Romney is no Jack Kennedy when it comes to separation of church and state.
In the 1960 campaign, Kennedy promised to keep his Catholic faith separate from the Oval Office,
“I am not the Catholic candidate for president...I do not speak for my church on public matters and the church does not speak for me."
But the Vanity Fair article isn't so sure about Romney and the LDS Church.
While Romney has made clear his faith wouldn't interfere with his presidency, the Vanity Fair article claims,
"...LDS politicians...have sought instructions from church leaders for more than a century."
It also says that the LDS Church has tried to,
"...influence the political decisions of American Mormons holding public office."
The article was written by Michael Quinn.
He is a former BYU professor who was excommunicated.
In response to Quinn's article, the LDS Church sent ABC 4 this comment,
“The Church’s neutrality in matters of partisan politics is well-established and well-understood. While we certainly have the right to give an opinion on issues that affect the Church or society, we do not become involved in partisan issues.”
And the LDS Church's separate political neutrality statement also says,
"The Church does not attempt to direct or dictate to a government leader."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After I originally posted this story, I received this email comment from Michael Quinn:
"As a Democrat and 3-year volunteer in the Regular Army in 1968, I would have voted for George Romney if he had secured the Republican nomination for U.S. president. I admired him for being a millionaire whose policies benefitted the middle-class and the under-privileged rather than profiting the rich. I admired him for being an early supporter of civil rights for all Americans, despite the fact that two of his Church's apostles (Ezra Taft Benson and Delbert L. Stapley) condemned the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and pressured him to abandon it. I admired him for breaking with the Republican Party's policies in order to protest the Vietnam War.
Most of all, I admired George Romney's political independence and his consistently principled actions as governor and as candidate for the U.S. presidency. I see none of those qualities in his son Mitt Romney.
D. Michael Quinn"
FOLLOW CHRIS VANOCUR ON TWITTER: @cvan4
