On Point: Faith no obstacle

Published January 5, 2007 at midnight

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Based on a growing number of media reports, you'd think it was 1960 all over again. Only this time it's a Mormon, not a Catholic, whose possible campaign for president is supposedly jeopardized by the hostility of evangelical Christians.

The drumbeat began about a year ago, typified by a Washington Monthly article titled "Mitt Romney's Evangelical Problem." Reporter Amy Sullivan warned that "Moderate Republicans aren't the ones who could derail a Romney candidacy. His obstacle is the evangelical base . . . that wields particular influence in primary states like South Carolina and Virginia. . . . To evangelicals, Mormonism isn't just another religion. It's a cult."

Such warnings have become routine. Time magazine, for example, recently offered a similar thesis. Even conservative National Review devoted 2 1/2 pages last month to musing on whether evangelicals will eventually be willing to swing to the Massachusetts governor's side.

Since Romney is clearly inching toward a formal announcement, I queried two Coloradans attuned to the political attitudes of conservative Christians: Bill Armstrong, the former senator and president of Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, and Earl Waggoner, a professor at the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Centennial.

Tell us, gentlemen: Is Romney's Mormon faith a bridge too far for evangelicals?

"I have never encountered anyone who said they couldn't vote for Romney because of his faith," Armstrong replied with his customary bluntness, although he was quick to note that he personally wasn't backing any candidate for the time being.

Waggoner seconded Armstrong's impression. "Interestingly," he said, "for many evangelicals Romney's Mormon faith seems to be not as big a deal as John McCain's perceived liberal to moderate Republican leanings. We'll see if that holds true as Romney's star rises."

Two such opinions hardly qualify as the last word, but in this case they're clearly shared by most evangelical leaders who've spoken out to date (the rare exceptions include James Dobson, who's said Mormonism still is a big deal).

In other words, the answer is no - it is almost certainly not 1960 all over again. Breathless pundits in search of religious intolerance are just going to have to look elsewhere for their quarry.

What to expect

"Darrent is not affiliated, nor has been affiliated, with any group that supports violence. I didn't expect for them to find a car with a citizen who goes to work every day from 9 to 5, OK?"

- Rosalind Williams, Darrent's mother, reacting to the possibility that gang members might be linked to her son's murder

Rosalind Williams says it well: Is there anyone who expects the killer will turn out to be a dedicated assistant manager at a bagel shop, a waiter putting himself through school, or a delivery man who exhausted himself from the holiday crunch? Working stiffs do, of course, commit plenty of vile crimes. But given the style of Williams' killing and the details we've learned so far, it would be a jarring shock if the shooter turns out be anything other than the sort of social parasite whose handiwork we've come to know all too well.

The high cost of wind

"But for all its promise, wind also generates a big problem: because it is unpredictable and often fails to blow when electricity is most needed, wind is not reliable enough to assure supplies for an electric grid that must be prepared to deliver power to everybody who wants it - even when it is in greatest demand."

What, another skeptical screed from coal or natural gas producers? No, the above quotation is from a recent article in The New York Times, which goes on to quote Xcel Energy's Frank P. Prager, managing director of environmental policy.

"He said," the Times tells us, "that in one of the states the company serves, Colorado, planners calculate that if wind machines reach 20 percent of total generating capacity, the cost of standby generators will reach $8 a megawatt-hour of wind. That is on top of a generating cost of $50 or $60 a megawatt-hour, after including a federal tax credit of $18 a megawatt hour."

The relevance of that 20 percent figure? It's likely to be mandated by the legislature that convenes next week.

Hey, it's only money - your money.

Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes On Point several times a week. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.

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