My interest in the Mormons came about in 2008 when Mitt Romney began his first run for the Republican presidential nomination. That year, the Washington-based Pew Research Centre found 39 per cent of evangelicals held a negative view of Mormons, while one in four Americans said they would not vote for a Mormon. It also found that 40 per cent of white evangelicals, a voting bloc that twice helped George W. Bush into the White House, did not regard Mormons as Christians.

A lot of anti-Mormonism is based on the old canard of polygamy — something condemned by the Mormon church more than 100 years ago — and plain ignorance.

Romney, in the manner of John F. Kennedy in 1960, went before the American people to insist his religion would not interfere with his ability to be president. It is hard to believe that an American candidate in 2008 would have to explain himself to people who supposedly believe in freedom of religion and explain that there should be no religious test for office.  

Although recent polls indicate attitudes towards Mormons have improved (but not by much), I believe there is still enough negative feeling today about Romney’s faith to limit his chance of becoming the Republican nominee, let alone president.

One of the things I learned about Mormons during my research was they have been subjected to considerable amounts of violence since their formal founding in 1830. Hounded out of New York and Ohio, they fled to Missouri, where Mormon men, women and children were murdered. The Missouri governor told them to get out or face “extermination.”  In Illinois, a mob murdered Smith. Still, after 17 years of harassment, the faith grew to 80,000 members, most of whom made the perilous trek to Utah in the middle of winter.

This is where Catholics should take note. Part of the reason Mormons were so despised was because their faith was built on a clear hierarchy with loyalty directed first to God but also to church leaders. Mormonism went completely against the Protestant revivalism of the time that emphasized the authority of Scripture alone. Churches with hierarchies were seen as un-American and suffering from split loyalties.

This was a time in the United States of massive anti-Catholic riots in Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Catholic churches were burned and Catholics were molested and killed. Catholics were considered more loyal to Rome than Washington and therefore presented an internal threat. That view still had resonance when Kennedy ran for president in 1960.

The Mormons I met over the past few years have been friendly, intelligent, kind and tolerant. They also expressed a particular kinship with Catholicism, I think mainly because both religions go against the Protestant grain.

There are many things about Mormonism that I find strange and could never abide by personally. But that is not an excuse for intolerance.

(Charles Lewis writes about religion for the National Post and is the editor of the paper’s online religion site, Holy Post. He can be reached at clewis@nationalpost.com.)