Meridian Magazine :: Faith and Politics: Mitt Romney, Mormons, and Bigotry: Some Hypothetical Questions

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On a recent Thanksgiving night, while sitting in a hospital emergency department with a throbbing shoulder and wishing I had not decided to play in a certain touch football game earlier in the day, I came across this article in BYU Magazine. (I'm not a subscriber to the “Y's” alumni magazine. I just happened to be in the right emergency room at the right time.)

I found aspects of the article interesting. First, the piece is excellent, and what I would call a classical Mormon approach to Jesus Christ and what He means to us. Virtually every devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the "Church") would find the article compelling and inspiring.

Second, it is written by Thomas Griffith, who was general counsel to BYU and is now a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the second-most important federal appellate court after the Supreme Court. Judge Griffith was nominated by President George W. Bush and approved after the controversial Gang of 14 deal, I believe.

My Mind Begins to Work

We lawyers love hypothetical questions. They're a big part of how we are trained, how judges engage in colloquy with us when we argue before them, how expert witnesses testify, etc. As I read that piece by Judge Griffith, it occurred to me that it offered more than a way to take my mind off my injured shoulder; it provides a nice opportunity to tee up the Mitt Romney “faith issue” with a hypothetical.

The Hypothetical

Imagine yourself as a conservative Republican and Evangelical Christian member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. President Bush has nominated Tom Griffith, now serving as general counsel to BYU and with a stellar legal background prior to that position, to the D.C. Circuit. You understand that court's importance and always pay special attention to D.C. Circuit nominations.

You have just read the BYU Magazine article, which one of your staffers gave you as background material on the nominee. The views expressed are very foreign to you, and theologically, you find them entirely unacceptable. In addition, the article reveals that Griffith has served as a Mormon stake president — a very high lay position in the Church, in which Mitt Romney has also served.

Some Questions

Would you take the religious views expressed in Griffith's article into account in deciding whether or not to support his nomination? Presumably no, because the views are purely theological, and to take Griffith's religion into account is flatly prohibited under Article VI to the Constitution.
Would your answer to Question 1 change if Griffith were before you as a nominee not to the D.C. Circuit, but as a sitting D.C. Circuit judge now proposed for elevation to the U.S. Supreme Court?
If your answer to Questions 1 or 2 is "no," do you see any difference between excluding Griffith's Mormonism from your consideration of him as a judicial nominee, on one hand, and excluding Romney's religion from your consideration of him as a presidential candidate, on the other?
I think there are fascinating answers to Questions 2 and 3. One of them might be that although we can (and do) tolerate Mormons serving on the federal appellate courts, in Cabinet positions, and in the Senate and House, elevating a devout Mormon to the Supreme Court is just a little "too much," because that would confer legitimacy on, or would "mainstream," Mormonism, an outcome Al Mohler finds deeply worrisome. In other words, Mormons can serve in high public office, but not in the highest of those offices. This leads to additional questions:
Would a Mormon serving in the presidency also be "too much?"
Are the views Judge Griffith expresses in his BYU Magazine article, which relate exclusively to man's relationship with God and have nothing to do with government or public policy, relevant in any way to a candidate's qualification for office in the United States?
If you think the answer to 5 is "yes," then does your attitude fall within the accepted definition of bigotry, as "the state of mind of a bigot? " That is, “a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group ... with hatred and intolerance.”

I greatly disapprove of using words as discussion-stoppers. The Left does this all the time, as in throwing "racist" and "homophobe" at anyone who sees certain issues differently from they.

On Article VI Blog we've written here, here, and here, for example, of our dislike of the word "cult" in describing Mormonism. And yet I think the word "bigotry" deserves careful consideration in the context of politics and religion. Anyone who would struggle with supporting Griffith for any federal court nomination, or with voting for Mitt Romney for any national office, based on either man's religious beliefs, should wrestle a little with whether their attitude fits that definition.

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About the Author:

Lowell C. Brown is co-author of Article VI Blog, http://www.article6blog.com, which is devoted to discussion and analysis of the religious issues surrounding the 2008 presidential election. Lowell is also a Los Angeles-based attorney who is a partner in Arent Fox LLP, where he practices corporate health law for institutional health care providers. He describes himself as an active, committed, convinced Mormon and has served in a number of callings in the Church, his favorite of which was Scoutmaster. The views expressed here are Lowell's own.