Newswise — A Texas pastor’s controversial statement that Mormonism is a cult — made just moments after endorsing Texas Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry — not only will not hurt Perry’s candidacy but may even help, says a Baylor University political science lecturer and author.
“He (Perry) can really have it both ways,” said Dr. Andrew Hogue, author of the forthcoming book Stumping God — Reagan, Carter, and the Invention of a Political Faith.
A Perry spokesman said that Perry does not believe Mormonism is a cult and that Perry “is not in the business of judging people. That’s God’s job.”
Hogue said that “since Perry did not make the offensive remarks, he can easily distance himself to appease those who were offended.” But he said that voters who would agree that Mormonism is a non-Christian cult likely would accept the pastor’s endorsement of Perry as the Republican field’s true “committed follower of Christ.”
Over the long haul, Hogue said, “these endorsements usually have very little positive effect for candidates, but at this stage, early in a primary battle, they usually don’t hurt.”
Being drawn into “a theological squabble” is nothing new for presidential candidates, Hogue said.
“Thirty years ago, in the run up to the 1980 election, Southern Baptist Convention President Bailey Smith said from the podium of the Religious Roundtable National Affairs Briefing — shortly before Reagan was to be introduced as the keynote speaker — that ‘God Almighty does not hear the prayers of a Jew,’” Hogue said. “As he took the stage, Reagan’s first words to the gathered assembly were ‘I know you can’t endorse me, but I endorse you.’
“Paired with Smith’s remarks, this caused quite a stir and drew Reagan into a theological squabble that was new territory for presidential candidates,” Hogue said. “Since then, as candidates and religious figures have become frequent bedfellows, we’ve seen candidates having to deal more frequently than they would probably like with complicated theological issues that they hadn’t planned to broach themselves—whether it’s McCain with the anti-Catholic John Hagee, John Kerry with Communion and the Catholic bishops, or Barack Obama with Jeremiah Wright.”
Hogue said that over the past 30 years, successful Republican candidates have “hovered pretty close to Reagan’s strategy for courting religious conservatives, a key GOP constituency.”
They have “privately courted” evangelical leaders and publicly engaged in acts of piety such as offering prayers or openly discussing their personal relationship with God, Hogue said.
“They have selected and endorsed religious audiences at campaign stops,” he said.
“When there, they have emphasized and taken ‘correct’ positions on culture war issues. And along the way, they have emphasized America’s original sacred covenant with God, telling of the ways that the liberals particularly have breached that covenant, and offering hope that the covenant can still be restored — usually by their election.”
He noted that McCain “opted out” on a few of those campaign components near the end of his run, and “of course, McCain lost, with millions of religious conservatives staying home on election day.
“That didn’t escape the notice of this year’s Republican crop, so you can rest assured that for the most part, these strategies will be in full force for those who want religious conservatives’ support,” Hogue said.
His book, published by Baylor University Press, will be released mid-spring 2012.
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