Interesting discussion over at My Man Mitt

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Justin Hart wrote the following a few days ago. So far, 58 comments have been left on this topic. You should check it out.

Yesterday, Joshua Treviño at NRO published a piece about Romney and Mormonism essentially claiming that religion is not out of the realm of discourse in our public square. He presented his thesis in an appropriate way and he makes a good case.

My only response to Joshua is this: "get to it already!"Between Hugh Hewitt, Jim Geraghty and others... tomes have been written about whether or not Mormonism should be part of the Romney debate.

So, six months into the presidential race I ask two questions:

In your opinion, is there a single Mormon doctrine that disqualifies Romney from becoming President?

If there is, should that apply to every office in the land?

As I and others suggested in our comments on Justin's site, no religious test should or will likely be applied by rational voters. Theological arguments/disagreement abound, but are not helpful in a political debate. The Framers of our Constitution figured that out a long time ago.

Since no morally impeccable candidate can be found besides Mitt (in my opinion), we all have to give him the green light, despite his faith. I write "despite" in case his LDS faith bothers you. It doesn't bother me, and certainly not with respect to his politics. Go on over to the above link and comment if you wish. I found it very entertaining. Yet, by discussion's end you should begin to see--if you don't already--that religious terms can't define this political debate.

Update: Check out the viewpoints of loyal Mitt fans who are simultaneously practicing Evangelicals. These fans are thoughtful, opinion-leading evangelicals who also happen to be excellent writers! They can easily support such a great man, despite interesting aspects of his faith. Two quotes below:

Yes, Gov. Romney is a Mormon. We are not. According to the liberal media, this is an unbridgeable gap, and evangelicals will never turn out to support a faithful Mormon like Governor Romney. As usual, the media have it wrong. And they root their error (as usual) in a fundamental misunderstanding about American evangelicals—seeing us as ignorant and intolerant simpletons who are incapable of making sophisticated political value judgments.

To be perfectly clear, we believe Governor Romney is not only acceptable to conservative Christians, but that he is clearly the best choice for people of faith. He is right on all the issues, and he has proven his positions with actions. He is a gifted and persuasive spokesman for our political and moral values. Here is the bottom line: the 2008 election is for president, not pastor. We would never advocate that the Governor become our pastor or lead our churches—we disagree with him profoundly on theological issues. But we reject the notion that the president of the United States has to be in perfect harmony with our religious doctrine. In fact, that is not a test that has been applied before—after all, Jimmy Carter was probably more theologically in line with evangelicals than Ronald Reagan, yet we believe that Reagan was clearly the better choice in 1980.