Richard Hyatt: The question of faith for candidates

Most of us think all young Mormon males wear short-sleeved white shirts and ride bicycles and we enjoy the 400 melodic voices that make up the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Ask us about Brigham Young and we’ll tell you he has a pretty good football team this year.

But when two practicing Mormons want to be the president of the United States, we suddenly become experts on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The fact that we know the church of choice for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman speaks volumes. Quick now. What religion is Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota? We know Herman Cain used to sell pizzas but where does he go on Sunday mornings?

The religious issue bubbled to the top of the GOP race when the Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, called the LDS a cult.

Bigoted statements such as the one Jeffress spouted are not new in politics. History tells us this came up in 1928 when New York Gov. Al Smith, a Roman Catholic, ran against Herbert Hoover and again in 1960 when John F. Kennedy became our first Catholic president. There were no concerns that his opponent, Richard Nixon, was a Quaker.

Here at home, we’re not immune from the connection of politics and religion. Local candidates find seats on the front pew around election time. Sometimes candidates show up at two or three churches on a single Sunday.

But the most distasteful use of religion came during the 1978 mayoral campaign between Democrat Harry Jackson and Republican Billy Meadows. The candidates were well-funded and well-connected and it promised to be a horse race.

Jackson had served eight terms in the Georgia State Senate and had waged an unsuccessful campaign for governor in 1974.

Meadows had been a football star at Jordan High. Among his investments was a chain of private business colleges scattered across the state.

The campaign pitted the social standing of Jackson against the everyman appeal of Meadows but early on another factor blossomed. Meadows never shied away from his Mormon beliefs, and operatives in the Jackson campaign took advantage of that.

Meadows was statewide president of the LDS church and there were whispers about what it stood for, including a story that the Mormons stockpiled food and supplies and that in the event of terrorism or a natural disaster, they would not share these goods with the rest of us.

Instead of asking the candidates what they would do as mayor of Columbus, I spent time in the library studying Mormon history and theology. I interviewed Meadows about his role in the church, though I never quizzed Jackson about his Methodist heritage.

My job was to answer questions about the candidates and the whisper campaign forced me to delve into religion. At the same time, I validated that Meadows’ beliefs were an issue.

Jackson was elected and Meadows never ran for office again. We’ll never know the impact religion had on the outcome but the race left a bad taste in my mouth -- and still does.

This story was originally published October 14, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Richard Hyatt: The question of faith for candidates."