Mitt Romney's
presidential campaign has been embraced in a most unlikely
place: at Bob Jones University, the influential Christian
college that teaches that his Mormon Church is a cult.
In early-voting South Carolina, Romney has picked up
support among the evangelicals and social
conservatives who are a political force. Last week Romney
won the endorsements of Bob Jones III and Robert
Taylor, the founder's grandson and a top dean,
respectively, at Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C.
He also gained
the backing of Don Wilton, the immediate past president of
the South Carolina Baptist Convention and pastor of a nearby
megachurch, as well as John Willke, a founder and past
president of the National Right to Life Committee.
During the same
one-week period, the former Massachusetts governor eked
out a win in a straw poll at the socially conservative
Values Voter Summit in Washington.
Taken together,
the endorsements and straw poll victory show that while
evangelicals may not agree with the tenets of his Mormon
faith, or even the standing of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints as a Christian faith, some
have decided to heed Romney's request for support.
They are looking
at his apple-cheeked family and clean-living lifestyle
and finding comfort in his pledge to support their social
philosophy should he become president.
That's an
achievement for a candidate who embraced abortion rights as
recently as November 2004. He now says he has changed his
mind and wants to overturn the Supreme Court decision
that legalized abortion.
''It's hard to
see, but I think that they just realized that he's the
best of a bad lot. I hate to say it that way,'' said Dave
Woodard, a longtime GOP activist and political science
professor at Clemson University.
Romney's standing
is hardly secure. In fact, Woodard expects that former
Tennessee senator Fred Thompson, a fellow Southerner, will
win the January 19 GOP primary in South Carolina.
Thompson, though, has not campaigned here since his
announcement tour, nor has he paid a $35,000 fee to
appear on the primary ballot. He is expected to do so
Wednesday when he returns for his first campaign
appearance in more than a month.
Former Arkansas
governor Mike Huckabee, a onetime Baptist minister now
campaigning for president, has also seen interest among
evangelicals deepen since Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas
-- a conservative darling -- dropped out of the race
last week.
Former New York
City mayor Rudy Giuliani has been near the top in polls
of likely South Carolina Republican primary voters.
But Giuliani's
standing is shaky among social conservatives, who are
expected to dominate the vote. Among other things, they
disagree with his support for abortion rights and his
opposition to a federal ban on same-sex marriage.
''I think
probably his biggest selling point is that he happened to be
mayor of New York when 9/11 happened,'' said Taylor, the Bob
Jones University arts and sciences dean who endorsed
Romney. ''The reaction of the country was pretty
unanimous and he just happened to be there.''
In endorsing
Romney, Taylor said he and chancellor Bob Jones III looked
past their belief that Mormons, like Catholics, belong to a
''cult.'' Taylor said among evangelicals, the term
more broadly applies to what they consider
non-Christian theologies, not the more popular
understanding of allegiance to a domineering figurehead.
Jones, who had
laryngitis and could not be interviewed by the AP, told
the Greenville News, ''As a Christian, I am
completely opposed to the doctrines of Mormonism. But I'm
not voting for a preacher; I'm voting for a
president.''
Wilton, the
pastor in nearby Spartanburg, said in his endorsement,
''While we may not agree on theology, Governor Romney and I
agree that this election is about our country heading
in the right direction.''
In exit polls for
the 2004 general election, 88% of white voters in South
Carolina who described themselves as evangelicals or
born-again Christians said they voted for President
Bush, while only 11% voted for Democrat John Kerry.
More recently,
data from three recent AP-Ipsos polls showed that among
born-again Christians, 22% said they'd vote for Thompson,
17% for Giuliani, and 13% for Sen. John McCain. Romney
was at 8%, essentially tied with Huckabee, who had 9%,
and former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who had 8%.
Most of Romney's
support, 72%, came from self-described conservatives,
21% from moderates, and only 5% from liberals.
Kirk Alford, a
62-year-old former Army Ranger and retired federal court
official from Greenville, described himself as a
conservative -- and pragmatic -- voter as he voiced
support for Romney.
''To me, the key
is, we really need to find somebody who can beat Hillary
Clinton. I just think Clinton would be a disaster,'' Alford
said.
Kendell Hawkins,
a 36-year-old paralegal from Greenville, said she
favored Giuliani because of his leadership following the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks but was also
amenable to Romney despite their religious
differences.
''I'm not going
to judge somebody's religion, what their personal
decisions are,'' Hawkins said. ''If he can make good
decisions and lead us and bring us back to be a strong
country, then that's all I care about.'' (Glen
Johnson, AP)
