Allegation involving Denver Christian Schools highlights religious rift
Consider it an anecdote for the campaign trail.
A parent complained that Denver Christian Schools would not enroll her son because he attends Mormon church.The private evangelical Christian school’s admission officer said the boy was not enrolled because he held a view of Christianity incompatible with the school’s teachings.
DCS’s interim chief executive officer, Ray Boersema, wouldn’t comment on Mormon applicants.
Such stories — and polls supporting them — attest to evangelical Christians’ wariness of Mormons, formally called members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.This unease in a big voting bloc that repeatedly has influenced national elections and been a decisive factor in Republican primaries, could mean an uphill race for the two Mormon presidential candidates, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
Although the topic of religion has been quiet so far in the 2012 contest for the Republican nomination, political scientists say Romney and Huntsman likely run at a real disadvantage against an evangelical Christian such as Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
“There are tensions between Mormons and evangelicals, and the tensions have to do with questions of theology,” said political science professor John Green of the University of Akron. “It’s quite possible in Republican primaries that there may be some reluctance to vote for Mormon candidates.”
However, pundits agree, evangelical voters would have few qualms in the general election about voting for a Mormon rather than re-electing Barack Obama.