Hot Document

The Laying On of Mitts

Mark DeMoss  is president of the De Moss Group, an influential Georgia-based religious communications firm (click here for a lengthy client list), and the author of The Little Red Book Of Wisdom, a collection of homilies about work and family. He takes a very practical approach to choosing whom he and other evangelicals should support for president. More than a year ago, DeMoss found himself “surveying the landscape of potential candidates” in search of someone who shared his values and could “beat Hillary Clinton.” After months of researching, he settled on Mitt Romney, because he was convinced the candidate’s “values practically mirror my own.”  Echoing comments he made last spring at the National Religious Broadcasting Convention, DeMoss wrote to 150 conservative and evangelical leaders last week (see below and the following four pages) urging them to “pray fervently for this election” and assuring them, “I am wholeheartedly convinced that Mitt Romney can be trusted to uphold the values most important to me as a political conservative and an evangelical Christian” (Page 5).

Admittedly, DeMoss “had to deal with concerns in my own heart” about “supporting a Mormon for the office of president,” but he concluded that the question should be not “Could I vote for a Mormon? but Could I vote for this Mormon?” (Page 4). DeMoss says he was inspired to set aside any prejudices by “my friend of nearly 30 years, Jerry Falwell,” from whom he learned “the value of working closely with people of other faiths” who “shared our convictions about … the value of God in public life.” Indeed, DeMoss points out that the Moral Majority  was “built with coalitions of evangelicals and like-minded Roman Catholics, Jews and yes, Mormons.”

DeMoss admits he is “troubled by skeptical sentiment in some corners about the legitimacy and sincerity” of  “Romney’s ’conversion’ on the abortion issue.” The former Massachusetts governor, DeMoss says, “will be held accountable on this if elected”  (Page 4). Of the three leading candidates, (“Hillary, Rudy or Mitt”) DeMoss believes only Romney will “welcome evangelicals and people of faith into the White House”; the others will “shut them out of deliberations and consideration for … appointments.” In closing his five-page rallying letter, DeMoss reminds the devoted that “if Mitt Romney should become the 44th president … I’m confident he won’t forget how he got there.” DeMoss is a chair of Romney’s “National Faith and Values Steering Committee” but insists he is “not interested in a job in a Romney administration.”

Got a Hot Document? Send it to documents@slate.com. Please indicate whether you wish to remain anonymous.