Romney is choosing not to embrace his religion for this election, focusing more on the economy than his personal beliefs in an effort to ignite the Republican base.

Some criticized Obama in 2008 for not embracing his African American ethnicity, causing him to give a pivotal, historic speech on race in the midst of the 2008 election season.

Romney’s past heavily is influenced by his involvement in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A younger Romney left Stanford University on a mission trip to Paris to recruit citizens to the Mormon faith. He also was bishop of his ward, later becoming stake president, a key leadership role in his church’s community near his home in Boston.

Although heavily influenced by his Mormon faith, Romney seldom has mentioned his religious past and present during this campaign. During last week’s convention only briefly did he touch on the similarities between Mormonism and Christianity, specifically the belief in Jesus as God’s son, hoping to satisfy his white, Christian, middle-class conservative base.

A July poll conducted by the Washington Post and ABC News found 20 percent of those polled were uncomfortable allowing a Mormon to marry into their family. This highlights that some Americans still are uncomfortable with the church and its beliefs. Whether this is caused by misconceptions of the faith and its practices, or if people sincerely are not comfortable with Mormonism, 20 percent still is a significant amount of the American population.

One of the reasons some might distrust this religion is that they still might associate Mormonism with polygamy, even though the church abandoned teaching the practice of plural marriage many years ago.

The Mormon church also came under fire recently when it was discovered church officials were baptizing deceased people using a living proxy. One of these proxy baptisms allegedly was performed in the famous Jewish writer and Holocaust victim Anne Frank’s name.

The Romney campaign knows Americans still are confused by many of the practices of the Mormon church, and thus is deciding to concentrate on other issues rather than bringing to attention its candidate’s faith, an intelligent political move for his election.

With one-in-five people confessing their discomfort with the Mormon faith, Romney is dedicating his campaign to his business and political past rather than his religion. Placing emphasis on these details will make voters more comfortable with him as a person and a president.

Although these candidates identify with religious and ethnic minorities, the American people most likely will look past these details and focus on both Obama’s and Romney’s record and what issues they stand for.

Romney’s Mormonism is a defining part of his past, but it should not be a defining part of
his campaign.