Mormonism in the Media

There has been LOTS written about Mormonism in the media lately due to Mitt Romney's presidential aspirations. As a young democrat Mormon who has in the past and expects to work in government/politics in the future, I feel I have a lot at stake in how Romney handles questions about his faith and the stereotypes and frames that get developed as a result. He's not who I will vote for next November, though I think he has done a very good job dealing with these questions and paved the way for aspiring young Mormons like myself. Here are some snapshots of the media coverage.



This is one of my favorite videos in the mainstream media, because it shows that we are truly a worldwide church now, now simply dominated by the Utah culture.



Since he got in the race, many have suggested Romney would eventually have to give a speech about his faith like JFK did in 1960. Once former Baptist Minister and Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee passed him in the Iowa polls, the timing was suddenly right for Romney to deliver such a speech.



This is the full video of his speech pulled from the Romney youtube page. All in all I think he did a good job of discussing the role of religion in society without defending the specifics of his faith.

It's too soon to tell if this speech will help Romney's campaign in Iowa, but here is some of the press coverage so far:

The New Republic, where former Clinton speechwriter David Kusnet concludes, "Mitt Romney, you're no Jack Kennedy."

EJ Dionne's Washington Post article, which described the speech as both "brilliant and frustrating," as well as "inspiring, yet also transparently political in its effort to find the precise balance that would satisfy Republican primary voters." I agree with Dionne that one of the weakest parts of the speech was the assertion that freedom requires religion. Does it?

Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson (the one who wrote term "Axis of Evil" but has since criticized the Bush White House) wrote that JFK's speech remains a landmark of American rhetoric, Romney's bold and intellectually serious speech deserves to be read along side it.

Finally, David Brooks column in the NY Times which suggests that while the speech might down as a historic event for Mormons, his reaction is more muted. Even still, he concludes it was not a mistake for Romney to deliver the speech and that he threaded the needle well.