Friday, May 11, 2007

Romney's Religious Beliefs Attract Increasing Attention

The religious views of Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney have attracted increased attention by the media. If nominated, he would be the first Mormon presidential candidate of a major political party. Less than two weeks ago, PBS produced a 4-hour series on The Mormons. Shown on Frontline, it is currently still available for viewing online (with related background material). That no doubt piqued public interest in Romney's views.

This week, Time Magazine has Romney on the cover, and carries two articles about his religious views and their likely impact in the election: What Romney Believes and Romney's Mormon Question. Then the New York Times today ran an article titled: Romney Elaborates on Evolution, following up on the candidate's position staked out in last week's Republican debates. It quotes Romney's interesting formulation: "I'm not exactly sure what is meant by intelligent design. But I believe God is intelligent and I believe he designed the creation. And I believe he used the process of evolution to create the human body." [Thanks to Melissa Rogers and Blog from the Capital for leads.]