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Romney guided by Mormon faith

August 30, 2012
GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney steps up to the podium to test the teleprompters before his speech on Aug. 30, 2012, at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, Fla. Romney is set to speak at 11 p.m. tonight. Julia Nagy/The State News
GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney steps up to the podium to test the teleprompters before his speech on Aug. 30, 2012, at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, Fla. Romney is set to speak at 11 p.m. tonight. Julia Nagy/The State News —
Photo by Julia Nagy | and Julia Nagy The State News

When Mitt Romney was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate Tuesday at the Republican National Convention, or RNC, in Tampa, Fla., he had his first chance to formally introduce himself to the American people.

In his rallying speech Thursday night, he spoke about the usual election-year topics: jobs, the economy and restoring the American dream.

And although Romney has not been so outspoken in his personal life, particularly his adherence to the Mormon faith, the American public has heard how his religion has affected his political views.

State Budget Director John Nixon, who attends the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints":http://www.lds.org/?lang=eng in East Lansing, 431 E. Saginaw St., said as a Mormon, his beliefs play a central role in other areas of his life.

“As far as religion, I’ve been a Mormon all my life,” Nixon said. “I was baptized when I was 8 years old (and) raised in the belief system, and it helps shape your core values.”

And those individual values are what make politics and religion a part of democracy, religious studies assistant professor Malcolm Magee said.

Mormonism is a completely American religion, finding its roots in Utah, but many Americans are not familiar with the religion and less likely to discuss its major differences from other sects of Christianity, Magee said.

Still, religion and politics have always fit together in the public eye.

“The way (people) approach religion is the way they approach their philosophy of life and other things,” Magee said. “Something you believe is something you believe.”

Romney said earlier this year he is not running to be the country’s “pastor-in-chief.”

But because religion often comes hand in hand with political philosophy, Nixon said Romney doesn’t need to qualify his religious activity by discussing it frequently.

“Where (Romney) feels very strongly about the church, I’m also proud of my religion and don’t shy away from talking about it,” Nixon said. “(But) I don’t know that I need to talk about it 24/7 nonstop.”

Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan called attention to religion briefly "in a speech Wednesday night at the RNC.":http://statenews.com/index.php/article/2012/08/ryan_takes_center_stage

Ryan said his and Romney’s differing religious backgrounds don’t divide their shared vision for the country.

“Our faiths come together in the same moral creed,” he said.

Nixon said Romney and Ryan fit together as a ticket because of their views on fiscal conservatism, a facet of the Mormon religion that emphasizes living within one’s means and not becoming burdened with debt.

But anchoring oneself in faith is more important than just talking about it, Nixon said.

“I don’t think he needs to talk about it; it’s in the makeup of his DNA,” he said.

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