Mitt Romney, the man likely to challenge Barack Obama to become the president of the country with the most nuclear weapons, believes that in 1827 an angel called Moroni gave a man called Joseph Smith some golden plates that had symbols on them. There must have been at least a full dinner service worth of mystical crockery because the translations filled up a whole new Bible called the Book of Mormon. Half of Mormons surveyed believe that Romney's faith is likely to count against him a survey revealed this week, with a third also believing they are more discriminated against than African Americans. Mitt's beliefs would count against him even more this side of The Pond. Tony Blair had to wait until he resigned as Prime Minister before converting to Catholicism because his spin master Alastair Campbell had commanded: "We don't do religion." Asked about a dozen times by Jeremy Paxman if he'd prayed with Dubya Bush, Blair evaded because he'd have known how deeply unappealing the British find the thought of a politician asking God for advice.
The contrast between the two leaders' religious stance couldn't have been more pronounced, with Tony Blair sneaking a quick pray then dodging into a priest hole like it was Tudor times as opposed to Dubya, the reformed coke-head alcoholic trumpeting his conversion and born again-ness. He only really got in because of the religious right in America who backed his conversion at the ballot box. Blair has since admitted religion played a huge part in his premiership but didn't want voters to think he was a "nutter". Our current crop of party leaders must feel the same, because while past Tory leaders have quoted the Bible more than the other parties, David Cameron freely admits he doesn't go to church.
[See related : Ed Miliband and Labour's plans for the economy]
Ed Miliband is of Jewish descent but had a secular upbringing and has publically stated that he doesn't believe in God. Nick Clegg has pitched somewhere in between stating he doesn't believe in God but managed to "…find religion just in time for the election" (according to 'The Daily Mail') saying something about believing in Christian values. So although 78% of the UK population consider themselves religious no party leader does. The population of believers in America is only slightly higher at 83% but importantly they seem to be much more active, with 40% attending service weekly and 58% praying at least once a week. In a 2007 Tearfund survey only 7% of Brits consider themselves practising Christians.
Romney's religion would be an asset, like Dubya's was, were it not for oddness of some of the actions and beliefs of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, AKA Mormonism, like their history of polygamy. A leading apostle called Orson Pratt married his 10th wife when he was 57 and she was 16, although nothing really compares to the Joseph Almighty who married 32 women including some who were under 16 and others who were actually married to other men. Mitt's family weren't even in the sect of Mormons that dropped the whole polygamy thing, with his great, great grandparents preferring to flee to Mexico just to have multiple wives. That's where his dad (who was also a candidate for the Republican nomination) was born. They've done all sorts, making Scientology look fairly reasonable, they're anti-gay, only allowed black priests in 1978 and have done Baptisms for the dead, including 300,000 holocaust victims. What's worse, they're teetotal and don't even drink coffee or tea and intriguingly wear 'religious undergarments'.
But there's good news for voters in the UK. So far the Mormons are only available on the UK high street (those super-keen looking Americans in suits with name badges), with the likelihood of them progressing to high-office being zero due to our sensible separation of religion and politics.
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