Harris-Perry: Don’t dislike Mitt because he’s a Mormon

>>> in this election cycle on the republican side , just about everyone who is running a real campaign is getting a chance to be a front-runner for a while. no, not you, rick santorum , sorry. but even though newspaper columnists and politicos have been using inevitable to describe mitt romney for weeks now, he's not leading in the polls. given the cast of characters he's running against, mitt romney should be the far and away front-runner, he's not. certainly part of that is him being seen as boring or a flip-flopper or insufficiently credentialed as a moral conservative. that doesn't explain who is the front-runner right now. that's it. we're in the midst of the newt bump right now. nut gingrich is in the lead among republican voters. newt gingrich , a man whose moral conservatism has also been questioned and who is also famous on his flip-flops. remember when he called paul ryan 's kill medicare budget plan a right wing social engineering plan and said anyone whoever tries to use his own words against him is lying. so republican voters are saying prefer t he perhaps questionably social conservative flip-flopper, whose campaign looks more like a book tour, than a presidential campaign over perhaps questionably socially conservative flip-flopper running a serious presidential campaign . now, that seems weird, right? it suggests that something else may be afoot in republican primary voters' reluctance to get behind mitt romney . here's a glimpse into one possibility of what might be dragging down mitt romney 's campaign, from the pew research center . their latest survey out today shows that mitt romney 's religion, his mormonism , is likely a factor in his candidacy in the republican primary . the survey found that among white evangelical republican voters, 15% say mr. romney's religion would make them less likely to support him. and among all americans, the survey asked people to give a one-word impression of the mormon religion. and the results were about one in four gave assessments that are negative in tone. overall, cult is the most frequently used word. now, let's be clear. if you're a republican voter, there are plenty of reasons to want to reject mitt romney as your party's candidate. but his religion should not be one of them. if mitt romney is being rejected for his mormonism , then republican voters are demonstrating a troubling bias that has much broader implications. so let's pause for a moment. i do not want to engage in a theological debate about mormonism and whether mormonism is a good or bad religion , whether it has troubling doctrine, funny beliefs or strange practices. it is a religion, after all, and most world religions have what some people somewhere would consider funny practices, troubling beliefs, and histories that include abusive action against other groups. what's important here is that the very thing that conservative evangelical republican voters seem to be expressing angst about, mitt romney's mormonism , is the thing that makes mitt romney part of a group whose american story is marked by experiences of oppression, rejection, and second-class citizenship. given the history of mormon exclusion in this country, one might expect romney the to show real empathy for mu muslims, whose religion is distorted. in 1838 , missouri's governor ordered the mormon 's expelled from the state or exterminated if necessary. it's almost time to celebrate thanksgiving. and as we gather, many of us will celebrate and reflect on the uniquely american stories of our own families. my family's immigration history is, in fact, tied up in the history of mormonism . my maternal line are mormons. my grandfather's mother immigrated from sweden with her two siblings after her widowed mother was converted by mormon missionaries . my great-grandfather's father came to america as a 19-year-old from england. my immigrant ancestors pushed wagons across the west during the mormon expulsion. and i have a great-great-grandfather who was accused of polygamy. despite these laws, great-grandpa cooper refused to abandon his family and served time in prison as a result. my own mother, though he left the mormon church as an adult, was born a mormon and attended brigham young university . my american story is both the story of enslaved ancestors, sold on the street corner of richmond, virginia, on my father's side, and of a persecuted religious minority in the american west on my mother's side. as we pause at thanksgiving to celebrate a nation that for all its shortcomings makes a story like mine possible, it is a moment to celebrate our diversity, not to cower in fear of difference. so, to gop primary voters, please, feel free to reject the candidacy of mitt romney , but don't do so because he is mormon . i'm happy to provide you with a whole list of much better