Letters: Questions of faith for Romney

Re “Religion shifts to the back burner,” June 4

It’s probably not altruism that prompts Mitt Romney to rein in conservatives’ criticism of President Obama for his past association with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

Perhaps Romney wants to forestall focus on his own Mormon faith. Within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its president and members of the Quorum of the Twelve are all white males because of the church’s historical discrimination.

Romney asserts but does not define values that Mormonism purportedly has in common with other faiths. He would be hard-pressed to explain why Mormonism ended discrimination against blacks in 1978 but not against women.

It’s fine for Romney to clam up about his faith. But when he makes specious claims about its shared “moral convictions” with other religions, he should be taken to task.

Gary Dolgin

Santa Monica

As The Times reports, when an independent group supporting Romney attempted to make an issue of Obama’s past ties to Wright, Romney demanded the campaign be shelved. The planned Wright campaign was immediately stopped, demonstrating that such groups are not independent from their candidate at all.

The legal fiction that such groups are independent from the candidates they support is just that: a fiction.

Lance Jencks

Costa Mesa

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