Gerson on Mormonism

In this morning's Washington Post, Michael Gerson opines that he thinks more liberals will take exception to Mitt Romney's Mormonism than will conservatives. He may be right. I suspect many liberals correctly view the Mormon Church, like the Catholic Church, as a bastion of conservatism on key social issues like gay rights only without the Catholic Church's commitment to social justice to level the ideological playing field.

As I have noted before, I believe Catholics have a special obligation to fight religious bigotry no matter who it is aimed at. Liberals have the same obligation. But Catholics and liberals also have no speaical obligation to vote for Mr. Romney whose advocacy of certain political issues runs counter to our own desires. It is fine to oppose Romney but it is not fine to oppose him because he is a Mormon and shame on those who do so.