The candidate for evangelicals

By Charles W. Dunn

What a friend we have in Romney, all our sins and griefs to bear! This takeoff on a beloved evangelical hymn, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," expresses the plight of evangelicals. They backed the wrong horse and now have to either back Mitt Romney or sit out the election.

Some evangelicals will argue he is too moderate, but what is the alternative? They simply don't know how good they have it in Romney and are just whistling Dixie in trying to get a presidential candidate who kowtows to their party line.

Rick Perry was "weighed in the balances and found wanting," Newt Gingrich is "unstable as water" and Rick Santorum is not yet a novitiate. Romney has everything the evangelicals need.

Most Americans are not evangelical and, as such, do not support staunch evangelical positions on public issues. Romney understands this. Most Americans are in the center politically and don't identify with evangelical churches. He knows that America will elect a center-right president such as Ronald Reagan but not a far-right candidate such as Barry Goldwater.

To nominate someone from the far right, either religiously or ideologically, would send the Republican Party down in flames. Romney recognizes that to defeat Barack Obama, he must paint him as far left and out of touch with mainstream America. Romney understands the tug of war for the middle and cannot allow Obama to paint him as a far-right candidate.

Romney can do for evangelicals what they cannot do for themselves. His Mormon faith places him squarely in accord with evangelicals on social issues.

Evangelicals don't understand American politics. Give-and-take and compromise are its heart and soul. Evangelicals should not seek power but influence. Better to have a seat at the table of power than to try to control power, which they cannot do. Better to have influence on a president than to try to control a president.

Evangelicals have not done their homework; Romney has. He assiduously prepared for a presidential run for several years. Evangelicals are Johnny-come-lately in trying to nominate a candidate.

Evangelicals made fools of themselves with their Texas confab, where they tried to anoint Santorum as their candidate. They should concentrate on spiritual leadership, which they know something about, not on political leadership, which they know little about. Their primary calling is spiritual and not political.

Evangelicals profess to uphold the Constitution. But they quickly and conveniently overlook the constitutional mandate that forbids a religious qualification for the presidents. Moreover, they seem not to understand that America is not electing a pastor in chief but a commander in chief.

By failing to back Romney, evangelicals enhance the candidacy of libertarian Ron Paul, who is no friend of evangelicals on issues such as abortion, homosexuality, marriage and Israel. The longer the race goes, the more Paul becomes the anti-Romney candidate. Evangelicals need to get behind Romney to create an overwhelming bandwagon effect that would marginalize Paul's candidacy.

The evangelical misunderstanding of politics goes deeper. Romney comes from the Northeast, where Republicans need a breakthrough in states like Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He won the governorship of Massachusetts, one of only two states carried by George McGovern in 1972.

While serving there with a legislature composed of 84 percent Democrats, Romney upheld his personal convictions on marriage, abortion and homosexuality. He knows how to advance his convictions, which are the evangelical convictions, against overwhelming odds.

Romney has built a nationwide political organization and a massive fund-raising enterprise. Evangelicals have not. They are like a grade-school football player trying to tackle Tim Tebow.

Evangelicals forget that their hero, Ronald Reagan, had problems not unlike those of Romney.

Reagan served as governor of California, where he compromised, as has Romney in Massachusetts. And, as president, Reagan did not fight for every plank in the evangelical platform. He jettisoned evangelical positions when it was politically prudent.

Evangelicals need to see the handwriting on the wall. Romney has everything they need.

Let the singing begin.

Charles W. Dunn is distinguished professor of government at Regent University. Email: cwdunn@regent.edu.