WASHINGTON (AFP) – US voters are uncomfortable with the idea of a president who is a Mormon, even as Massachusetts ex-governor Mitt Romney, a member of that church, leads the pack of Republican White House hopefuls, a poll released Wednesday found.
The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute survey showed that Romney would lose 41-47 percent in a head-to-head election with Barack Obama, contrary to the results of a Washington Post/ABC News poll out Tuesday that showed Romney narrowly defeating the president.
According to the Quinnipiac poll, only 45 percent of registered voters had a favorable view of Mormonism, while 32 percent had an unfavorable view. Only atheists and Muslims had less support in the survey.
Mormonism originated in the 1820s in western New York state. It is the main religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement, and is controversial in the United States in part because it fuses Christian theology with teachings that other religious scholars feel are not consistent with standard Christian doctrine.
US voters apparently "have many more questions about a Mormon in the White House than they do about followers of other religions," said Peter Brown with the Quinnipiac pollsters.
"And most don't see much similarity between their religion and Mormonism," he said.
Many conservative Christians see Mormonism as a cult or even a heresy.
The Republican Party's base includes a strong contingent of conservative evangelical Christians that would presumably vote against a Mormon -- yet according to the Quinnipiac poll, the Democrats are least tolerant.
Sixty-eight percent of Republicans surveyed are comfortable with a Mormon president against only 49 percent of Democrats, according to the poll.
Among those who were Republicans or could vote Republican in the 2012 election, Romney was ahead in the field with 25 percent support, followed by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin with 15 percent.
Romney announced his candidacy last week, but Palin has not said if she will run.
They were followed by businessman Howard Cain who polled at nine percent; former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Representative Ron Paul, both at eight percent; Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann at six percent; former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty at five percent, and ex-senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania at four percent.
The only other Mormon presidential hopeful, Republican Jon Huntsman of the Mormon-majority state of Utah, has one percent support. Another 20 percent of those Republicans surveyed were undecided.
"The fact that less than half of voters have a favorable view of the religion is likely to be a political issue that governor Mitt Romney, and should his campaign catch on, governor Jon Huntsman, will have to deal with as they pursue the White House," said Brown.
Millionaire businessman Romney lost his party's presidential nomination to Senator John McCain in 2008.
The May 31-June 6 poll surveyed 1,946 registered voters. The survey has a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points, and 3.4 percentage points for the Republican primary.
Mormon teachings refer to the Old and New Testaments, but adherents also believe that authentic Christianity vanished a century after Christ and was restored only through church founder Joseph Smith.
Smith revised large sections of the Bible before he was murdered in Illinois in 1844.
Among the prominent Mormons who have been elected to high office in the United States are veteran Republican Senator Orrin Hatch and Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid.
