Article VI Blog

I hesitate to give the Globe's weekend story on the supposed Romney-Mormon conspiracy more play than it deserves (and it doesn't deserve much). I won't fisk the entire article the way we did last Friday. Even so, as the Mormon half of this blog, I think I can provide a service to our readers of other faiths by giving a little cultural background and perspective on the matter.

If you've read the latest story, you know that Sunday the Globe published the e-mails that were the basis for its story last Thursday. I do not know exactly what happened with the e-mails, but what seems most likely to me is that Don Stirling, a man who is by experience a promoter, not a political consultant, got carried away and grossly exaggerated the extent of church involvement in a project he was promoting.

I am not offering that thesis in defense of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the "Church"). Rather, I am suggesting that episodes just like this case occur all the time in Mormondom. This one simply happened to be very high-profile.

Summary: What Really Happened Here?

In keeping with this blog's mission of exploring the intersection between religion and presidential politics in the 2008 presidential election, I offer the following:

Stirling's activities seem like the very familiar puffery of an LDS promoter attempting to use the involvement of high-level Church leaders to advance a project. This is common in Mormondon. Knowing that may be helpful to outsiders unfamilar with Utah Mormon culture.
There still is no credible evidence of inappropriate conduct by the Church in support of a political effort. If such evidence exists, the Church will take its lumps; but so far, what we've seen is a strained effort by the Globe to connect dots that are not there.
This is all important because, as we've stated here before, the most virulent opposition to a Romney candidacy may well come in the general election (if he gets nominated) from influential left-leaning news media organizations who abhor the idea of a deeply religious man becoming President of the United States.

You can read Don Stirling's e-mails here and come to your own conclusions about their significance. But before you do that, I invite you to consider the following paragraphs.

The "I Am In Touch With An LDS General Authority" Syndrome

The Globe describes Don Stirling as "Romney's Utah-based political consultant." The e-mails the Globe published are addressed to Sheri Dew, the CEO of Deseret Book, a for-profit publishing company owned by the Church. The particular e-mail the Globe seems to consider most damning includes Stirling's description of a planned meeting with Jeffrey R. Holland, a member of the Church's Council of Twelve Apostles:

Kem [Gardner, a wealthly and influential Salt Lake businessman and old Romney friend] . . . called Elder Holland's office . . . and set up a meeting for Tuesday, September 19 at 4:00 PM to discuss the use of [BYU Management Society, a BYU alumni organization], the [Mutual Values and Priorities] program, and to discuss, generally, what might be appropriate to do within the LDS community. [Emphasis added.]

Keep in mind: It seems the above is what Stirling thought the meeting with Elder Holland would be about.

Based on my experience in arranging and holding meetings with Church leaders, it seems entirely likely that Stirling was overstating matters considerably. Those familiar with the way many Church members relate to General Authorities will recognize this immediately. Many an innocuous conversation with an LDS apostle has resulted in an exaggeration, or even an outright distortion, of what the apostle actually said. The saying is, "When an LDS apostle sneezes, some LDS members get pneumonia."

There's evidence that took place here. LDS Church spokesman Mike Otterson describes the meeting differently: The Globe reports that "Otterson also said Holland did not share Stirling's understanding of why the Sept. 19 meeting was scheduled." (Emphasis added.)

This statement by Romney's Commonwealth PAC, issued late yesterday, suggests the same thing:

Don Stirling is an old and dear friend of Governor Romney. He got over enthusiastic and overstepped his bounds. The Commonwealth PAC has taken appropriate action to make sure it doesn't happen again. The Commonwealth PAC recognizes the political neutrality of the Mormon Church.

Who Is Don Stirling?

Mr. Stirling is the author of the e-mails. I suspect that about now he is feeling awfully sheepish, and that going forward he may have little or no role in Romney's efforts. According to this story and this press release, Stirling's background is in sports and entertaintment, not politics, and he recently moved to Salt Lake City to be "managing partner of a new sports and entertainment marketing company, Rainmaker Sports & Entertainment." One of Stirling's partners in Rainmaker is Larry H. Miller, owner of the Utah Jazz.

I wonder if Stirling is a sports promoter who got excited about a potential run for the presidency by an old friend? He does seem to be a political neophyte. If so, that would explain his apparently unsophisticated approach to this matter. Read Stirling's e-mails. Do they strike you as the product of a canny political consultant's mind, or the typical work of a promoter?

(By the way, does the Globe have anything other than Don Stirling's e-mails that supports his claims? For example, do they have any of Sheri Dew's e-mails to Don Stirling? Surely the Globe did not report as facts the uncorroborated statements of a promoter who was trying to generate enthusiasm for his project. Aren't newspapers supposed to have more than one source before they claim an event took place?)

Update: This information in this morning's Salt Lake Tribune is probably the final nail in the Globe story's coffin. Read the whole thing.

John adds: Just a couple of quick comments. One, I don't know beans about how Mormons work, but I do about Evangelicals and especially Presbyterians. As a Presbyterian elder I have had people come to me claiming pastoral authority to proceed with a project when all that happened was they shook hands with the pastor on the way out of service and the pastor said he thought it sounded worth looking into.

Secondly, religious leaders of any stripe are entitled to engage in individual political discourse. There is no violation of the the law or IRS regulation until they, or some other official spokesperson, makes endorsements in their official role as a leader and/or commit organizational resources to candidate endorsement. In my world, such people get asked for such improper endorsement all the time. What matters is if they give it.

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