Rev. O’Neal Dozier, an African-American pastor and honorary chairman for Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign, is challenging Mitt Romney to uphold his Mormon faith. At a press conference on Monday, Dozier said that he was speaking out to “foster and maintain good race relations here in America.”
“The Mormon religion is prejudiced against Blacks, Jews and Native Americans,” Dozier insisted, adding that Romney’s nomination would widen the racial divide because “the Republican Party would be viewed as a racist political party.” In fact, African-Americans were banned from becoming priests in their church until 1978, based on The Book Of Mormon which claimed that African-Americans — or Lamanites as they called them — were cursed with dark skin for rebelling against God.
How should Romney respond to this challenge to his faith? Is the Mormon faith inherently racist? If so, is it possible for a Mormon to eschew their church's racist roots?
