I am not a Mitt Romney fan. I personally am not supporting him in the primaries, and I wouldn't consider him on my top two or three ideal candidates out of the field.

Yet if he wins the GOP nomination, he stands a better than even chance at winning my "lesser of two evils" prize, and I find it curious that most of the religious right has not endorsed him as their candidate.

As many of you know, I have a love/hate relationship with Mormonism as the faith of my upbringing, a faith I personally rejected long ago. Yet for all of my feelings towards the church, there are certain truths, certain inescapable facts that I can't avoid. While I do not hold to the teachings of the church, I still have a great love for the PEOPLE in the church, as personal experience has taught me you will not find a more dedicated, loving group of people than most Mormons. They have the kind of true compassion that we are called to have, and most Mormons are at least outwardly tolerant of differences in faith and don't engage in the finger waving, tract shoving tactics of oh, so many "evangelical" Christians. Mormons are, to be pithy, a group of people who are generally sincere in their faith. And Romney, in my view, seems to be no exception.

While I'm of the conviction that we could do better than Mitt Romney, I'm also ready to concede that we could do much, much worse. I for one am impressed with Romney's unapologetic defense of his faith without engaging in the political grandstanding of so many who use the pulpit to rally an implied endorsement from God. While Romney stands firm in his faith, he does not use Temple Square as a backdrop, but simply is who he is without apology.

There are certain errors in Romney's past that I consider inexcusably poor judgment. The dog road trip incident would be one of those. But for all of that poor personal judgment, Romney HAS proven himself to be a capable governor, and historically, governors make better presidents than Senators and House members.

Romney's values, ironically, are as consistent with the values of many mainstream Christian as are Huckabee's or any other candidate the right would wish to throw out. He deserves to be considered for his politics, not his faith, and if the truth be told, the James Dobsons and the Pat Robertsons of the world could find few closer friends, even if he doesn't allow their platform to rule his politics. One of the areas where the LDS faith is unimpeachable is the areas of family values--a critical voting issue for many self labelled conservatives.

So, if you are personally a conservative Christian, I would urge you to set aside the ramblings of a bunch of Romney opponents or the fears of end times Christians of a "cult leader" controlling the country (the LDS faith, for all its faults, is no more a cult than the SBC, the Catholic church, or the Methodist church). Find out what Romney's about. If you wish, find out what his faith is about -- not from me, not from your local Baptist preacher, but from your local Mormon missionaries. Invite them over for dinner. They're usually young kids without a whole lot of extra money and I've never seen one of them turn down a home cooked meal...lol! But by all means, vote for Romney for who he is...NOT for who you THINK he is!