Mitt Romney Advisor Mark DeMoss Believes Rick Perry Is Promoting Anti-Mormon Message

Mark DeMoss, a well known evangelical works as an unpaid consultant to Mitt Romney believes the Rick Perry campaign is intentionally encouraging anti-Mormon messages to be promoted on behalf of his campaign to attract Evangelical voters:

A top evangelical Christian adviser to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said on Monday he believes Texas Gov. Rick Perry's campaign may be intentionally injecting the issue of Romney's Mormon faith into the Republican presidential primary.

"A week ago I would have said there's no way, I can't conceive of a major candidate's campaign intentionally using such tactics," said Mark DeMoss, an Atlanta-based public relations executive who works primarily with evangelical leaders and is an unpaid adviser to Romney. "It was inconceivable to me that that could be the case, just because I think it's not smart politically."

But Demoss told The Huffington Post that the actions of Texan Baptist Pastor Robert Jefress -- who first thrust the Mormonism issue into the campaign 10 days ago -- have given him "doubt" about whether the Perry campaign is as removed from attacks on Romney's faith as it has tried to appear.

"I would have bet money when Robert Jeffress surfaced there in Washington and then started going on TV programs that somebody would have gotten him to stop doing interviews. And he did them for a couple days," DeMoss said. "That's what made me question it whether they wanted him doing it or not. If they didn't want him doing it, I think they could have stopped him from doing it. I think they would have asked him and said, 'This isn't helping us.'"

In addition, new information came to light Sunday that suggests the Perry campaign has at least been in touch with operatives who are actively promoting the anti-Mormon narrative among voters. David Lane, a Perry backer and political organizer who moves in evangelical circles, wrote an associate in an email that was published by The Daily Beast that "getting out Dr. Jeffress [sic] message, juxtaposing traditional Christianity to the false god of Mormonism, is very important in the larger scheme of things." 

Some people are promoting Rick Perry as the man who can save the soul of the country. However, Mark DeMoss disputes that claim: 

"The president cannot 'save the soul of America' -- whatever that even means. No president is capable of saving the soul of America," DeMoss said. "I would argue that only God could save the soul of America. That's not showing any disrespect to Gov. Perry. Billy Graham can't save the soul of America. It's not the president's role or job and no president could do it if it was their job."

When Mark DeMoss was asked whether or not he thinks Mormonism is a form of Christianity, DeMoss explains that that he has theological differences with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints but those differences are not relevant in a secular and political matter such as elections:

"I don't care in the context of a presidential election," DeMoss said. "It's a theological distinction and I'm not making a theological decision in the general or primary election. So I don't engage in discussions or debates about Mormon theology or Christian theology in this context, other than to say that what Gov. Romney would say himself, which is that we have different theology in many points, but beyond that it's an unnecessary and, frankly, an unfair distraction. So I don't get into that."