Is a Mormon candidate for president good or bad for the Mormon Church?

Mitt Romney as a presidential candidate is a two-edged sword for the Mormon Church.

On the one hand it gives Mormons the opportunity to discuss their faith, yet on the other hand it creates problems, rather than opportunities, at the same time.

"So, let me see... your church believes in Baptism for the dead, yet a number of Mormons keep putting the names of famous dead people from history forward as names to be baptised? They go through lists of famous disasters like the sinking of the Titanic and of awful, wicked events like the Holocaust and events like the Mountain Meadows Massacre and put those names forward for baptism?"

"By the way, is it true your church was racist up until at least 1978, that it believed that black skinned people were cursed, as they had been less valiant that white people in the pre-existence?

"And didn't Brigham Young preach that mixed marriages were not only immoral, but should invoke an automatic death sentence for both parties?"

When confronted with such information the average Mormon will say: "You have been listening to horrible, evil anti-Mormons!" not wanting to believe that such information is true.

Yet it is true. So, the candidacy of Mitt Romney not only helps other people to learn about the history of the Mormon Church, it can teach its members something about the history of the Mormon Church. Is that a good or a bad thing for the Mormon church and for the individual members?

The Mormon Church should have an historical Truth and Reconciliation Committee to look at the history of the Mormon Church, warts and all. That is what it needs. But it is the last thing the current or future leadership of the Mormon Church wants. Which is a pity.