Mitt Romney may not have fared well in his campaign for the presidency, but his candidacy was a step forward for Mormon-evangelical relations. The two groups have been hostile to each other for the past century and a half, with constant insults being traded back and forth.
When some of us in the scholarly community initiated an evangelical-Mormon dialogue a dozen years ago, we ran into some opposition, particularly on the evangelical side. As a leader in that dialogue, I have received many angry emails from fellow evangelicals who see me as a "compromiser" of the faith. But those expressions of protest have not been as numerous during the recent campaign season. With many evangelicals adopting an "anyone but Obama" posture, folks who might otherwise have thought of Mormonism as an evil "cult" were suddenly willing to vote for a Mormon as a leader of their nation. Given that decision, they were not as inclined as before to condemn those of us who have been calling for friendlier relations with the Mormon community.
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